Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-08-07
A CELEBRATED PLAY.
What Joseph Jefferson says OF the ORR
gin of Rip Van Winkle.

gin Of Rip Van wiukle.
"Art has always been my sweet.
heart" says Joseph Jefferson, ''and I
have loved her for herself alone. I
had fancied our affection was mutual,
80 that when failed as a star, which
l certainly did, thought she had Tilted
me. Not SO. wronged her. She only
reminded me that I had taken too great
o liberty, and that II expected to win
her must press my suit with more pa
tience. Checked, but undaunted In the
resolve, my mind dwelt upon my WIS.,
ion, and still INDUCED In day dreams
Of the future.
J I'm casting about for new character
my mind was ever dwelling upon re-
producing an effect where hum0r would
be so closely allied to pathos that smiles
and tears would mingle with each
other.
| During the summer Of 1859 arrang-
ed to board with my family at queer
old Dutch farmhouse in Paradise val
ley, at the foot of Pocono mountain, In
Pennsylvania. Stray farms are scat
tered through the valley, and the few
old Dutchmen and their families who
till the soil were born upon 1t; there
and only there they have ever lived.
The valley harmonized with me and
our resources.
that always render the country so dull.
1 had climbed to the loft of the barn,
and lying upon the hay was reading
that delightful book, The Life and Let
ters Of Washington Irving / had got
ten well into the volume and was much
interested in 1t, when to my surprise
came upon passage which said that
he had seen me at Laura Keene's thea
ter, and that I reminded him of my
father in look, gesture, size and make
II was comparatively obscure, and
to find myself remembered and writ
ten of by such a man gave me thrill
of pleasure I have never forgotten. l
put down the book, and lay there think
ing how proud was, and ought to be,
at the revelation Of this compliment.
| What an incentive to a youngster like
me to go on!
And so thought to myself. Wash.
| lngton Irving, the author Of the Sketch
Book. In which Is the quaint story Of
Rip Van Winkle.' Rip Van Wrinkle!
( There was, to me, magic in the sound
Of the name as repeated it. Why,
was not this the very character want
ed? An American story, by an Ameri-
can author. was surely just the theme
suited to an American actor.
%
house and returned to the barn with
the Sketch Book / had not read the
! story since 1 was a boy. l was disap-
| pointed with it; not as a story, Of
course, but the tale was purely narra-
| tive. The theme was interesting. but
not dramatic. The character Of Rip
does not speak ten lines. What could
be done dramatically with SO simple
sketch? How could it be turned into
an effective play?
"Three or four bad dramatizations of
! the story had already been acted, with
out masked success. Nothing that 1 re-
membered gave me the slightest en-
couragement that 1 could get good
play out Of any Of the existing ma
| terialS.
"Still. I was so bent upon acting the
part that started for the city, and in
less than a week, by industriously ram
sacking the theatrical wardrobe estab-
lishment for old leather and mildewed
cloth, and by personally experimenting
the making Of wigs, each article Of my
costume was completed; and all this,
too. before 1 had written line Of the
play or studied a word Of the part.
This is working in an opposite di
.ection from all conventional method.
In the study and elaboration Of dramat
lc character. and certainly not follow.
ing the course l would advise anyone
to pursue. merely mention the out-of-
the way, upside-do manner Of going
to work rs an Illustration Of the impa-
tience and enthusiasm with which l
entered upon the task. l can only
account for my getting the dress ready
desire had Of witnessing myself IN
the glass, decked out and equipped al
the hero Of the Catskills.
II got together the three old printed
versions Of the drama and the story It.
salt. The plays were all in two acts.
I thought 1t would be an Improvement
in the drama to arrange it in three.
making the scene with the spectre
crew an act by itself. This would sep
arate the poetical from the domestic
side Of the story.
But by far the most important alter
alton was in the interview with the
spirits. In the old versions they spoke
and sang. I remembered that the ef
feet of this ghostly dialogue was dread.
fully human, SO I arranged that nc
voice but Rips should be heard. This
is the only act on the stage 81 which
but one person speaks, while all the
others merely gesticulate, and I was
quite sure that the silence Of the crew
would give lonely and desolate char
acter to the scene and add to its su-
pernatural weirdness. 1t required some
thought to 1t upon just the best Ques-
tions that could be answered by a nod
and shake Of the head, and to arrange
that at times even Rip should PROFOUND
! query to himself and answer 1t.
I'm the seclusion of the barn I stud
led and rehearsed the part, and by the
End Of the summer 1 was prepared to
transplant 1t from the rustic realms of
an old farmhouse to cosmopolitan au-
dience In the city Of Washington,
where I opened at Carusi's Hall, under
the management Of John T. Raymond
l had, by repeated experiments, so sat
urated myself with the action of the
play that a few days seemed to perfect
the rehearsals. acted on these occa-
sions with all the point and feeling l
could muster. This answered the
double purpose Of giving me freedom
and of observing the effect of what
was doing on the actors.
"There was In the subject and the
part much scope for novel and fanci.