Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-10-28

trOlled storms of applause
My friend Lester and l, old theater-
goers as We were, thrilled with the
others at the strong human touch OF
the actors art, and were silent as we
slowly moved outward in the perfumed
crush and chatter of the fashionable
crowd. We went to a quiet restaurant
we knew OF, where the noisier pleasure
seekers did not follow, and ordered our
chops and ale.
Released from the spell of the coun-
ter1elt world in which we had lived for
some two hours, the prosaic reality OF
actual life soon brought us back to our
normal condition of mind.
Doesn't it seem strange" said Les
ter, who carried all kinds of theories In
MS mead, that play like that should
impress any one as true representa-
ton of life?"
so it seemed to me-" answered. in
some surprise, for Lester, l had no
ticed, had yielded as fully, if not more
SO, to the spell Of the performance than
l myself had. "The plot was far less
improbable than the happenings set
forth in our daily papers, the situa-
lions were brought about naturally and
the handling of the characters unusual
~ well managed"
YES" said Lester, II know that's
true, but you haven't caught my idea.
NO wonder, though, for l haven't ad-
vanced it yet. 1 was just thinking of
the language that playwrights and nov
el1sts put in the mouths of their char
acters. When do you ever hear real
people use such stilted, high flown
talk? OF course, I know it's necessary
Tor them to improve on our everyday
sl1p-shod lingo, or the whole thing
would be fiasco, but, all the same, it
isn't true to nature. refer particu-
larly to strong emotional scenes. In
such crises in real life the partici-
pants will always lose what little ideas
OF grammar, construction and choice of
language they generally have, and
either stammer out lot of idiotic COM
monplaces, simply swear, or turn dumb
as brutes. Now, in the novel or the
drama their talk always rises to the
emergency. That's art, of course, but
it isn't truth
II don't altogether agree with you,'
I said. II think that even in actual
life men and women when confronted
with some great and sudden danger,
rise above their petty conventionalities
OF expression and use language some
times as passionate, lofty and dramatic
as that belonging to literature or the
stage. We modern people have become
slaves to the artificial and have fritz
tered away our souls on sordid things.
We express ourselves jerkily, slangily
and poorly. We aim at pertness and
brevity, and have foolish dislike for
allowing others to see what is in our
hearts. Our whole talk is devoted to
diplomacy, deception and the conceal
ment of our thoughts. But al heart we
are still men and women, and genu-
inc and powerful emotion will, think,
in five cases out of six, bring to the lips
words fully as theatric, melodramatic
and STACEY" as those we heard on the
boards tonight or read in books"
you're wrong, old man." said Les
ter in his positive way. We're hope
lessly unpicturesque in our parlance.
Get one of us into an end of fifth act
denouement, and we either get tongue
tied or talk unintelligible rot. Give us
half an hour for preparation, and we
might think up something appropriate
to say, but not off hand. We let down
just as the fellow did who on coming
home and finding his horse and family
burned up, remarked: We'll, declare,
this is ridiculous' Grief knocks out
grammar, and sudden shocks are fatal