The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-16
WHITTIER BOYS HEAR WARDE
The Tragedian Talks About the
Immortal Bard
ACTING THE HIGHEST ART
The Deaths of All knowledge Solved by
Shakespeare's Genius
Review of the Great Dramatist's Life-A
Galaxy Of Great Characterized
Scholarly Address

Shakespeare to the boys at the Whittier
State School. Many of them knew a whole
lot about the immortal bard, having been
gallery gods time and again, and were in
that way old friends of the noted actor.
The lecturer wore a Willieboy coat OF
most fashionable cut and hrs trousers
appeared as if they had not had their
razor edge creases aired since they left
London. The boys greeted the best Viz
ginius on the stage today with great
ardor, and the tragedian appreciated the
earnest reception given him.
MIR. Warde, prefacng his subject with
dainty expression of gratitude to his great
audience, was quick to plunge into the
address. He had TO speak few words
about the drama, which. he declared, was
the most important factor in our lives.
1t was born and evolved from music.
Five hundred years before the birth of
Christ the drama had its birth in the
classic groves of >, Greece. quaint old
fellow namedThespis was first to introduce
classical drama in the shape recitations.
Sophocles and Euripides brought out the
dramatis personae, and from the days of
elevation of the play has been going for
ward. The drama was innate in the peo-
pie. 1t was born in them. What is the
first story? What is it the little girl cher
ishes? A doll. What does she do with it?
She crows over it and eroons over it and
rocks its inanimate form into mock
slumber. What is that? Acting. Take
the boy. What does he do? He wears a
paper hat sword bangles by his side,
and he pretends to be a soldier. What is
he doing? Acting-laying the founda-
tons for achievements TO come. ar D.,
And there is the young lady. What
does she do? Does she not go along the
81 hnr cDI i,,.t el,n I,ne
seen her mother do? Is she not acting?
And the grown boy, too. Does he not
put on false faces and pretend to be a
bogy man? Isn't he acting? Follow the
young lady into society (and everybody
knows how much acting there is in SOC
iety) and do you not find her mimic?
And 50 on through life-in the nursery,
in the parlor in the pulpit and on the
blood-stained decks Of battle-ships there
is nothing but acting, acting, acting.
The speaker then paid a splendid trib-
ute to the profession of which he is
member. The people laugh at the come
dian. he said, and they execrate the viii
lain. They are delighted with the seen
cry and every faculty is stimulated by the
story laid bare by the actor. People stand
in wondering awe of sculptor and his
Hebe, yet they are looking at stone. No
blood courses through the marble veins.
The painter takes his sheet of canvas and
pigments and paints landscape or
group of figures. Take the landscape.
There are Towering plants; one can al
most breathe the air OF the dying day
and hear the lowing OF the grazing cattle.
Yet there is no gentle wind to stir the
leaves of the gnarled trees, those cattle
never low in anticipation of the evening
call, and those buds on tree and shrub
will never burst. Why? Because it is
paint-only paint. The actor does more
than poet. more than musician. The
creatures of his art live.
Mr.. Warde took up the life and works
of Shakespeare. the word of the i'm
mortal bard was music to his ears. 1t
was the wisdom of this myriad-minded
poet that controlled our lives. The world
uses his words to convince. The depths
of philosophy, physiology and metaphys-
les are all solved by this mans wonder
full genius. The speaker then reviewed
the boyhood Of the bard and deplored,
parenthetically, that there were men alive
today who were striving Ito take pieces
of Shakespeare to make rasher OF Ba-
con-"
1t was not until he was Is years of age,
the speaker continued, that Shakespeare
made his first serious mistake. That was
the year in which he was married. At 81
Shakespeare was caught stealing deer from
the preserves of Sir Thomas Lucy. The
punishment for such an offense was
death, and what was worse, the young
bard had been caught red-handed. He,
however. escaped to London. where he
began life anew by holding horses in
front of the Globe Theater at old Black
Friars. This was no sinecure in those
days. but, being industrious. his bust
ness increased until he was forced to en-
ploy help to attend to his patrons. From
this humble occupation Shakespeare
gained access to- e the theater. where he
served as callboy. At the age of AZ he
returned to Stratford on Avon with a
away. and. strange to say, Cervantes died
on the same day. The world was en-
riched by the lives of these two men and
left poorer by their deaths.
Mr.. Warde pronounced an excellent trib-