The record-union., 1898-09-11

she was fortunately situated so that
| she could obtain the very best produc-
ton possible as a setting to her stellar
I venture. The very best of everything
| was procured, the cost, it is said,
amounting to over $4,000.
| All eyes interested in the best in the
| drama We're turned upon Detroit upon
her opening night, and it is certain that
| there was no one sorry when the news
of her undoubted success was told the
| next morning. All the future then
| seemed rosy. A success in a stellar
| career was made, and there seemed no
| clouds on the horizon.
| Three nights after this the brother of
| this very fortunate star was seated at
| the table of a hotel talking over the
| plans for the future with one of his
| business confreres. Suddenly a clerk
| OF the hotel came to his table and
| pointed across the square. One glance
| was sufficient. The sky of an insta IT
| had become flushed. pillar of fire
! seemed to be rising almost to the
| clouds. In the space of three minutes
all this had occurred. The opera house
containing the magnificent production
| was burning! To rush across the
square to save what he could was the
| brothers first thought. AS he ap-
preached the entire back of the build
| ing was seen to fall out as though a
million hands had pushed it, OCCASION
ed by the bursting of the calcium tanks.
Five minutes after this found the de-
| voted brother at the hotel, where his
sister was sleeping peacefully in total
| ignorance of the disaster.
1 inc ba iul,f foy
| the duplication of the production entire
had been sent to New York to the or
| iginal makers of the settings and I'm
| ion square in New York presented a
very excited and animated picture
Daz1an, the costumer, five hours after
! the fire had started had already bought
| 81 900 worth of material and Emons,
| the scenic painter, had placed his brush
| upon the first scene.
| Miss Arthur that same afternoon was
| taken by circuitous route to the de-
| pot so that she might not see the ruins.
| and the next day she and her entire
| company were in New York.
| In Mr.. Lewis New York office there
| hangs a small charred sheet of paper
Z Is is crumbly and burned at the edges
and it bears this legend:
This is all that remains of two car
loads of scenery that were taken to
Detroit September 1, 1897, by the Julia
Arthur Co."
Brander Matthews in "The Forum: +:
The painters have long protested
against any judgment of their work in
accordance with the principles of an
other art, and at last they have sue
ceeded in convincing the more open
| minded Of US that what is of prime i'm
portance in picture is the way in
which it is painted, and that its merely
literary merit is quite secondary. They
are not unreasona BILE when they insist
that the chief duty of picture is to
represent the visible world, not to point
a moral or adorn tale, and that in
the appreciation of a picture we must
weigh first of all it's pictorial beauty.
Nor are we sculptors asking too much
when in statue they want us to con-
slider chiefly its plastic beauty.
Now, the orator and the dramatist
ask for themselves what has been
granted the, painter and the sculptor.
They request that an grafton or a
drama shall be judged not as literature
only, but also in accordance with the
principles of its own art. And here
the literary critic is even less willing
to yield. He may acknowledge his
own ignorance of perspective and of
pigments, of composition and of model
ing; he may, confess that here the
painter and the sculptor have him at
disadvantage, but he is not ready to
admit that he is not to apply his own
standards to the works of the orator
and of the dramatist On the con-
trary, he maintains that the speech and
the play, if they belong to literature
at all, are, by that very fact absolutely
within the province of the literary
critic. He, cannot see why that which
the orator and the dramatist may write
is not to be read and criticised exactly
as that which is written by the novel
ist and the essayist and the poet. In
deed, it is almost a misrepresentation
of the literary critics attitude to sug-
gest that he has need to maintain this
position, for it is rarely even limited
to him that he is not fully justified in
employing the same tests in every de-
partment Of literature.
Yet nothing ought to be clearer than
the distinction between the written
word and the spoken-between the liter
ature which is addressed to the eye
alone and that which is intended pri-
narily for the ear and only secondarily
for the eye. 1t is the difference be-
tween words written once for all and
words first spoken and then written
or at least written SO that they may be
spoken. When this distinction is seized
it follows that oral discourse is not
necessarily to be measured on the same
scale as written discourse. 1t follows
also that the speech and the play may
be very good indeed, each in its kind,
although they may fail to attain the
standard of strictly literary merit
which we should demand in an essay,
story or poem.
Indianapolis Journal: ''The outgoing
tour Barnes former explained, with
his usual cheerfulness under the usual
circumstances, was headed by me. and
the return trip was footed by every
body"
The patentees of the Dublin City the |
aters under an old law of George Ills |
have issued a notice prohibiting anna
teur theatricals, as the Act referred to |
gives them a monopoly of theatrical /
performances. All Dublin society is in |
arms against the lessees, and they |
threaten not to attend the theaters
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