The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-09

Smooth as any young HISS couIu wIsn
her own to be. 1t is only in her wrists
those remorseless clocks of the human
frame-that the tale of her years is told.
| And she wears long laces about them.
which conceal them except when her
gestures. free and graceful as the fly
| ing of bird, disturb their folds and re-
veal the little tracks upon her flesh. Her
voice has not in it one of the cracked
| high notes which one expects in
woman who has passed the meridian of
life, and journeyed well along toward
| the time when the sun must set, and
along rough and rocky road, at
that, but Is as full of the round. full
wonderful tones, the rich, penetrating,
mesmerizing cadences which have
charmed audiences and intimates from
the day when she first swept the public
to her feet with her performance of
Zarnette in Coppee's PEASANT" When
/ told her how America admires her her
laughter came out ripping and musical
it was the laughter Of young girl,
not that of an old woman. When she
LEANED forward and told me how she
adnlires America, the pretty words were
spoken in the voice OF maiden-a
maiden who hesitates and almost
bushes before she gives rein to her
impetuous enthusiasm. And if she is
acting, 1 could not dream of it until
after had left her.
ST you were to name the very great
est part that has ever been written for
presentation on the stage, what would
YOU answer?" l asked, after she had
told all our merits as nation, and re.
fused to acknowledge that we have any
faults worth mentioning. She hesitated
for a long time, toying with the fur Of
her wrap and twisting a big tassel
which hung down from it. Finally she
said, rehectively:
"For men unquestionably the great
est part is Hamlet. 1 am anxious to
hear what Alexander Salvini, who is to
play it in America soon, will do with it.
For women the greatest part is that OF
Lady Macbeth. If you turn to comedy,
the greatest part is in AS You Like
It. But aside from that one rank
Moliere with Shakespeare as a writer
OF comedy. Look at the ''School Of
the Women The School of the Hus-
bands and 'Amphitryon-all grand! If
1 had to give a preference among
Moliere's comedies, it would be for
'Tartuffe, or The Wise Women"
And the greatest single emotional !
situation?" persisted.
'Oh, there are SO many! So many"
she exclaimed. There is the last act |
in 'Camiller There is the third act in |
La Toscar There is the scene in Sud-
ernann's Foyer Paternal!' But from
them all shall select the great scene
in olivia as the very, very greatest"
By this time madaIne's reception hour |
had arrived. We were interrupted .
hundred times She received her friends
as a queen might receive her subjects.
Arthur Meyer, the editor Of La Gaulois,
came in, and bending reverentially over
her extended hand kissed it and passed
out. Maurice entered, and lightly
touched his mothers forehead with his
lips. Ellen Terry, who had run over
from London for day-she has been
far from well this year. and has been
obliged to take frequent little vaca-
down the room, and was
received by Bernhardt Is one great
artist should receive another.
Young and old, man and woman,
came to do homage to Sarah the divine.
There she sat, unburdened by the
weight of years, happy, exhilarated by
the pleasure of seeing her friends,
her red bush of hair merrily
with one, bowling it slowly in response
to the compliments of another, always
saying the right thing in the right
place, never hurrying, never hesitating.
Bernhard in the salon is as wonder
full as Bernhard on the stage.
One man, as he passed out, paused on
the little stairs, and, turning, held up
his hands, and said to a group near by:
''Ah, madame the incompatible! She
has hypnotized US all. She has hypno-
TIED the whole world"
EDWARD MARSHALL.