, 1892-01-17

'semiramide" and the '"Traviata" but FOL
uer, for the Wagncrites buried them hur,
riedly-too hurriedly, perhaps. for sonc OF
the arias stick out.
What do you suppose musical New York
is doing just now. when it is not lionizing
Paderewskil You never can guess alright
You will say it is listening TO that voice
ring out from the dungeon tower" or ii Is
reveling in the coronation music OF the
prophetic" and felicitating itself or the
return Of the Cantabile school.
Nonsense. 1t is trying to figure out how
much money Mr.. Henry Abbey will lose
1t is the commercial metropolis. We
throw music up like n silver dollar TO see
IL it has the trade ring.
And drama is very much like an Hssas,
sination-when something happens you ask
who's the womanr It's pretty sure TO be
Rehan or Patti or Lillian Russell.
don't know whether dare to tell yod
that Miss Rehan is not as good in some
things as she is in others. Manager DAILY
draws the line at that. But the unex-
pressed sense OF this truth is eating into
the vitals OF idolatry. saw her sweep the
very ordinary Petruchio of Mr.. Drew into
oblivion with her skirts. She might have
been the Catherine of all the Russias in
stead of the Katherine of Shakespeare.
She was more like an army with banners
NIh q hAAlN hhNc. Duk ~ "a ooPthDs
and it was maynificently filing, for Mr..
DAILY had to take his orchestra out. II she
had gone one step farther he would nave
had to take Mr.. Drew out-or rather, to be
exact, Mr.. DAILY would not have had to
take him out, for she would have wiped
him out.
But. oh, dearl when she came to Lady
Teazle and Rosalind and stuck them full
of modern farce comedy br~ic-a-brac it
looked like one of Mr.. Days private offices,
in which every piece of old armor is deco
rated with Sarony's photographs.
Manager DAILY does a new play this week.
That Is the genteel theatrical event of the
hour. 1t is called ''The Cabinet Minister"
But it doesn't make a bit of difference
what it is called-it was known beforehand
that it would be Rehan, and il it were not
it would not go. In that respect the public
back up Mr.. DAILY with a gladstone ~alacrity
that makes the managers of Lillian Russell
and Miss Cayvan and Miss Helyett" bite
their lips.
| ought to say before closing this letter
that there has been one play in town lat
offered us starlight, but no stars. You
know what / mean. Twilight would be a
better name for the pensive tone of Ala
bama." Everything has the subdued charm
of the cleaning. | believe all the men
whose opinions are worth anything now
concede that Mr.. Gustavus Thomas has
got the American material down to the
Corot tone The whole picture is in gray
tints and emits only semitones. But its
effect is abiding and we have got to recog-
uize Mr.. Thomas as an artist. The other
fellows are playwrights. He has settled a
vexed question about literature in drama
without arguing in the magazines. He
simply put it in the drama.
Alabama" bears the same relation 20
the other current dramas here that a noe.
turne Of Chopin's bears to a military
march.
When you go from a representation Of
this play to a performance of THE Lion
Tanner" you have gone from a poem to q
pageant. That's all. NYM CRINRLE.