The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-03
NARY ANDERsoN's BOOK.
She Gives an Interesting Account
Of Her Career.

than for amy great Importance ia its sub
jeet OF for any obvious literary skill.
though the apparently absolute simplici-
ty with which the author reveals her life
from the days when she felt her first aspi-
ratlons To become an actress down TO the
day OF her marriage and retirement. has
more fascination than the most carefully
prepared literary effects would have The
style is frank and chatty. but IL never de-
generates into garruh;y Of vanity and u
is the simplicity Of art rather than nature,
unless in this woman the two are init
mately blended But there is more TO the
DOCK tnan any question or style IL is
the record or the aspirations and career
of noble. supplemented. sincere and de-
NOutly religious woman. i'm whom ambition
was as completely divorced from petty
vanity as 10 IS ever possible. and TO whom
the publicity Of her career never ceased
10 be obnoxious, so repuislve, in fact.
that II finally drove her into retirement
AT a time when her powers We're at their
rtpest and the rewards Of years Of hard
Work mad Just begun 10 be tasted and We're
almost certain TO continue and increase
for some years TO come. That IS "a very
different picture from the ordinary con-
cepton OF the life and ideals of an ac-
| tress and it is different from the attitude
I Of most public favorites, men or women,
! iu amy walk of life. but no one can read
l these Memories thoroughly Ot is one OF
the DOCKS In which there Is no tempta-
| uon 10 skip and which the reader lays
/ down with the wish that its pages We're
/ more rather than less) and doubt that
/ that is "a correct estimate of Mary Auder-
| SON After reading the volume. if not be-
fore, one is ready to believe that there is
| neither eNagegrauon or false modesty in
/ the simple preface in which she says.
II VIII not plead the apology for pub
/ usnlnB these Jew rccOllecuOns that friends
! - might add strauEers-haVe urged me
/ to do So. That excuse is worn thread
! bare, and it would not be true TO say
/ that Il IS that which has induced me
/ after five happy years of married life
/ and retirement TO write This short me-
! moir. / have, as / am well aware no
| literary skill, and assuredly do not wish
| Tor lurther pubhclty. But II seems TO me
| reasonable TO believe that my experience
I may be of some service TO those who have.
| or think they have an aptitude for act
| young girls (WhO may have the same am
| billions that / had than for any one
/ else; TO show them that the glitter of
! the stage is not all gold, and thus 10
/ do little toward making them realize
how serious an undertaking IL is to
| adopt life so fun OF hardship, humilia-
/ ton, and even dangers"
| If any girl can read this record Of long
| continued hard work of constant uncer-
! tainty and frequent disappointment. of re-
/ peated humiliation and bitter struggle and
| st!u desire to become an actress, il IS
| because the girl has the right stun in
/ her and Will probably succeed in her
/ chosen work, or because she is so com
/ pletely dominated by her vanity that she
/ counts any humiliation ana hardship small
| which finally places her before the pub
! lie. Certainly Miss Anderson has done
/ every thing possible to strip her pro-
/ feSslOn OF the rose color which surrounds
| it In immature imagnations
Mary Anderson was born In Sacramento
in 1859 Her father was a young English
| man, an oxford graduate with artistic
tastes, who had elOped with and clan
destinely married her mother, then
young girl. From her father the future
actress inherited her artistic tastes and
her love for everything which appeals to
the intellect and to the love of beauty
and from her mother she received
strong religious bent and abundant cour-
l religious
was fostered by the surroundings amid
which she was early placed, for her father
took up her residence near Louisville
where her brother was the pastor Of a
German Catholic parish. This Pater An
| ton exercised an important influence on
| the life of Mary Anderson, and one of
| her griefs was that he never forgave her
for becoming an actress Living in an
atmosphere thus hostile to the stage
passing her school days in a convent
Mary Anderson never even heard the
name of Shakespeare until she was p
when DR.. Griffin, her stepfather read
Hamlet" aloud to the family. o. the
effect she writes:
For DAYS j could think of nothing but
the pale face and inlSy cloak of the melan-
choly prince. The old red volume had
suddenly become like casket filled with
jewels whose flames and flashes, 1
thought might glorify life. / often
stopped to look at il with longing eyes,
and one day could not resist climbing up to
take it from its shelf. From that time
most of my play hours Were spent porting
over it, one night not long after the
family We're SURPRISED to see me enter the
parlor enVelOped in one of DIR. GritIin's
army cloaks. l was scowling tragically
and at once began the speech:
angels and ministers of grace defend us,
| Be thou spirit of health or goblin
damned"
My version being:
angels and ministers of grace defend us,
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin
dame"
The latter innovation was made to
| eVade having on my conscience so sinful
| a swear as damned.
Not long after this little Mary saw her
| first play, Richard III, with Edwin Adams
! as the crookback. The play fed the flame
/ and Mary, who had learned to cook and
| performed that as her part of the house
! hold tasks, used to read Shakespeare's
| play and Charles Reade's novels while
! she was basting roast or waiting for
! her bread to brown. The family managed
to save money enough to enable Mary 10
/ so, under the escort of her brother Joe
! TO the weekly matinees at the old Louis
/ vile theater, and great day Saturday
was. They would start two hours before
! the doors opened and the man in the lob
/ by seeing the keenness or her face used
! to let them in to sit alone in the dark
| theater until'it was time for the perform
ance In this way she saw Booth plav
/ Richeleu (though at a night performance
] and sat up till morning at the window Of
/ her room after it. She says:
| The night passed Ike an hour Be
! fore the dawn had mapped out stage
! career Tor mySeU. 1nuS lar having had
no fixed aim of my own making or liv-
ing. l had frittered my time away Then
] realized that my idle life must end
and that much study and severe train
| ing would have 10 be undertaken; this in
! secret, however, for there was no one to
| go TO for sympathy, help or advice in
| such a venture. Indignant that all my
/ people had in times gone by looked upon
so, noble an art as harmful if not sin
full. felt no prick of conscience in de-
| termining to work out clandestnely what
| seemed to me then my life mission l
1 was IA years Of age, inexperienced and
/ uneducated, but I had not a moment of
| fear. Mr. Booths other performances in
| tensihed my admiration for his art and
! strengthened my resolution"
The remarkable thing is not that the
| girl should have formed such a resolu-
ton under the Indictment of Booths act
ing, but that she stuck to it. For two
years she worked away in her little room.
most Of the time in secret and cropping
blndly at anything which she thought
would help her along. The first step was
to get away from school (where She tells
us that she had always been stupid about
/ everything but reading, and She made
an agreement with her mother that If
! she progressed faster Studios