The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-30
ADJUSTMENTS.

The tickle public. that is ever stampeded
as easily as a flock of sheep, has bolted
the bars and is now following in the wake
of Mrs. Fiske. Lucky Mrs. Fiske, and like
wise lucky public. Three years ago when
this same charming actress gave dramatic
art exhibit in this city everybody had prior
engagements. Then came Tess" How
could the public know Mrs. FIske had
genius until every one said so, as Madelines
sister puts it, in Love Finds the Way"
1t was the wise ones who raised the little
red-haired, handkerchief woman on a
pedestal in Tess and once there the public
fought and stormed to do her honor Mrs.
I'iske has now returned to indianapolis in
q repertory of dainty dramatic studies, no
better and no worse than she offered be-
fore. yet the Grand had nearly as many
in the house last night as the actress played
to during her entire engagement three sea-
sons back. The only person who can be
interested in this fact is Mrs. BTske her.
self. The public. so quickly won may be as
quickly lost Mrs Fiske is evidently going
groove. 1t is a deep one when contrasted
with the path Travelled by others and the
way Is rugged and thorny,, with somber
clouds, lowering sky and all that sort of
business which Maeterlinck draws with
such consummate realism in his peculiar
dramas. Mrs. Ffske is the lost chord, the
broken-reed actress. The women she pie
lures are always getting the worst of every
thing in the worst. but most natural way.
They are bits from life: realities. The
flower girl i'm "A Bit of Old Chelsea" the
sketchy little curtain raiser shown last
night. is simply a soubrette of the streets,
but Mrs. Fiske converted her into girl
with q Womans experience tore all ideal
warmth from the dramatic subject and
made her so natural that she excited no
more sympathy than the wandering va
grants who now swarm the streets in all
great cities and beg dimes from every pass
There a n . hGaTffpG
this naturalism and four acts of such a
flower girl would have no more interest
for an audience than four hours spent
watching the moving crowd past a show
Love Finds the Way was really Mrs.
Fiskes triumph of the evening. The char
scter of Madeline, the crippled daughter,
whose crutch and crusty temper is dis
turbing influence in the happy Winfield
terest. There seemed at first some hest
fancy about how to take Mrs. Fiske; some
as great as it is said TO be, but the riveted
attention was noticeable at all times and
at each fall of the curtain there was spon-
taneous applause that called her again and
again. AS the little sentimental comedy
progressed the repellant notes in the voice
OF the actress revealed the character of the
crippled girl in all its nakedness The Bit
ter thoughts We're so acutely expressed that
the unlovable daughter became almost the
one person Of all the people in the play that
the audience most desired TO behold Mrs.
Fiske, as Madeline. reflected an unrest, an
]
gnawing the heart out of more women than
society I'm general would like TO admit 1T is
this sort of dramatic conception of the true
character OF women that makes Mrs. Fiskes
art supreme. The poor cripple could see
that she in the way, but she was I'M
able to see that she was in her own way as
she went on piling up trouble for herself.
The imp of the. perverse had her in its
clutches. She determined to marry a poor
artist to save him from starvation. Then
she fell IN love with him. 1t was the love
OF an Hl-tempersd. selfish woman and it
made her miserable 10 find he did not care
for her. When his divorced wife comes on
her wedding day TO plead with the artists
benefactor, the girl is cast out In the snow
TO be tra1npled under the horses hoofs The
ing this heart-sick woman from her
door came as a slap in the face to
wickedness Of soul. This was Mrs. Fiske's
genius much as when she finds the knife
an "Tess' ard starts to murder Alec.
her people so brutality naked? Why not use
q warmer color when she paints her pic
ture? Mrs. Fiske is not that sort of act
ress. Mrs Ffske probably knows that the
joys In life, the successes, the sunny days,
and the happy faces are the tleeting MEM
personalities. the failure in life that appeal
with dramatic force. Mrs Fiske's plays
are staged in drab effects. Hers is a strug-
gle for depressant color. Nordau calls it
the decadent symbolism that goes with
genius, and until this civilization has aged
many centuries il will draw the public as a
tinged with sadness. She is always Just
around the corner from tragedy.
AS Love Finds the Way approaches the
final scene there is wonder and doubt as to
the termination. Suddenly the character
changes. Madeline, the cripple, determines
10 walk by force OF her WILL She filings
away her crutch and the change is wrought.
She rushes from the house and saves a girl
from death in. the street Then the
over 10 his former wife and the
fairy-like reform IN the character OF