The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-24


ley, the Fair Maid of Bath Whom
'Davy" Garrick Adored- American
Plays Superior to English and
French Productions Bah Tells Us
What a Really Good Play is-old-
Time Stage Courtesies and Dress.
Enthusiasm Good For Body, Mind
ana Soul.
(Copyrrht)
New York, Sept 23-Once a year here
in New York the literary the artistic
and the fashionable set meet; it is at the
new plays always And that new play is
Invariably the one at which you will hear
the critic, the painter or the woman of
fashion announce that it is certain to be
good for it is TO be done by young
Sothern" Always they say Young
Sothern :" not that they have not gotten
over making comparisons between him
and his father, but because they remem-
Der when they first applauded him, and
they have watched him grow in public
favor as one watches a handsome boy
The other night when he came on the
stage as gay, gallant Dick Sheridan, just
for one second the audience did not know
its old favorite Then they gave him
that greeting which is such a delight to
an actor, and after that, it settled down
to watch the play.
SWEET BETTY LINLEY OF LONG AGO.
People had thought out all sorts of
things, for people take the trouble TO
think out play that Sothem is going to
appear in, as he is known to be conscien-
tious, hard worker and great student
My neigh Dor had dreamed of Dick Sheri-
dan when he was the friend of princes
and lords, and when he was making
wonderful speeches during the Hastings
trial. My other neighbor thought of him
as in his sad days, when old age and pow
erty came, and when he was forced to
sell the picture of the woman he adored
that he might get bread and butter But
/ had believed that something different
would come and it did. The curtain
rose on the Pump Room at Bath. in
the eighteenth century, when every
where there was a mixture of great mag
nificence and considerable discomfort-of
superb manners and quite a deal of
immortality The ladies' and the gen
tlemen of that day came in for their Cos
sip, drank tea or chocolate. The sedan |
chairs were brought to the doors and I'M |
loaded their attractive burdens of brocade |
and lace, powdered hair and patches, per |
fumes and womankind and gossip was all |
Through the air, and every man was |
loveable rake, and every lady said over |
her love affairs as she did her prayers !
Suddenly, one chair moro rich, more Gov |
evered with gilt than any other, |
appeared out of 1t popped two little !
negro pages, and then came the Fair |
Maid of Bath"-Betty Linley-that |
most beautiful one of the family of Night |
ingales, at whose feet all the men fell, |
from David Garrick down Was it a won
on no
handsome Dick Sheridan, just 20 years
old, adored by all the women, quoted by |
all the men, became convinced that here |
at last was the woman, and the only one,
he could ever love2
UPS AND DOWNS OF PLAYS.
And this was the story of the play. |
The story of your Dicks love for sweet |
Betty and of his determination to make |
his play success, while it was as well |
picture of how, even in those days, what |
was real was the only thing worth listen |
ing to, for into this gay, worthless, Cos
slipping life at Bath were all the people |
that afterwards stepped before the cur
tain when it went up on "The School for
Scandal l have been to a good many |
first nights but I do not know of one |
where my heart beat as as it did when |
we, the real audience, sat there looking
into the managers room when The |
the stage, and when the London |
audience had so lost its senses that it even
Missed its favorite, David Garrick, when |
he made an appeal for the young author. |
There stood poor Dick Sheridan, 5eliey- |
ing that his love was lost knowing that /
his play was failure, berated by the man |
ager, with everyone against him, except |
dear David Garrick, and yet, as he threw |
his head back, and said "tThe Rivals |
viii be talked of when you fools are all |
damned the audience before him rose
with him, and for q few moments we
didn't know whether we We're applaud |
ing Dick Sheridan of Ed. SOthern-so |
completely had the one been merged into |
the other. l think that is the true art of |
the actor.
Later on, when he found that his beau
t1ful Betty Linley was willing to run
away from her home and come to him in |
his poverty to be his wife, when the sec |
ond night ''The Rivals" was great sue
cess, and managers We're pleading for his |
nextplay, when his old friend. Tom Mat |
thews, who was the original of Joseph |
Surface, found to be his worst enemy |
then the curtain dropped on the knowl- |
edge that the greatest comedies ever
written We're by the young Irishman. !
Richard Brinsley Sheridan; then one
gavea gasp and suddenly concluded that
one had been seeing bit of real life, a /
book made ofhistory's pages, brought |
forward and put into a fine binding, and |
that surely to-day there was no reason |
why we Americans should be looking for
English plays when we could get good |
ones like this at home
SUPERIORITY OF AMERICAN PLAYS
A man whose books you have all read
said to me, "Dick Sheridan said those |
lines"
yes" I answered, "but see how clever
the author was to be able to use those
lines in such way that they never were /
ont OF place, ana no matter under what
circumstances Sheridan might have said
them, they never seemed anything but /
absolutely the right words in the right !
place. ] am very tired of poor English
plays-for several years we have been
having doses of them. Good American
actors lose their opportunities in attempt
ing to produce them, and trying to make
American audiences think that because
the mans name is well known on the
other side of the water he is bound to
produce something that we will like here.
believe in getting for our amusement
the good from everywhere, but when
we can get a play like 'Sheri-
Cau,' written at home do not /