Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-14
JAMES E. MURDOCH.
An Interesting Talk With the Veteran
Actor.
From the Cincinnati Times.starl


An Interesting Talk With the Veteran
Actor.
From the Cincinnati Times-star.
After an absence in the East of about
three years, the veteran James E. Murdoch
has once more taken up his residence among
US. He is established at his pretty cottage
on the Reading road, where he was found
by a reporter. Mr.. Murdoch, although
nearly 80 years old, seems still hale and
hearty, and his conversation is full of his
old-time fire and vigor. He had been
working in his garden wLon the reporter
called, and came in fresh from his work.
He has grown full beard, and presents
now patriarchal appearance.
He is an enthusiast on the subject of out
door labor, and says if it were not for that
he would not be here to-day. He said he
was first forced to it by complication of
diseases. and, purchasing farm, he went
to work on it, working for time and act
ing for time. When his health would no
longer permit him to act, he would 60 back
to his farm and work there until he was
well again. This he kept up until the
breaking out of the war.
'Then," he said, II packed up my
trunks and made vow that l would not
open them again until peace was declared.
And / didn't want peace on any halfway
basis. l wanted it only on basis of freedom
for the negro. / met Mr.. Lincoln in
Springfield before he came on to Washing
ton, and l told him that this would have
to be the end of it. l said to him: Mr.
Lincoln, at present the negro is nothing
but mule He seemed very much sur
prised at my enunciating such sentiments,
but continued: Our Constitution makes
him nothing more He looked at me a
minute and said, Murdoch, you're right ;
you're right
"You see, I had been playing in the
South, for that was where l played my
second engagement, and l had seen the
way the negro was treated there. This
treatment was not because of any inherent
feeling against him in his owners, but
rather what they were used to, a sort of
thoughtlessness. When came back from
that engagement l prophesied to my father
that civil war would come. The young
men of the North imbibing Daniel Web
ster's teachings and the youth of the South
the doctrines Of Henry Clay, there could
be but one result. They were bound to
come together with clash"
Mr.. Murdoch, in course of the talk, told
how he had come to be tragedian. SIN
1S40," he said, 81 was lecturing in Boston.
Before that 1 had been playing comedy
parts. John A. Andrew, who was one OF
my pupils, came to me one day and said:
Mr.. Murdoch, / often notice tones in
your voice that lead me to believe that
you should be tragedian. You generally
use head-tones, but should think with
your chest-tones you had just the voice for
tragedy
acting on his suggestion studied the
parts of Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello.
When l had thoroughly learned these
borrowed the funds to purchase my ward
robe and went on. William Cullen Bry-
ant came out in very favorable criticism
the next morning, and after that was
greeted with crowded houses, when had
onl< had half houses to see my comedy
parts. afterwards took up Richelieu,
and with the same success. And yet it
was said by the actors of the time that I
was no tragedian. Why, my dear sir, all
the little money l have made was made at
tragedy.
"No, never had any ambition to be-
come theater manager. John Bates
once offered to sell me the National
Theater, in this city, and let me take it
out in acting. But l never cared for that.
"The actors are the ones who make the
actor. They hobnob with the critics, and
what they say about one man is the idea
on which the critic works. 1t is a peculiar
fact that nearly all the press notices 1
received have been in the editorial COL
umns.
"Booth is an actor who has gained the
good things said of him by sheer merit.
He is the greatest. poetic actor of the
American stage. There is no one who can
him, when he occasionally wakes
up in the recitation of Shakespeare's mag
nifcent blank verse. He is the worthy
son of his father, whose mantle has de-
scended upon him. Barrett is the actor of
the argument of the play.
"Yes, Mary Anderson has retired, and
it is my opinion that Mary was heartily
sick of the business and was glad to
leave it.
"What is TO become of the American
stage? Who are the favorites now? A
lot of young men who adopt the English
avs and bah jahves,' and call that the
English language. That's not English,
that's Cockneyism. The English language
is in danger Of degenerating into mere
dialect. They can't prolong a syllable
without making it a draw1, and
in the schools, too, the language is SO
clipped and butchered that one would
hardly know it. And all this because elo-
cution is not taught in the schools. The
grand, rugged old Anglo-Saxon is in dan
ger.
"And then there is too much of this
coaching for the STAGE Why, l have had
numbers of young people come to me and
ask me to teach them to act. Why,
never do that. deliver lectures, and that
is all. And schools for oratoryl Nothing
of that for me. All they should have is
schools for voice culture to be afterward
used in oratory or acting.
II feel as though had come home to
wrap the drapery of my couch about me
and lie down to pleasant Dreams l shall
give readings, suppose, from time to
time, and shall take few pupils and so
shall fill in the time until the day shall
come when shall, as say, lie down."
Mr.. Murdoch has been lecturing in
schools of voice culture in Baltimore and
Philadelphia during the past three years,
but is not favorably impressed with these
cities.
Boston, he says, is no longer what it
was. "Why, l say a man recite Marc
Antony's address there, and he was SO
fatigued at the end of it that he had to
ask to be excused from his next number.
And they seem there to be deyotees of
Delsarte. And what are his attitudes but
humbug = mere ballet-dancing-no ex-
preston in them? ?'
Notwithstanding his solemn talk of
wrapping the drapery of his couch about
him." Mr.. Murdoch seems to be still quite
hale and hearty and good for some years
among us yet.
Ought to Know German.
l heard an odd bit of repartee in bar
Der shop on Eighth avenue few DAYS ago.
The boss barber was conversing in Eng
ish with customer when he broke of
and began talking in German.
a rd lon, 8 II