St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-22
SHE WAS SWEET SIXTEEN
TUNITY TO APPEAR ON THE
STAGE.
She burned Her Hand and Romeo
Lost His Dagger, but She Won
Applause.

NEW YORK, March 19-It is two
years since the Harpers received from
Mrs. Antonio de Navarro the manu-
script of memoirs, but their publica-
ton has been delayed for one reason
or another, and it will be late in the
month before the book is finally pub
lished. In the meantime portions of
the book have appeared in the North
American Review and other publica-
tons 1t is, of course, her first ex-
periences that are the most interest
ing.
Mary Anderson was "stage struck
when she was sixteen years old. Living
in Louisville, KY. she had little oppor-
tunity to crafty her ambitious desires,
sons of Georg Vandenhoff,a well-known
teacher of acting and elocution. The
first interview with Mr.. Vandenhoff
was most disheartening. She writes:
Though already advanced in years,
he was full of fire and Vigor. The ex-
preston of his face was stern and far
from encouraging, and his manner on
that day was annoying in it's extreme
brusQueness. He insisted upon my
reading from a book. This was a
blow; a book is such a hindrance when
you know the words thoroughly.
His constant Interruptions embar-
raised and put me at my worst. Tyro-
like, I chafed and champed under the
curb, and my relief knew no bounds
when the ten lessons of an hour each
were over. The experience, however,
had tanned, clipped and done me gen.
eral good, and 1 shall always be CRATE
full to that capital actor and teacher of
defamation for showing me the folly
Of attempting male characters, and for
suggesting Juliet, Julia, Pauline and
Evadne as better suited to my sex and
youth"
Returning to Louisville she fitted up
a den" in her home, and with the
Chandos bust of Shakespeare as lead
ing juvenile" she played round Of
parts to it,
Clifford, Claude, Colonna, were the
parts assigned to 1t, but as Romeo, I
imagined, it looked least stony. Six
months of solitary work was now be-
gun. Dancing and music, of which I
was passionately fond, were renowned,
and my girlhood friends and compan-
ions given up. The labor was particu-
larly hard, working as 1 did in the
dark, having no one to consult and no
experience to guide me. I longed for
help, which never came, except from
my mother, who was as ignorant as
Of the rules of dramatic art Still we
worked on necessarily, I producing eff
fects, she criticising them to the best Of
her ability. To get the hollow tones
of Juliet's voice in the tomb and better
realize my heroine's feelings on
awakening in her nest of death, con-
tagion and unnatural Sleep I fire.
quently walked to Cave Hill, Louis
ville's beautiful cemetery, there to
speak her lines through the grilled
door of vault"
For year she worked faithfully in her
Den. There was apparently no prospect of
her appearing In larger auditorium
Hope hod almost sunk beneath my hori-
ION when John Mccullough was announced
to appear in Louisville. Anxious to cheer
me, Dr. Griffin pocketed his pride and. with
out an introduction, called upon the actor
Telling him of my dependency, he gave
description OF my work as seen through his
pre1udiced eyes. Mccullough hated stage
struck people, and said as much He came
TO our house.. he afterwards owned, only to
RID himself OF DR.. Griffn's opportunities It
was humiliating for my excellent friend and
stepfather to have to beg an audience of one
on whom he had no claim. but he kept to his
point, and at last won the actors consent to
give me hearing. have only a quarter
OF an hour said he, and as you will have
my opinion of your daughters abilities, she
had better begin at once. Be On your guard
ito mel shall observe every look and tone
and criticise your work unsparingly' In
spite OF his discouraging manner and words
U
and Juliet, forgetting the stern critic en-
tirely after the first few lines. When l had
finished his manner had changed. He re-
manned several hours, acting with me scenes
from all the plays l knew"
Mccullough introduced Miss Anderson to
Barney Macauley.
this girl on the stage. If am a Judge of
such matters she will make fortune for
you Before he left Louisville he offered
me the part of Lady Anne in Richard III ;
character L NJ
and amused when 1 answered that |
would rather not play second fiddle, even to
him."
Here is her description of her first re-
hearsal on a real stage:
AS was in the quiet church the hour for
rehearsal struck, and | started for the the
alter in a radiant frame of mind. Passing
with my people through the darkened house
and private boxes, covered with their linen
busters, l found myself for the first time
upon the stage. How dismal it was with
small gas Jet burning in the center. throw
ing a dingy light on the men and women
they did not relish the extra rehearsaD
gloomily standing in the wings. Could they
be the brilliant, sparkling courters l had
seen but a few nights before blazing in
Jewels and wreathed in smiles? On seeing
me all looked surprised. Some made re-
marks in whispers, which felt to be unkind ;
others laughed audibly. Scarcely sixteen
my hair in a long braid, my frock reaching
to my boot-tops, tall, shy and awkward
but it was cruel, 1 thought. as underbred
to make effort to conceal their mirth at
my expense. However, their rudeness was
salutary in it's effect putting me on my met
ager clapped his hands for act one. The
actors Immediately ratified off their lines.
making crosses and sweeps down the stage
quite different from the business I had ar
ranged. I was bewildered, and asked them
to go through the play as they proposed do
ing 1t at night, and to allow me, at least in
my own scenes to follow the only business
knew.
'Oh. bother said one of the actors who
did not remark the tall figure of the man
ager at the back of the dark theater. L acted
in this play before you were born, and 1,
for one, don't mean to change what l have
always DONE
"To have all I had arranged in my sane
tum thus upset in every detail threw me
out hopelessly that ! was unable to go
on with the rehearsal. Mr.. Macauley's voice
put an end to the awkward pause. saying
that he had not thought it necessary to ask
them, as old actors. to do all in their power
to aid a girl who was standing on the stage
for the first time. and he added: must re-
quest now that you follow the business she
knows, and that you try to be obliging.' The
sulkiness that followed this rebuke was
smoothly. They were. with three exceptions,
the most logged, coldly unnterested set of
people l have ever met, sneering at my
every movement or suggestion"
AT laSt tHe eNeHIlul HlSnt came Wnen Mary
Anderson made, in Louisville her first an
pearance before any audience.
There had been so many humiliations
such cold, cruel treatment from nearly ali
the actors, that / dreaded the coming of
Saturday, when I should have to encounter
their sneering faces again. STILL 1t did come
and my mother and / found ourselves walk
ing to the theater in the crisp air of starry
winter night. After the sad experience of the
day before l was hardly hopeful enough to
be nervous. The borrowed robes were quick
ly donned. They fitted we'll. with the excep-
ton of the white satin train (the first I had