St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-21
STAGE MANAGER AND ACTOR.

years ago, III the principal parts Of
Minnesota many all old-timef may recall
being asked at hoSpitable tables, if he
would have some of the fruit" the
fruit being dried apples-iust that and
nothing more. To describe what those
apples looked like suggests witticism
of U. S. Grant-the best, perhaps,
among his few grim ones. CLAIMS"
said the Silent Soldier. "are gatta-
psrcha oysters" So desiccated apples,
except to the cock Of knowing adapta.
Dility, are the toughest edibles that
ever were placed before civilized
being in remote and lonesome places.
ltgoeS without saying that the bulk
OF this dried product was imported from
the East. The state had its wild native
fruits in season with all their primal
freshness ana flavor. but the dried i'm.
portation had all Sc asons for its own.
and was an abiding and handy re-
source.
Then the East bore nearly the same
relation to the pioneers OF the North
west that England or France does now,
so rar removed and so tedious were
lnterdependence and communication in
the beginning of our settlements.
The extraordinary development of
material agencies in the preparation
and preservation of immense varieties
OF fruits. vegetables, fish. etc., and
transportation all over the continent
have beneticlally superseded the dried
dellcaceS of yOre.
But still we have lots OF dried things
passed round to us from the East,
which. Ill Difference to its impressive
cults, we swallow with much senpIance
of zest. At times, when it is worth
while, the West is wholly unmoyed by
Eastern notions of fitness, convention
allty and precedent. In the most
memorable political convention ever
assembled i'll the country. the East
offered its dried and hackneyed type of
politician for president when the re-
public was Oh the eve of breaking up,
and the West selected Lincoln with an
inspired sense of his native greatness in
all that makes the American ideal of a
man of the people aud for the people in
the highest magisterial office.
. So, too, in honoring the birthday of
Lincoln, Feb. Is, 1874. at Deimonlco's,
the hundreds OF assembled Republicans
had another of the surprises that occa.
sl0nally come out of the West in the
speech OF young NeDraskan, Henry
d. Esterbrooke, who held his audience
yspelibound with the fervor and inlagina-
tive originality OF his eloQuence.
Seldom indeed have metropolitan ears
heard anything approaching the rapt
sentences persOnifJing the vengeance
of the Flag" when The foot of Booth was
caught in its fold in his leap from the
proscenium box.
Ihe deadly monotony of uniform
thinking in given directions, AMI the
stereotyped expression of it, are almost
inseparabble i'll city crowds. So when
the untrammeied young man Of all
original mind. and language widely fe-
moved from the conventional, speaks to
hearers,wOrn with uniform oratsrv.5a
did Grady from the South, ana Ester
brooke from the West, in New, Y DIX,
there is much acclaim. y" - "
Though the day OF dried eatable fruit
is passed, the day of mental dried fruit
Is III vogue. and. as formerly, it. comes
TO us from the East. with It's brand of
satisfaction Oh The current dI ama,Which
Is about the dryest of all the dry -thiHgs
now passed to u.s..
The fruit OF the playwright'S brain
today is not very Juicy, or mellow, at
best. but i'll truth it is not essential.
What Is required is a framework of i'll
cidents, intoo which the caclor fits his
ldlosyncrasiesi of interpretations, With a
filigree dialogue TO help him along.
The Interpretation grows as new whims
are added TO the first, and it becomes
cumulative enough to constitute a whole
play in itself, like The Dundreary of
S0thern.
Every absurdity in action and ex
travagance in costume are studied with
assiduity.
1t is asserted that Richard Mansfield
! wanted a play about Beau Brummel,
and William Clyde Fitch was sus .ested
as the dramatist. He prepared
scenario, and Mr. Mansfield did the
rest-that is. ''as every act was written
1t went through the crucibe of his
crltlcism"-until nothing was left but
the grotesque reduction of poor George
Brummel.
The Beau was an Englishman, and
not altogether a fool, any more than
Romeo Coates or Oscar Wilde, even,if he
was the renowned dandy of his day.
Notwithstanding his utter absorption in
dress. he was something better than the
companion of such royalty as George
the Fourth's. Thackeray sums the Beau
for us as 1.-The favorite, rival, enemy,
superior" of the prince.
Another celebrated contemporary of
Brummel, the poet Moore. has recorded
| a disconnected series of impressions,
( ending with q sad description of the
Beau'S last condition. If he was such
a slow. dull pOSturer as the PRESERVATION
of Mr.. Mansfield makes him; if he
mulnDled. and took snuff with all his
passes and calisthenics, then the wonder
IS that such Supplying creature could
! nave been tue associate and guest OF the
brilliant and witty men of his time OH
equal terms, because the Beau could
| say bright things, and flash into men,
ora re reprisai when he pleased.
they would not have tolerated him.
for they had no mercy OH billiards in
social intercourse. Yet, from the peri
gee of his favor near the royal person,
where. as Moore tells US, 'the prince
once blubbered on being told that
Brummel did not like the cut eff his
| coat" down to the last desolate yrscissi-
tudes of his French exile. many of the
| companions of the London pleasant
| days visited and entertained him when
they were sojournng in France. They
would scarcely have gone to the trouble
of finding him If he had been as,nere
man of clothes, with the likelihood that,
with his changed fortune. the clothes
| were all gone which had once matte him
famous. Not all vanished. however, ror
! Moore chronicles under datt. Nov ;