Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1897-09-23
THE curtain rang down, and the

WIZ curtain rang down, ana the
play was over A drama 1t had
been called, but 1t partook of trag-
cay, ana Its strong climaxes. handled
as they were by competent players,
were received by the audience with
uncontrolled storms Of applause.
My friend Lester and |, 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 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-
terfelt 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 1t seem strange" said Les
ter. who carried all kinds of theories /
ms mead, that play like that should
impress any one as Il true representa-
ton of life?"
$50 1t seemed to me-" answered, in
some surprise, for Lester. had noticed,
had yielded as fully. if not more so, to
the spell of the performance than |
myself had. "The plot was far less inn
rcbable than the happenings set forth
in our daily papers, the situations were
brought about naturally, and the hand
N oh mat a
managed"
yes" said Lester, 81 know that's
true, but you haven't caught my idea.
NO wonder though. for | haven't adj
vanced it yet. was just thinking of
the language that playwrights and nov
clists put in the mouths of their char
actcrs. When do you ever hear real
people use such stilted high-hown talk?
or course | know it's necessary for
them to improve on our everyday slip
shod lingo, or the whole thing would
q fiasco. but, all the same it isn't
true to nature. | refer particularly to
strong emotional scenes. In such crises
in real life the participants will always
lose what little ideas of grammar, con-
struction, and choice of language they
generally have. and either stammer out
q lot OF idiotlc commonplace, 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"
IL don't altogether agree with you"
said. 81 thin kthat even in actual life
men and women when confronted with
some great and suuden danger, sorrow,
or other moving sentiment, rise above
their petty conventonallties of express
sion and use language sometimes as
passionate, lofty, and dramatic as that
belonging to literature or the stage, We
modern people haze become slaves to
the artificial and have frittered away
our souls on sordid things. We express
ourselves jerkily, slangily, and poor
ly. 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 cOncealment of our
thoughts But, at heart we are still
men and women, and genuine and
powerful emotion will, l think, In five
cases out of six, bring to the lips words
fully as theatre, melodramatic and
STACEY" as those we heard on the
boards tonight or read in books"
you're wrong, old man." said Lester
in his positive way. "We're hopelessly
ulpicturesque in our parlance. Get
ole of us into an end of fifth act de-
rouement and we either get tongue
lied or talk unintelligible rot. Give
us half an hour for preparation, and
we might think up something appro-
pirate 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: Well,
declare, this Is .diculous! Grief
knocks out grammar,and sudden shocks
are fatal to syntaX. People don't in
dulge in hcroics nowadays. They SIM
ply can't do 1t. The twentieth century
atmosphere is unfavorable to them.
Remember in the play tonight the pa
thetic and wonderfully fetching mono
loguc of the artists wife when he is
brought to her killed in the duel? What
would woman off the stage do? Cry,
of course, and about all she would say
would be something like, oh, isn't it
too awfully awful""
"Well," | said, as the chops came up
brown and fragrant, you can't expect
people to talk blank verse and indulge
in elevated apostrophe on ordinary oc-
ca .ons. but l dare say that the first
time you happen to witness ccene
with the proper amount Of tragedy in
| ii, you'll hear some talk very much the
same kind you find between novel COW
ers and across the footlights."
81 guess not" said Lester.
Lester was a brilliant young man,
and had future before him. also
pursued with some eagerness the phan-
tom of hope, and we conf1ded in each
other concerning the cut and fit of our
coming laurel wreaths.
Lester was engaged to !. girl with the
al. and direct frankness Of child, and
eyes forty-seven fathoms deep. had
looked into them and always felt like
drawing back step or two when did.
Her eyelashes looked to me like rushes
on river bank that was likely to cave
In. She was devoted to Lester, and
newell, whenever we met ! had girl
served up in every possible style and
eyes for dessert. envied him his
buoyant happiness, and encouraged
him in his belief that the earth was