The times., 1898-10-02
THE PASSING SHOW.

THE PASSING SHOW.
One of the most singular paradoxes in
human nature is the steadfastness with
which men and women cry for the return
of the very things they have left behind
of their own voition Happiness seems
only TO exist in anticipation and memory
and one never notices how delightful an
object is until he has put ii away from
him forever. ToothacheS do not seem
half bad in retrospective and men who
have had both legs shot off during some
war or other have been known to NOPE
pitifully because nature had not provided
them with three pedal extremities that
they might have felt the pleasing sensa-
tion created by the surgeons knife in
case of more trouble. Even that soulful
damsel made famous by Bret Harte be-
cause OF her ability TO write pathetic let
ters and wear ball dresses at the same
time. would probably have ceased mouth
ing her longing 20 give up decolettes,
diamonds and other table delicacieS that
she might return to washing soup tou-
reens and red flannel shirts at Poverty
Flats, had some one suddenly filed her
wish and transplanted her to the pro-
fanity-soaked atmosphere of the dig
| gings."
OF late years dramatic critics and the
atrical wiseacres generally have done
little but wall into the night about the
decadence of art-spelied with a dipthong
ed A and a trilled r. We have been in
formed some thousands of times that no
plays worth seeing were ever constructed
| without blank verse and that actors of
real merit invariably acquired the habit
| of wearing low-necked togas. No one
| had written since Shakespeare, no one
| had impersonated since Booth and no one
| appreciated but themselves. The filth
| and frivolity of the drama in vogue to-
| day was supposedly. nauseating but not
| less so than the tastes of public that
| would put UP with it. This was the plain
| tive cry of the clan and II never ceased
! for moment. And anyone who ven
| tured to suggest in the presence Of such
| a person the fact thaS some good produc-
| tlons may be seen fl this age was sure
| to be edited by the rolled eyes OF his
| comrade and an expression intended to
| convey the fullest contempt for such re-
mark.
AS matter of simple fact however,
| the stage has been approaching the high
est standards of art only within recent
years and the long strides it has taken in
the last quarter of "a century must ap-
peal TO every one who is not blinded by
his own prejudipes. Never in the history
of the world has the profession of the
actor reached SO high mark and never
have better performances been given.
For the first time in the memory of
man theatrical business IS now conducted
| ON business principles and the theatrical
profession has thus been elevated to the
rank of a tangible one-something Il
! could not have been while organizations
were going slipshod about the country
without pretense of order or direction.
| From a struggling trade that had neither
! cast nor standing, the labor OF the stage
has worked its way up until the Thespian
is given the rank he deserves both social
ly and intellectually. Within twenty five
years the theater has come to be dis
tinct part of the education of cultured
, persons and men or women Of learning
could no sooner confess ignorance as to
its methods and products than they could
acknowledge knowing nothing of litera-
ture or sculpture And all the time act
ing is becoming more of a definite art
an art that requires schooling and re
finement and intelligence that it never
did before
In a business sense the stage never be-
, fore stood where 1t does at present
: Thousands of playhouses fill the country
and hundreds of companies make theil
; regular tours annually. In it's di1eren
capacities the theater in this country
/ 0OO 600 of people while entire streets OF
theatrical offices in our prominent cities
give evidence to the fact that the specu
lation of affording amusement mas be
come magnitudinous one. Fortunes In
vested and fortunes reaped, organized di
i rectorships and outside corporations ina
y | denend largely on theatrical patronShip
e magnificent temples of art and glorious
productions are the Straws that show
t how the wind blows-toward prosperit!
t and power of which the greatest minds
of fifty years ago never dreamed for
4 single instant.
e The advance made in the artistic quail
t | ties of productions is less appreciated
D ! than would otherwise have been the case
! because the new excellence has come "a
. the result of demand and the gradua
S | approach to perfection has not been NOR
: | rapid than the increased education ant
refinement that has inspired it. Onl!
U / when very old plays are presented do w
notice their inferiorfty when eontrastet
9 with those given today, and wonder a
f it. Were it possible to do these pieces
= | as they were done twenty-five years agt
| the establishment would become condem
u nation and managers would be depriv
ing newspapers of their advertising be
cause of the criticisms that would of ne
: cessty be printed. No proprietor of {
frst-c1ass house could afford to book tht
time now so reverenced by clans of ths
i, | ultra-classic.
Art in the old days meant merely voca
and muscular violence. 1t is only recently
that nature began to be copied in tht
j., thsater and histrionic tricks came to bt
at discount. The perfect balance anC
uniformity of work now necessary to any
| performance were unknown, even in tn,
early sos. Where few hundred dollar.
sufficed then to stage presentation, few
of the attractions now on the road cos
less than five 7or six thousand, and tn,
f fortunes spent in latter-day offering:
show results that would not have seemed
possibilities at an earlier period StocI
companies could not afford to venture
much on productions that might b,
4 damned by a single city, and the success