The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1897-01-09

:; ! :: !
f aGl Conspiracy" which;
FNAHA-/ is now appearing
Mn NH in The Century, Isl
NMEGIs described by the.
.NMNMN author as an idyl'
II S&$0! ~ of Saratoga In
~ the current num-;
SR her Mr.. Howell
gives this pictureeof
an odd phase Of life at the great Amer
ican summer resort:
] There are not many public enter
tainments in Saratoga, except such as
7 the hotels supply; but there was a-se-
E ries of Salvation Army meetings, and
there was at least ;pne theatrical per-
formance-a performance lof EAST
Lynne entirely by people of color. The
{ sentiments and incidents of the heart
breaking melodrama, as the colored
# mind interpreted them, were Iof very
+ curious effect. It was as if the Yer
+ 6ion were dyed with the same pigment
+ that darkened the players skins: it. all
/ came out negro. Yet they had tried to
make it white; could perceive how
they aimed not at the imitation of f.our
: nature, but at the Imitation ofcour CON
Wention; it was like the play oof chill ;
uren in that I shOuM have ssaid that
nothing could be more false than the
motives and emotions of the drama
as the author Imagined them, but I had
ts own that their rendition -by these
sincere souls was yet more artificial!
There was nothing traditional, nothing
archaic, nothing mutochthonic in their
iSpoor art. II the scene could .at amy
moment have resolved itself into "a
with an interspersion Gof
"spirituals' it would have had the
charm Of these; it would .haveyconsoled
and edited; but as it was thave sell
y dom been SO bDnad. -.xs -
| began to make some sad reflections,
\ as that our American society, in its
endeavor for the effecteof European So
ciety, was of mo trl1er ideal sthan these
colored comedians and Il accused my
self Of final absurdity in having
come there with fhese young ypeople,
a,sWh acc cording To sour good native
usage, could have come perfectly we'll
4 without me. At the @nd of the first
4 act I broke into their talk With my
4 conclusion that we must not count the
/ histrionic talent anunlg tthe gifts Uf the
african race just yet. We could oeon-
cede them music, supposed, aniltthere
seemed to be hope fer them, from what
some of them had dome, in tine region
4 of the plastic arts; but apparently tfe
stage was not for ther4, and this was
all the stranger because sthey were $50
j Initiative. Perhaps, Iassa'H, it was an
excess of self -conscinusne which pre-
5|.yentedqtheir giving them Dives wholly
ito the art
gave myself to the sstudy OF .the
types about me, and dwelt long and
81 luxuriously upon the vision Of fiDrsiH
s and massive matron in diaphanpus
Il evening dress, whom 4 imagined to be
revisiting the glimpseB Of her girlhuod
\ in the ancient watering place, and to be
Y getting all the gaiety she could out of
lit. TheseSar the figures cone mostly
l.sees at Saratoga; there lis very little
lyouth of the present day there, but tine
$EYouth of the past abounds, with the
Is belated yel1aw hair or the purple mus
Etaches, which give a notion tBf greater
553stwickedness ia former generation.
&. II made my observation that the
farsss, even Tue extreme cases of elder
vi yYprime, as7Very good-in the case
Of tine women, II mean; the man there,
las everywhere sWith us, were mostly
lslovens; and I TWas glad to find that
y the good taste sand the correct fash