The San Francisco call., 1896-04-26

- NAS sCdIC6ly naN6
dared to predict last Sunday that
IL in this enlightened town pair
OF ridiculous midgets would all
week monopolize m ore attention than the
united attraction of Richard Mansfield
and Roland Reed in new plays. But, sad
as 1t is to relate, this came to pass Peo-
pie went in their hundreds to see the i'm
mortal Richard and the sprishtly Roland,
but it is scarcely an exaggeratlon to say
that they went in their thousands and
tens OF thousands TO gloat over the mid
gets. There were satisfactory audiences
at the Baldwin and the California. but at
no time had you to take your life in your
hand in order to obtain an entrance, nor
having once been carried in on the surging
tide of humanity were you made to feel
like sardine packed in a box that was too
tight to hold you. These experiences were
reserved for patrons of the midgets, but
every one cheerfully, aye gladly, under
went bodily pain and mental anguish to
obtain glimpse of the little fellows # ht-
ing like bantam roosters = and yet we
grumble If Nordau says our end of the
century tastes in the drama are degen-
crate.
Even from an end of the century stand
point, the debutante at Growers Alcazar
should have been as much mobbed as were
the midgets, for she boasted a recent di-
vorce, gowns from Paris and fiery un-
tanned ambition to achieve dramatic dis
tinction. In these days a divorce, coupled
with gorgeous gowns, is enough to secure
woman much less gifted than Mrs. AuZe-
1ais Hoyte week of stage idoatry. But
Mrs. AuZerals had martyrs record to add
to her charms; her trip to Alaska, to try
the effects of the modern drama on the
virgin souls Of the klootchmen is still fresh
In orr minds. 1t was an expensive trip,
and the gowns, like those now to be seen
on the Alcazar stage, were from Paris.
But the klootchmen, though they had risen
TO the requirements of big sleeves and
theater hats, were not advanced enough to-
ward civilization to see any superiority in
Paris apparel; their taste ran more to big
red checks made at home. and acting
was thrown away on them. They merely
grunted in their own expressive but quite
uncultured manner, when asked to pur-
chase tickets for the Auzerais show. Even
the white residents of Alaska showed a.
painful indifference to the refining influ-
ence OF the modern drama, and the Auze-
rails troupe came home, their pockets full
of emptiness, but their hearts full of the
proud consciousness of having suffered
for the cause of art. All her sufferings,
all her gowns, even her divorce, however,
did not make Mrs. Auzerais the real sem
sation of the week that is past. Even she
had to play second hddle to those ridicu-
lous midgets.
They have no Church and Stage Guild in
New York yet, as they have in London,
but things seem to be progressing that
way, to judge from a recent announce
ment. There is play now running in the
metropolis known as "The Village Post
master" 1t is described as a corned-beef
and cabbage drama, with a genuine rain
storm at the end OF the first act, thrash
ing machine worked by two real 81 horses,
a sure-enough haystack, bona fde apple
tree, with new fruit every night and one
or two turkeys or chickens. The author
has filed in the places where these things
aren't with quaint New Englanders, who
make love and show no symptoms what
ever of disordered intellects "The Viii
lage Postmaster" is so bucolic that the
scent OF the hay is almost borne across the
footlights, and it is so free from any of the
nasty morbid qualities that deface many
modern dramas that the management has
made bold to advertise ''Clergymen's
matinees" every Wednesday afternoon.
The idea is distinctly new and precious
one, for if the pastors go the flock will
surely follow. "CIergymen's matinees,"
if a success, will thus open up endless in
ducements to dramatists to refrain from
seasoning their plays with vice. Plays are
good deal like the little girl in the nursery
rhyme, when they're good, they're very,
very good; and when they're bad, they re
horrid." If the ''clergymen's matinee
idea takes with the cloth, the public will
at once know that play which has been
received into the odor of sanctity can be
classed as "good," and enterprising mana.
gers of such plays will no doubt proceed
to advertise ''church members matinees''
and "Sunday-school matinees." There
are even press agents bold and unblushing
enough to proclaim loudly that the plays
they represent are eminently fitted for
''ehurchwardens' and deacons' matinees"
but, no! the soul recoils at the idea of a
deacons' matinee. Even the press agent
holds something sacred.
Columbia Theater.
Rivarde, the Franco-Spanish violinist,