Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-02-27

Italy, where she will probably find
greater appreciation, but where she
will certainly make less money. Have
a bit of courage and tell the truth.
Unless you understand French or
Italian very we'll, what is the use of
paying three dollars or three and a
half to listen to woman talk in the
tongue unknown to you? Take tho
case of Sarah Bernhard The papers
can write all they want about her re-
tanning her good looks She does look
better, but is because she is fat.
She objected always to stays, and the
result is that when she wears frock
that fits her like glove, she manages
| to achieve series of curves that may
be feminine and are elderly, but they
are certainly not beautiful. We are
greatly given TO talking what call the
tommy rot of the day. That is slang,
know, but
SOME SLANG is CLASSICAL.
| | would be willing to bet that three
quarters of the audience who go to see
Sarah or Duse do not understand one
word either of them say Madame
Bernhardt speaks beautiful French,
but she speaks very rapidly, and one
has to listen keenly to get each word
and the full value of each word. |
consider her great actress, but-sim-
ply because Mrs. Millionaire. who be-
longs to two or three French classes,
and who likes to make you think she
is fine linguist pays her money and
| goes and laughs or cries at the proper
points, why should you take your three
| dollars and trot to matinee simply
because 1t is done by her. Possibly
you know the story because you saw
Fanny Davenport play it, or else be-
cause you have heard Calve sing it,
and then you talk about the perfect
emotion of Bernhardt or Duse, and
how one did not need to understand
the words their art and their soulful
ness making the story Ineligible !!
Bosh Or, perhaps you have a smat-
tering of the language. In that case
you weep or laugh when it is desirable,
and you tell your friends how sorry
you feel for them in their Ignorance.
This nonsense about the art and the
soul telling the story is another bit of
tommy rot. With a picture it is
different. 1t tells one episode in a
life, not the story of lifetime. How
in the mischief are you to know
whether the curl on a Frenchman' s fore
head means that he is in the depths of
despair, or that he is joyful because he
is going to run away with his friends
wife that night?
WHEN SARAH RusTLEs HER PETTIcoATs
you listen to the frou-f rou, and say,
"Oh, it is so intense, it seems as If
her soul were going from her, and
escaping to another and better
world. :" Whereas she shakes it 80 you
| ran1i1a r,itl oh
| raise one arm in the air and droops
concealed love! And then If she folds
her arms, you hint at il meaning a
murderous, passionate love that
wouldn hesitate at killing an audi
ence. Go to see Sarah all you want if
you enjoy Unfortunately her re-
portore is composed of plays that are
we'll known here, lnasmuch as they
were presented by Miss Davenport
with a better company, better clothes
and a decidedly better stage setting
than any French company ever gave,
| but don't buy even an admission ticket
to see Duse. Give her chance to ap-
precate what America can do when a
woman insults it by pronouncing her
dislike publicly.
Perhaps my opinion in regard to
Duse and her acting is worthless, Lut
| give you my word, dreadful as it
sounds, should have had a much better
time IL | had spent that afternoon with
"Chimmie Fadden," and | would have
been in dollar and half. am per-
feetly willing to acknowledge her great
ness, il it will please anybody, but she
is dreadfully tiresome, and though the
critics are given to talking about her
concealed emotion and great sorrow,
she looks to me as if her liver were not
quite right, and | could not but won
der what early spring medicine would
i be adapted to her; and whether since
she goes in so strongly for realism it
would be proper to send her a bottle of
doctor Dinkey's Drivelling Drink, :"
instead of roses. Flowers fade, but the
liver and its medicines are always
with her. Bother let's us DO truthful
and seek in the theatre what we enjoy
and what we understand. | want an
evening that makes me feel when ] get
home, as If | had had good time, and
not one where have to strain ears and
eyes to catch little Of the strange
language, and grow weary during the
long waits. There are plenty people
who will say, "Bab is stunid, we
understand French. " All right; 90 to
the French play then whenever you
! wish to. But am | perfectly certain
that not three-quarters of the average
American audience, outside of New
Orleans, understand what these strange
| goddesses are saying.
By the-hy
THE GIRL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
is fitting her hat down, down, down
over her eyes until it nearly touches
her nose, and looks, well / must con-
fess, il it is the right shape hat, that
it looks extremely coquettish. The
new springtime hats are coquettish,
and she Of the summertime will be
quite as pretty as a picture when she
puts them on. | am told by people in
rerested in missionary work that with
one church collection went book on
physical culture to the missionary SO
i that TO gain convert, after reading
this book, the giving of a pair of stays,
which had been general was no longer
in vogue. For the last four years when
a missionary was shy on souls, he pre-
scented pair of corsets to lady from
the happy land of Ma-hat to- la nj, after
she announced her Willingness to join
the sect he represented; she instantly
retired to assume the stays which she
put on over the altogether, but
during the assumption she required
two of the strongest warriors in camp
to pull the strings. / have always
longed for picture of the simple soul,
yearning for civilization as expressed
by stays, when she paraded the camp
with warrior on each side of her. the
stays encircling her person, hymn
book in her hand and an apopeetic