The San Francisco call., 1896-11-22

one OF the smartest dramatic critics In
London has been declaring that the decline
OF serious drama Is due to the spread of
temperance. The palmy days of the
legitimate drama, he says, were the days
IN which people went drunk to the play-
the days of port and foaming tankards of
stout and gin and water and Mr.. Pick
Wlck's milk punch. s'There were infinite
potentialities OF tragic emotion in those
beverages. Now we drink thin cIaret.n
ana then he cries in rhapsody for some
one to restore the vine leaves to our hair.
so that the serious drama may once more
flourish.
wen, this is certainly a new wav of
looking at it. If strong drink and the
serious drama go hand in hand San Fran
CISCO might have been written down a
temperance town-not of the Royt va
rlety-last week. Serious drama indeed |
You paid your money and you took YOUR
choice between operetta and melodrama.
II your fancy did not incline either wav
the only alternative was to eschew the
drama entirely and wait for better times.
cold perspiration bespangles nv
brow when 1 recall the acts of fiendisb
cruelty and devilish cunning, the shoot
ing, stabbine, butchering, dueling, bomb
exploding deeds which were committed at
the Columbia, the Grand. the California
and the Alcazar last week. To see one
melodrama a week is pleasant enough
diversion, two of them make a pretty
severe strain on the Imagination; three
melodramas in the span of seven DAYS are
more than any one with due regard for
keeping sane should undergo, and. as
pvau OIL
Humanity" at the Columbia is strong
play of its kind-if the kind were onlv
good-lts agony is intense, but it is piled
on In deeds rather than words, which is
always to be desired in melodrama. The
vlllain-and very we'll acted villain, too
is described as war correspondent. He
belongs to that fearful and wonderful
class of newspaper men that have their
existence only in the diseased imagina-
tions of dramatists. The last thing this
fool correspondent thinks of is getting the
news. He carries large notebook, which
no set-respecting reporter would be
guilty of owning, and he jots down the
location of the mines at Fort Dunbar and
the amount of water in the wells, not for
publication, oh, dear, no, but for the
treacherous enlightenment of the enemy.
Meanwhile his newspaper must be get
ting ANONYMOUSLY 'scooped" on all the
war news. Little wrecks the correspond.
ent; he is one of the idiotic news
gatherers seen only on the stage and
does not know news when he sees it, and
If it were introduced to him he would not
want ii. 1 wish some enterprising drama
tist would give us play with real news
paper man, Just for change. Variety is
always charming.
Wilton Lackaye is coming in a few
weeks to show us his new creation, DIR.
Belgratf, man who wreaks just venge-
ance on villainy through the medium of
hypnotic power. Lackaye blandly an
nounces that his makeup is an exact imi-
tation of Professor Roentgen of x raw
fame. l wonder why he submits the
famous discoverer to this lndignity ?
Roentgen is not hypnotist and any one
who has seen his X ray discovery in work
ing action knows that he is not man to
be treated with levity.
1t certainly is true that protesting hyp-
notists are just about as unlike the stage
article as the stage reporter is unlike real
newspaper man. Your professor of hyp-
notism is generally sleek, well fed look
ing parsonage. with all the outward and
visible signs of partaking of and enjoying
three square meals day. He does not
glide about mysteriously nor glare fiend-
ishly. In fact, if asked to guess his call
ing you would in nine cases out OF ten set
him down as well-to-do storekeeper or
prosperous pork butcher.
l asked Professor Kennedy the otner
day what he thought of Svengali, from a
hypnotic standpoint, and he scornfully
said the character did not deserve the
serious consideration of any self-respect-
ing professor of hypnotism. .Svengali is
not any more like real hypnotist than
the stage reporter is like live newspaper
man." remarked the professor, and his
allusion touched a tender spot, for oh |
that war correspondent in 'Humanity''-
but that's another story. Anyway, the
professor remarked that Lackaye's passes
were all wrong; that the makeup was
libel on hypnotists. AS for the basic idea of
hypnotist giving out some subtle power
which drained his own strength, it was