The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-19
The Evolution OF
One Real GeDiuS
Impressions and Suggestions Inspired
by Dan Hart's New Play.
CRITICISM AND ALSO ADVICE
Earncstness and Patience Are the Price
Which MIR. Hart Must Pay Before lie
Can Realize the Promises
of His Present.

This is a discourse upon young man
of genius. AS with all discourses, 1t
| Is serious.
Until he wrote "O'Neill, Washington,
ID. c." Daniel l.. Hart's future as Il
dramatist was an open question. He
had, in number Of prior produc tions,
shown fitful premonitions Of high capa-
bility which We're no sooner in evidence
| than they began to degenerate into the
commonplace. His Underground" was
melo-dramatic enough to suit the most
| fastidious taste, but it was melo-
drama of canvass and painted frame
work instead of a study of human
| character. The figures in it, the human
| figures, We're as mechanical as marion
cites that dance or vanish in obedience
to the concealed mechanician who
| manipulates the strings. A step for
ward was taken in "A Daughter Of
Dixie long step and successful
step into the domain of real comedy.
The revelations in this play of the
authors power to comprehend and pOr-
| tray the human element We're more fire.
quent and better sustained than in I'm
derground;" but it neverthe eless required
the stage craft of ingenious scenic ac-
companiment-notab evidenced in the
FREELY" scene-to keep "A Daughter OF
Dixie" from adding itself to the list Of
plays forgotten as soon as the curtain
| had rung down.
The young dramatist-my friend and
yours. whom we both wish well, but
| of whom, albeit our friend, we must
speak and admit the truth-was only
cropping through the yet darkened
dawn of his undeveloped abilities.
1t pleases me to believe that in the
| new play which Scrantonians wit
| messed last Monday night-the play
made to order during the leisure mo-
merits of a three-months' otherwise
busy summers sojourn in the Catskills
the play which sprang. not primarily
from the authors heart, but which
| fashioned itself. line by line and scene
| by scene, in commercial response to one
actors needs-and he an actor of
limited range-Daniel l.. Hart has
olinched the uncertain promise of his
past and given bond for good and, as |
believe, great achievement in the years
to come. "O'Neill, Washington" is not,
| in itself, a great play-how could it be,
| considering the circumstances of its
| hasty and inartistic composition? But
| it is a play whose scntillant lines and
| bubbling alterations of wit, humor
| and pathos show that the writer of 1t,
however hastily his work has been
| done, has at last got hold Of the live
wires of human impulse and needs only
time and patience to operate them with
precision, eloquence and effective
| power
| He is learning the dignity and the
meaning of his calling.
| Great work is not done lightly or
| cynically. The history of art contains
no instance of real and permanent tri-
| umph won without struggle and pain
| It is as true in letters as in theology
| that "in the sweat Of his brow must
| man eat bread" Up to this time, Mr.
| Hart has presented us with clever skel-
| .tons and epigrams. "O'Ncill, Wash
| lngton, ID. c. is the first of his plays
| to put life-blood into pulsating veins
| and show us real humanity. The reve-
| lation, as we say, is prophetic rather
| than actual. The hallmark of made-to
Orderism is broadly visible; and the
| authOr-or was it the manager?-could
| aot overcome the tempta ton to distend
| the pupils in the galleries by resort to
| novel mechanism, showing a model
| warship in motion. with multl-colored
lights. Yet with all this duly allowed
| 'or we cannot deny the resultant fact
| that "O'Neill," at least, is a human
| comedy, a comedy of real laughter and
| real tears a comedy in which the things
that happen happen as they are
| daily happening apart from the
| footlights and away from the cal.
cium glare. The currents of hu.