The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-16


found herself possessed of marvellous
powers of oratory. 1t was at first en-
J ployed in the interests of secular sci
ence, philanthropy and materiallsm,
she having carefully pursued scientific
courses and become familiar with the
latest discoveries of physicists, but all
this capital of learning and eloquence
has now for years been consecrated to
the service of the philosophy to which
her whole life is given.
On the evening Of Tuesday, June 9th
the Mcneil Club of Sacramento will
give it's first and only concert this sea-
son. AS the concerts of this club are
always looked forward to as leading
musical events in this city, there is
sure to be a crowded auditorium on the
night of the proposed concert. The club
has been greatly strengthened by the
addition of new voices, and now num-
bers forty members, making it possible
to give choruses with better effect than
formerly Talent from San Francisco
has been engaged to assist, besides
several members will sing solos.
Extract from a lecture in a. church in
Kansas City by James A. Herne, the
actor:
Il am invited by your pastor to talk
to you of the theater as it is, and, II
possible, clear away some doubts you
have in regard to the theater as an in
stitution. The theater is a tremendous
question. To go over it thoroughly,
faithfully, in a thirty minutes talk
would be an impossibility. Therefore,
1 can at best but glide gracefully over
its surface lines and talk of its most
obvious characteristics. That the inf1u-
ence of the theater as an institution is
wholesome and healthful is evidenced
by the fact that I, an actor, am here to-
night at the request of your minister,
and that you, representing a self-re-
specting community, are sufficiently in
terested in the theater to assemble here
and give me your respectful considera-
ton
Il will go no further into the past his
tory of the theater than to say that
its genesis was religion. The protoplasm
of our drama of to-day was the sacred
dance.the chant, the Invocation, and so
on. True art is in it's very essence spir-
itual. Art without soul is pure mechan-
Maybe says: Art is the spirit of a
mans whole life and nature; something
which grows out of him, and not some
thing which he puts together with me-
| chanical dexterity and skill
The most sublime play I ever saw
was The Passion in which James
! O'Neill represented our Savior If
ever an actor was exalted by his work
| closely in spiritual touch with Jesus
| Christ. I have never heard or read
| anything anywhere, which so ennobled
! and dignified religion as did that play
| and that actor. 1t was real; it was
| thrilling; ii was sublimity itself; it was
| awe-inspiring, and one could not
| leave the theater after having wit
| messed it without carrying away with
him some of the beautiful spirit of the
| Carpenter of Nazareth. But the ortho-
dox church stepped in and called it
| blasphemy and called upon the law to
! stop it. And the law did stop it, and
| crushed the rising young actor of the
day and broke the heart of the inspired
| and imprisoned author, Salmi Morse,
who, after several Intellectual attempts
| to have his work acknowledged for its
| truth, committed suicide
| L am glad to say that preachers all
over this country, in fact, all over the
| civilized world are realizing and ac-
knOwledging this great truth. Dogma
is dying; greed is disappearing; we are
moving on, upward and onward in the
| theater, in the church. in all art, in
spite of pessimists and bigots, in spite
Of all the apparent vice, crime and mis-
cry; in spite of the extremes Of wealth
and poverty, and we will reach univer-
sal liberty at last. But those of us
who see it and have faith in it must
work hard to encourage and stimulate
others to see and feel it and work for
it. No one individual can emancipate
the race. He cannot even emancipate
his own calling; the race must be
taught that it has to emancipate itself.
Il have the satisfaction of being able
to say to you tonight that among the
most ardent admirers of my work in
the theater are the ministers who are
broad enough and honest enough to
come to the theater and analyze my
work before condemning it or me; and
among my warmest personal friends
number many of these preachers. am
in constant receipt Of letters of encour-
agement and sympathy from preachers
all bidding me to go on, and all ac-
knowledging the power of the theater
as an educator, and it's right to be
classed with the church in its divine
mission.
No period in English history at this
distance contains more romance than
the reign of Charles H., and it is to the
times of Nell Gwynne and the gayest
and most dissolute of all the courts OF
Europe that Otis Skinner proposes to
trace back when he on Tuesday even
ing next will present for the first time
in Sacramento Clyde Fitch's charming
~ dainty comedy of the manners, NOR
| a Of "a Of l,a