The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-09

An eastern paper says that Julla
Marlowe recently acquired by purchase
a letter written by Edwin. Booth about
Is years ago to the editor of a New
York paper. who had requested from
| him an article on the drama. Having
no literary ability whatever wrote
j the tragedian, II must decline your
: fiattering invitation: nor do know how
to aid the worthy cause you advocate.
! Could I do so. be assured it should be
fully done. My knewledge Of. the mod
ern drama is so very meager that
! never permit my wife or daughter to
witness a play without previously as
certaining its character This is the
method I pursue. I can suggest no
other, unless it might be by means OF
dramatic censor whose taste or
judgment might, however, be frequent
ly at fault. If the management of the
aires could be denied to spectators
and placed in the hands of actors who
value their reputation and respect their
calling, the stage would, at least, AFFORD
healthy recreation, if not, indeed
wholesome stimulus to the exercise. OF
noble sentiments. But while the the
atre is permitted to be a mere shop for
gain-open to every huckster of i'm
moral gimcracks-there is no other way
to discriminate between. the pure and
base than through the experience Of
others
Many Salt Takers read with regret
the news of the burning of the Column
bia theatre in San Francisco. 1t was
the home house of the Frawleys, and
many important productions had been
brought out there. Frank Mayo made
his last San Francisco appearance in
that house. Still, its removal makes
the task of Gottlob, Friedlander & Co.
the easier. The general impression
was that three theatres to handle
would give them rather more than
they could attend to.
ON Wednesday evening a clever pro-
gramme is to be rendered in the
Twenty-first ward hall. The play of
"Shaun Aroon'' will be presented, and
an Ohio given, in which the Deseret
Mandolin. club, Miss Bessie Edmunds,
Mr.. James Moss. Mr.. Harry Hubert,
the Misses Bitner and Mr.. Alvin Owen
will appear. Gordon Woolley makes
his first bow as member of the COM
pany in the play.
The war between the theatrical syn
dicate'' and such stars as Francis Will
son, Minnie Madden Fiske and others,
goes merrily on. Mrs. Fishes press
agent sends The Herald the following:
Mrs F'iske is returning eastward,
after a most prosperous tour of the
midwest and this. week she is playing
an engagement at the 0Tduu opera
House, Washington, where the best
theatre-goers OF the capital city are
enjoying her Tess of the D Urber-
villes'' Mrs. Fiske has become con-
spicuous as determined and uncom-
promising opponent of the so-called
theatrical trust, and wherever she
plays, the temper -of the people is
shown in her favor in her fight for
artistic independence She is too great
an artist to surrender her future on
the stage to mere commercialism, and
it is evident that the more intelligent
patrons of the theatre, the country over
sympathize with Mrs. Fiske, Richard
Mansfield, Francis Wilson and the 9th
ers of the little band Of artists, who,
for veal or woe. have linked fortunes
in battle against the evil influence
that now holds the stage interests of
America in a speculative grasp. Mrs.
F'iske is opposed in Washington, as she
has been in other large cities, by some
of the best attractions controlled by
the trust, the aim evidently being to
embarrass her business. But in Brook
Ign, Boston, Cincinnati, st. Louis and
Pittsburg, in spite of cleverly circulated