The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-13

in their numbers has not served to increase
the compensation paid for their services,
There is no great demand for the old piece
now compared to that which existed some
years ago, so new generation of these &C
tors has not grown up to succeed the old.
There is no likelihood, either that the
Uncle Tommer,' that unique development
Of theatrical conditions of two or three dec
AIDES ago, will ever be with us again.
There was permanence then in other
than the mere 'artistic'-if the word can
stand the strain-side Of the Uncle Tom
of former years. The same managers chung
for years to the play, and every season
three or four companies would start out
under the management of men who had
been doing the same thing for several sea-
sons before. There are three or four men
connected with the business whose names
became prominent simply through the per
sistence with which they chung TO the play.
A whole literature of anecdotes has grown
up about this play, and it's treatment is one
of the most curious things in the whole his
tory of the stage.
"Of course, when the play was given first
in 1852, and during the early years of It's
success, the feelings against slavery TO
which it appealed made it stirring play;
and the impetus it got at that time carried
it along for years. Then, when It's repu-
tation ceased to be of much avail and its
old claim to success had entirely disap-
sorts of liberties with the old play. NO
drama was ever submitted to such indtgni-
ties. East Lynne has possibly been played
as often as any. other play excepting
Uncle Toms Cabin but nobody ever
heard of a scheme to make the play du-
plex, as it were, and double the number OF
all the principal roles. Nobody could, for
instance, think of two Lady Vines, but TWO
Topsies two EVas and two Markses were
one of the signs that marked the decline OF
Uncle Toms real popularity. Never be-
fore was the mere name of play used 10
cover such a series of extraneous and dis
connected exhibitions as the Uncle Tom
mers' latterly came to give.
But they are nearly all gone, and Uncle
Tom as we'll as the Uncle Tommers, Is
almost thing of the past There was al
ways a certain sort of a sticking power
about these roles They were hard to shake
off when once the actors had taken them
up Cordelia Howard, the original Topsy,
played that part for years Marie Bates,
now an old woman actress, was Tor years
a famous Topsy and played no other part
for long time. Similar cases are the num-
bier Uncle Tommers' described above, VINO
the play, every other character. But they
were not persons likely to have been espe-
cially distinguished as a rule in other lines
of work and they drifted more or less
naturally into the parts which they stuck
to-or which stuck to them.
I'm the same way that the managers and
the actors have become confirmed Uncle
Tommers' so have the negro jubilee sing
ers and wing dancers Season after sea-
son they travelled about the country, often
keeping for years in the same organlZa-
ton There were real negro Topsies and
genuine negro Uncle Toms. But they were
markable changes through which Uncle
Tom passed when he got on the stage and
had to please public taste if he wanted to
StaV there