The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-02

trenchant writer's uneQualled sweep
and force of style and pith of epigram
1t is a otiarac terfstic Of his to do we'll
whatever he undertakes; and whether
he regale us with vitriolic but Ches-
tertieldian excoriation of the Howells
school of pale realistic fiction or a dy-
manic diatribe against dilletantism in
the drama, Wheeler Is always and in
variably interesting. picturesque, in
structive and ought-compelling His
pen in a peculiar sense stands out
against a background of much vapid
and witless scribbling as the conspicu-
Gus chief contemporary exponent Of
virility and candor in art-criticsm. He
Is, perchance, somewhat too didactic for
some. His deliverance is Olympian
rather than seductive. He hurls the
trident, rather than waves the palm leaf
fan. Sometimes his epigrams, while
shining like crystalline gems, burn and
scar as If white hot. But there is at no
moment in the perusal of them when
the reader has premonitions of lassui-
tude or admonitions of ennui. Crinkle
at least keeps the minds of his followers
from getting crinked. AS an idea-re-
storer or thought-generator he Is per-
haps the most remarkable writer of
English now living.
Scrantonians have had two doses Of
Oscar Wilde and WILL in due season,
get a third. The certainty that "An
Ideal Husband" will some day cross the
Atlantic and display himself before a
local audience-for did not Langtry
leap from the Haymarket in London
to the rockingham in Scranton?-
lends interest to the following speci-
mems of epigram taken from Wilde's
latest: women discover everything
except the obvious;" TOO much rouge
and not enough clothes;" 1T is always
worth while to ask a question, rarely
worth while answering one;'' THE pes
simists are intolerable people because
of the way they wear their hair" THE
modern woman understands every
thing except her husband;' Morality
is the attitude we adopt toward people
We dislike" "Vulgarity is the behavior
Of other people" Anybody could man.
ufacture stuff of this sort, but it re-
quires imDudence to give it circula-
tion-and Wilde has that, in abundance.
FOOTLIGHT FLASHES:
Modjeska is in Poland.
Harrgan will play in London.
Mrs. Annie Yeamans used to be a bare
back rider.
Charles ii. Hoyt's new play will be
called "A Civilized Community" and will
be a satire on current fads and foibes.
Susanna Schaffer. one of the famous
family Of jugglers, will appear in New
York soon. One of her feats Is to keep an
entire set of parlor furniture flying in
midar
Maud Branscombe, whose photograph
was the rage ten years ago, has turned
up, u shadow of her former self, in Lon
don police court, looking for protection
from the blackguard she has been living
with.
Beerbohm Tree Is AZ years old. His fam.
| lily name is Beerbohm, and the Tree was
added when he first essayed the stage as
| an amateur. He will give Hamlet
| ''Falstaff," "A Bunch of Violets." the
Red Lamp "A Wife's Peril" cap
| tain Swift" and new play by Robert
Louis Stevenson and w. l.. Henley, found
| ed on the old story of Robert Macaire ant
representing the robber as a polished
| thief who believes crime is a fine art
| The play is called "Macaire the Philoso
pher."
THE Twentieh Century Girl" recent,
produced in New York, concerns a cir
who apes masculine ways and is nom
mated for congress by an Irish-Ameri
! can boss" not to be elected, but ''tt
beat Ferguson" This young lady, Perc!
Nerance, has a guardian who wants t
marry her. He objects to politics an,
mems clothes for women. So to cure thi:
girl bachelor of her folly he transform!
himself into a boy spinster," and is
very droll object. Miss Helen Dauvray II
the girl bachelor" and Edwin Stevens
the boy spnster.'