The morning news., 1894-09-12
SULLIVAN TO JANAUsoHEK.
And Incidentally Also to Mansfield,
and Bis Other Actor Critics.
From the New York World.

in what is said by the men and women on
top in myprofe.sion.
1 have read what Nine. Janauschek
and Richard Mansfield have had TO say
lately about the stage and the people
on it.
! would like TO say something TO them.
l take my hat OIL 10 Nine Janauscnek.
/ remain hers truly. She IS great ac-
tress, for fair, and 1 would like to have
her IN my company.
But the madame is wrong-begging her
pardon-when she says tnat a prize
nghter who goes on the Stage de-
grades it.
/ do not want to degrade the stage.
want to elevate il. but / don't want TO
elevate it so high that it will be out Of
sight.
/ want to play at the people who come
to see me; l don't want 10 play up in the
air.
A young fellow / know makes his living
going up in balloon. He tells me that
after you get up a certain distance It's
mighty hard to breathe Nine. Janau-
schek is a fine woman and an actress,
| every inch OF her.
But there are some actors and actresses
who play in balloon.
People can't reach their height. If
they did they'd smother to death. So
they stay away from the theater.
! l play on the level.
And about ninety people out of hun
dred are on a level.
That's one reason why, as Nine. Jan
auschek says. the bruiser can draw more
money then the artist and the pugilist
can please better than the Shakespearean
scholar"
it's dead wrong to advise young men
that if they want to be actors, instead of
| studying to speak Enhsh correctly, let
them gain the knowledge of upper-cuts
and Knockout blows
The first thing they must do is to be
! right on their English. If they HADN'T
much schooling when they were young
they'll find it mighty hard 10 get right.
It's been the toughest Job ever tackled,
! but I'm reading and studying, and I'm
getting it down fine.
There's no hurry about it. Go slow. I
read lately about a swell named Lord
! Chesterfield, who was potter than a mas
ter of cerehonies at his own benefit.
Lord Chesterfield said to his son, who
needed training, Whoever is in hurry
shows that the thing he is about is too
| big for him"
| Go slow, don't train too fast or too
! fine, is what | would advise young men
who want to be actors. Learn to think
on your legs, as Tom Moore said of Dan
iel O'Connell.
can think on my legs. learned to do
it when l fought, and find it's good
thing when | act
Another thing I'd like to say to Nine.
Janauschek with my best regards.
Only play with good moral can be
sure winner.
It's the Standard Oil Company against
a red apple that more people will go to
see me knock out the villain than will go
to see Nine. Janauschek get the worst
end Of it as Katherine.
1t does the boys in the gallery more
good to see kidnapped child restored TO
his father than to see a high and mighty
duke stab another in the back and come
off without a scratch.
And it does every one more good to
laugh than to cry.
So it's a sure thing that play with a
good moral, that hits man where he
| lives, will win in the end.
Now about Mansfield.
It's true that sometimes Dick Mansfield
has big house, and sometimeS-but not
often-I have a small one,
But that same Lord Chesterfield says
polished brass will pass upon more peo
pie than rough gold."t
With my kindest regards to Dick Mans
field. want to say TO him that he is a
monument of polished brass.
In his own eyes he is a little tin Moses
Dick Mansfield has what l used to call
J a "swelled head
Still here's standing offer to him to
join my company.
He'd be a winner for me. I know all
about Dick Mansfield. The greatest mis-
take he ever made was that he did not
double up with another fellow and go on
the variety stage.
He can dance He can sing. He can
play the piano, He has some fine spe-
cialties.
But what does he want to monkey with
Shakespeare for2
Why, can flag him right at the post.
He says in his North American Review
article: AN actor in portraying various
characters diametrically opposite has no
right to offer his own personality in each
That is not the art of acting. The bust
ness sense of man who has learned that
the more the public is familiarized with
the individuality of an actor the greater
his popularity is poor excuse for bad
acting
Dick is off his base
I'm not used to talking much about my
self. But there's Henry Irving.
Who is Matthias in THE Bells?"
Henry Irving.
Who is the Shylock in THE Merchant
of Venice2"
Henry Irving
Who is the Devil in "Faust2"
Henry Irving.
Who is the leading character in "The
Cup, " in the Dead Heart"-in every
blamed thing that Henry Irving plays
in2
Why, it's a thousand-to-one shot that
it's Henry Irving
And it's because Henry Irving plays
that people go to see him.
And It's because John L. Sullivan PLAYS
that people go to see him.
The set-tO in the third act does not
draw ten boys to the gallery
Dick Mansfield says, too, that the ac-
tor should have no opinions to buy, no
critics 10 placate, no axes to grind or
wires TO pull. You can buy opinions one
way or another, you can win hosts of
friends, you can grind axes and pull
wires, and achieve wealth and fame, but
you cannot achieve art And the crowd
of sycophants and courtiers cannot still
the voice within that tells you every hour
You're a lie2"
Dick is away off here again.
| guess there's no man on the stage or
of II who has been roasted oftener than
l have. Sometimes I've deserved il, and
more times | haven't.
I've bought no opinions, and pve pulled
no wires. But people say now: John l..
is better actor than he was"
know am achieving my art,n as
Dick Mansfield calls it.
But no still small voice. nor anv kind