The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-12

but did not see him again until the other
night, when | witnessed a most lurid melo-
drama, beautifully called 1.-The Power of the
Press" l got in a little late; two men had
just made their entrances on the stage, and
were presumably conyicts. One was fat, and
looked as If he had been fed on plum pud-
ding at Sing Sing; he had thick and closely
curled mustache, and he looked much more
like barkeeper at q masquerade than the in
nocent victim Of a cruel plot who had been
four years and some months in the peniten-
tiary. The other man stood. and for a min
ute thought ''Who are you?' And like
flash it came to me; it was the convict that
Victor Hugo had depicted it was Jean Val
jean There was the walk that came from
going in line with the other men; there was
the smooth shaven face, half sullen, half
ashamed; there was the look in the eyes of
being hunted, and yet little glimmer of
hope, but it was the convict, it was the man
who had served his time, and who had learned
to walk with the air and manner of man who
had been among convicts, and who, uncon-
sciously, had acquired their looks, and who,
consciously, was remorseful. The other man
looked
THE WHOLE WORLD IN THE FACE
as if he knew the play was going to be all
right and the audience would be delighted,
but John Kellerd, the man who played the
other convict, never for one moment made
you think that he was anything but what he
seemed. Each one of the days OF his impris-
onment was stamped upon him, and that one
character stands out from the play as the
most perfect bit of character acting | have
seen for long time. Later on, when his
people have taken him back and father,
brother, and wife welcome the prodgal son,
clothed like a man and in his right mind,
there is always that pathetic subtle something
in the tones of his voice that seem to say all
the time to those who saved him. "You
loved me, you helped me, and l will never
forget it,"
Funnily enough this play, called "The
Power of the Press" hasn't single reporter
in it, and though it is founded on fact the
Office of a newspaper nor single person con-
nected with it does not appear.
1 WOULDN'T BE A WOMAN
if | hadn't curiosity, so determined to find
out about this actor. John Kellerd is an
Englishman, lover of books and a student
of them, liked by the men he knows, and who
accounts for his ability to achieve any accent
he wishes to one thing that personally he
possesses none at all himself. From the time
he discovered that an Englishman had an ac-
cent he made up his mind that he would
speak pure English, and yet nobody could
say whether he was an American or an Eng
lishman, and he has successfully mastered
this-ra much more difficult thing, my
friend, than you would ever imagine. In
appearance he is tall, dark, and with clear
penetrating dark eyes, and it is in his own
hands now to make himself the character
actor of the day, for he has the best of all
things to help him along-youth and intelli-
gence.
TRIBUTE TO JOE JOHNSTON.
We have to take off our hats and bow our
heads before one more who has passed oYel
the great river and joined that band that now
silently waits. Out of the world has gone
| good, true gentleman-a man his enemies re-
spected as they feared, and whose friends
| firmly loved him When the war ended the
| honest enemy was treated as was the man who
fought beside him, and he recognized no diff
ference because one had worn the gray and the
other the blue He mixed himself up with ne
| political schemes, and he didn't use his follow
ers to push him to office. You know who
mean. L mean Gen. Joe Johnston. The rank
are gradually filling out, the great generals arr
all laying down their swords before the great
est General of all, but / do not believe tha
| there is any whose life-page is whittier thar
was Gen. Johnston's, or one who can show
more honest and honorable record. He Tough
for that which he believed to be right-so diC
the people who won, and if they'd been beatel
they might have been counted as rebels too
SO that, after all, to be a good rebel isn't sucl
bad thing. All down through the soutl
there are boys named after this man. and i