New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-21
TRICKS AND TREACHERY.
MEMORY IS A SERVANT UNFRAMED
NOWADAYS.

CLERGYMEN's DEPENDENCE on THE TEXT OF |
THE sERvIcE-AcToRs ANXIOUS TO AVOID
MEMoRIZING WHENEVER POSSIBLE
One OF the accusations most frequently brought |
against that convenient faculty known as memory |
Is that 1t is treacherous. While pretending with |
every appearance of honesty TO be its owners faith
ful servant 1t Is merely awaiting particularly
awkward moment, say the critics to betray him is-
ANONYMOUSLY. 1t is unquestonaby true that modern
memories. the pest Of them. degenerates when
compared with the ancient II the task of
perpetuatng Eomer's "Iliad" and THE Arabian
Nights Entertainment" now depended wholly upon
some ones ability to memorze those long produc-
tons 1t is quite safe TO assume that the next gen.
Grafton would hear them in an exceedingly abridged
form.
But the fault of It's present weakness cannot be
laid alto9ether at the door of memory itself That
Is probably still capable of performing vastly more
than 1t ceer does at present but like all servants,
1t must be trained and then kept up to its work.
Whether the whole. this is worth while is
another question. Ii would undoubtedly be most
convenient many occasions TO recall things at
will. without any written assistance But, consid-
ering the time in which live. when everything
worth remembering Is printed. he without
much trouble. there is little real need for much
memorizing. The majority OF people prefer to be
dependent upon books and notes. rather than to
convert their heads into storerooms the stock of
which is likely to be considerably jumbled up and,
at least in part, rubbish.
HELPLESS WITHOUT THE TEXT.
1t is peculiar fact that speaker who is accus-
toned to rely upon some outside aid his memory,
even though he may, by much repetition. have
learned the words by heart is almost always thrown
into confusion If the usual aid is suddenly with
drawn. Episcopal clergymen who have read the
services Of the Church for many years good ex-
amples of this. Most of them confess to the worst
OF verbal memories. Although they actually know
the whole substance OF the ritual well they do
their own names they have grown 50 used to read
ing 1t that the absence OF the familiar printed lines
would drive words and ideas completely out OF their
heads. Many OF them slaves OF the book
down to the shortest portions of the service, not
the text at hand. Not infreduently. this absolute
dependence is the cause Of odd delays and mistakes
Ihere Is certain clergyman who has. however,
precisely opposite method. For one thing he has
he never refreshes his mind on any point by read
ing i. and. in fact. does not even have book
like tempting fate, to those who hear him, and
many guest has specuated as he listened upon
denly played him trick This possible diffcuity
was made lThi Of by q youns man who attended
pl iIs.,c clereym,an offcilted. ,.,
lie could lust skip a lot of IL and go on. He'd
know enough to marry them with and the shorter
pspS; 49, , ."1 Dr'',s .~ss nne you "'y us
so far as to discard the book, like the one just
and br hke Sn r Sgr both the
may in OF necessity. be able to dispense with
the printed words. The difficulty which most of
utter lack Of demonstrating which Ia common.
THE ACTORS VIEW.
on the stage a somewhat similar state Of affairs
may be found II might be thought that since they
are required by the nature of their work to MEM
: 9rize so much actors would find the task easy
! one in time and woulG object to a trfe
or less of It. But this Is not As a rule they
| never learn anything which there is possible
chance for reading If few lines are to be spoken
| audienCe the actor ha3 a copy Of them and saves
I memory. All stage letters read by actors fully
written out. and the player, in spite or the number
PeaIin@ With View 70 remembepng the exact
| words and reading without any such purpose are
Mrs Kendall. however does not believe in the
| customary way of ma iaging the letter business.
! She insists upon having any member OF her com, com
| by heart so that in case the proper piece of
| paper should be lost, any blank sheet might be
| detected.
IN THE GERMAN THEATRES.
In a German theatre. where It is usual TO pro-
| duce large number Of pays, changing the bill
| every two or three nights the work of the actors
| would be exceedingly hard but for the extraor-
| dnarv method of promptns which is employed
| Instead Of standing in the wings and rendering
his services only on the rare occasions when some
actor forget. his lines. the prompter sits in a
| hood like that ut the Metropolitan Opera House,
| directly in front of the middle OF the stage. the
| hood looks somewhat like an exaggerated foot
! light and its shape serves 10 throw back the
! rrcupter's voice toward the people on the stage.
| Sitting here he reads the whole play through.
| from beginning end. keeping just line ahead
| of the actors. Such process sounds as II IL
| would be extremely confusing to every one in the
| NAV but they have accustomed thcmse Ives TO de-
/ pend upon this support The rather low mono
| lone in which the prompter reads Is not audible
| "a tho rest OF the house except sometimes 10
| those i'm the first row or in the stage boxes. At
The opera the prOmpter generally repeats the hrst
words of each line Of the air during the perform
| anCe ..a. o.. oo,o,, % ro,rr
ing what may Just as well be read. NJ. Castel.
| mary who sang behind the scenes. did The part or
| the dragon Fafner in 'segIreid' 9 did so en-
| ti-cI,, from his notes. and Miss Schilllng the
| Voice of the bird. follows the same method.
| cUser instance of foreetfulness on the part or a
| ginSer was giver occasion by Miss Cissy
| Inftrs the little English girl who won much
nroteo for her character limitations here. she mad
| sgrno a stanza which hit off very ceyery the man
| narisms Of Miss May Yohe, the English music
| haIi favorite and then ran off the stage. Com-
| ;ne, hack i'm response TO the applause she at
| ,anntcd TO sing the same stanZd again as an
| orndre Al the second line she hestated ana tneh
| fairIv broke down in the middle OF the verse
|