The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-03

cency and profit. This will be in re-
sponse to public demand. The age nc
quires it, for the tendency of the age
is to brevity and diversity, to short
plays as we'll as short stories. People
seem to have grown tired of five or six
act dramas, whether they be comedy
or tragedy They also appear to grow
weary of any one thing, no matter how
good it may be. They do not want too
much sameness. They want variety.
AS an illustration of this let me point
out the fact that the majority of peo-
pie growing up nowadays do not read
Dickens as we did in our day. They
prefer Conan Doyle. They like Sher
lock Holmes better than David Copper
field. The pithy, diversified tales Of
the modern writer interest them far
more than the instructive but tediously
lengthy narrative of the great novelist
Of the past generation. The same rule
will apply to Fenimore Cooper and
Bret Harte The present generation
finds much more enjoyment in perus-
ing THE Outcasts of Poker Flat" and
1.-THE Luck Of Roaring Camp than III
wading through the well nigh interim
nable Misunderstanding series, brilliant
as they are in their grouping and pow
erful in description. The moralist may
say: 1T is pitiful, were it so,'' but
can assure him it is so, as I have found
from personal investigation.
This rule applies with full force to
the new condition of dramatic affairs
The man who struck the continuous
performance" idea, with it's quaint di-
versities, tragedy mingled with COM
edy, and opera cheek by jOwl with
taste. The people nowadays seem to
crave for variety in dramatic enter
tainment as in fiction. I am told that
the man who originated this continn-
Gus performance scheme got the idea
from Conan Doyle's clever novel. The
diversity of the adventures of his hero,
Sherlock Holmes; the mingling of the
gay and the grave, the artistic blend
ing of the humor and pathos Of life,
so impressed him that he resolved to
try the same thing in a dramatic way,
and he did, and what IS most impor-
tant of all in these practical days,
scored a financial as well as artistic
and poular success Thus 1t is that
we have in these progressive days a
one-act tragedy, a One-act comedy and
one-act opera interspersed with a
costermonger song. a Juggling scene,
an athletic feat and a test of terpsi-
CuOI0du Shlll III lIlC pAASC VI GIL "eNt
mission ticket.
/ make bold to prophesy that before
long the most eminent artists will be
glad to take on favorable vaudeville
offers, for it is a very easy and salts
factory way of making money, and it
certainly is highly honorable. For
twenty minutes work in an evening
and sometimes quite as much in a
financial way as his or her brother
artist does for five hours arduous men
tai labor at another theater across the
street 1t would not surprise me one
whit if great artists like Bernhardt,
Duse and Modjeska, as they grow old
er and less inclined to and capable of
hard work, would try not only one
vaudeville in a night. but three or four,
giving different sketches in each, just
as Albert Chevalier does in London
with his costermonger songs. 1t GER
tainly would produce far better finan-
cial results than the present system
and conduce greatly to ones physical
comfort
Since 1 have made my debut in vau-
deville a number of youthful aspirants
for histrionic fame appear to have be-
come discouraged at the dramatic out
look, and some Of them have written
to me asking solicitously If 1 really be-
heve the drama to be in jeopardy and