The San Francisco call., 1897-06-13

ga-z2ss=-zzzz=zzszz - ssgz======zs=ES-
There are some unwritten traditions
connected with melodrama which San
Francisco aud iences seem to expect as
their due. They hunger for a comic
policeman and they thirst for soubrette
with song and dance. On occasion they
can dispense with the comic policeman
and he seric-comic sOubIette, but no self
respecting theateT-goer who mas acquired
the meIodrama habit can dispense with a
double-dyed villain or prosecuted
heroine. The more the heroine is perse-
cuted The better the audience likes il, and
the more bungIingly and noisjly the
author of all the mischief villains through
the performance the greater appreciation
his efforts meet with. If battles, murders,
sudden deaths and all the other ills
prayed against in the Litanv are thrown
IN, the audience likes it still better. As
Tor acting IN a natural ani life-like style,
it is sheer waste of time. What the
audience wants is a wild, untamed ener. V,
a portentous stage stride and voice that
could make itself heard above the ain OF
boiler factory.
Il is hard 10 understand why people ex.
pect melodrama TO be per. ormed in this
unreal way, but they DO. Audiences seem
TO have said to themselves: Nothing
like melodrama ever happens in real life
50 there Is no human precedent to go
upon" This is wrong. Incidents that
might be taken from meIodrama are
constantly coming to the attention of the
police. For instance, one OF the m ost SEN
o1 tt1T ~
some striking anaogies to a now cele-
b-a'ed tragedy which happened in this
City since the Frawley Company pro-
duced the play two weeks ago.
The FrawIeys inaugurated a new and
to me very delightful departure in The
Fatal Card" They played with 50 much
sincerity and absence Of exaggeratiou
that melOdrama OF the conventional type
seemed for once to be human and possible.
The regular patrons OF The theaier, how
ever, have very plainly intimated that mel
odrama, no matter what the extenuating
circumstances, is not what they want.
OF course there is a demand for melo-
drama, Just as there is n demand for pop
corn and chewinggum and red satin
neckties, only the sort of people who go to
the C0lum bia are not those who create
the demand. The Frawley Compan has
educated its patrons into sort OF cult
for gentiIity and good breed ng and society,
and now t1e patrons absolutely demand
these things of Manager Frawley in ex-
change for their hard-earned dollars.
T hey have been wont 10 see "The Wiie'
and The Charity Bali" and all the rest
OF that period of Beasco plays. which are
so much alike lbat II is hard to tell one
nom another, ana have returned home
filled with the blissfui consciousness that
they have moved all evening in the best
sOciety-a little wicked IN spo.s, as even the
society of titled people is apt to be, but
society that dallies with Senators, barohs
attaches and milliOnaIres can never &c ut
terIy bad. O sucn has ben the Fraw Ioy
variety. Any one below the raIk OF an
attache has seldom appeared on the stage
except In a menIal capacity.
You can imagine how The ideals of the
Frawley cut were shattered when the
curtain rose on the first night of this sea
son and revealed Colorado mining camp
in all its native uncouthness. There stood
the wooden-actualiy wooden-walls of a
common saloon, their una Dashed naked
ness only clothed by strips of cheap paper
bearing announcements inteIIisibe to
gam mblers There were the miners, inno-
cent OF culture, innocent even of boiled
shirts. The costly brio a brac dear to
recollect!ons Of other Frawley seasons, the
silken lamp shades that people could
make home beautiful by duplicating in
paper, the elegant gowns that gave one
more toilet suggestions than Paris
fashion plate, where were th"y2 Alas! all
fed in this new Fatal Card" departure.
People of the Frawley cult thought of
Bret Harte ana shuddered. Poker
Flat and Roaring Camp were not
further removed from genteel society
than this No wonder the curtain
fell on the prologue Of The Fatal Card"
with a chilliness that could be felt. No
wonder the mem bers of the cult looked at
one another almost leartully and asked,
"Where is the new Frawiey culture ?"
Where is socieiYP" Where is the
Frawiey art2'
There is no reason why the gilded So
ciety OF Senators, attaches and well-to-do
merchants should have anything more 10
do with art than the society of miners.
Fifth-avenue drawingrooms have no; fig
ured so conspi uously in tie Nations lit
erature as Western min ng-camps. but the
Frawley Company has been SO long asso-
ciated with the best society, and their
patrons now demand the best society
drawing-rooms furnished with brlc-a- brac
and men and women who regulate their
lives according to requirements OF potlte
etiquette. Tomorrow night Lor mer Stod-
dard s new comedy will probably supply a
want that has been fell at the Colum bia
Theater for two weeks. The scenes OF his
Question" are laid among most exclu-
siVe people, and 10 make the action more