Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-01-28
TWO PARTS
INSTANCES ga WHICH AN ACTOR 4Aa
 BEEN TWO MEN AT ONCE.

Which It Is Necessary For the Star sS.
 Make These Quick Changes.
 To be able to play two parts in the same piece--to portray, perhaps two characters of totally different caliber-. ls not an undertaking which many ac- tors care to attempt. It is only the ex- perienced artist who may attempt tho feat with impunity. and even then. though he may appear to the audience to achieve his end without an effo9t. there are many more difficulties in his path than meet the eye of the habitual theater soer.
 Not only must the actor be possessed of no small amount of histrionio talent. but he must often call in the aid of an undelstudy, whose duty it is to gull ths onlookor into the belief that their favor. ite is performing the impossible feat of being in two places at one and the sana time. For in nearly every play of such a character it Is we'll nigh impossible for the author 30 to arrange his piece thus the actor may never be called upon e Do on the stage with his double.
 Any one who has been to see ''Ths Prisoner of zendR" performed at the Sk James thoateE, must have marveled at the lightning celerity with which Mir. George Alexander, q moment before the drunken king of Ruritania, suddenly. as by sume act of witehcraft, reappeared as Rudolf Rassendyll, clad in the ordi- nary costume of the English tourist Then, to every one's surprise, the supine body of the king was carried in so that to all appearances Mir, Alexander was gazing upon his own person. In reality, of course, it was merely lightning change, and the understudy had to be Eequisitioned to supply the person of the king.
 A more famous case of double imper- sonation, however, is that of "The Cor sican Brothers, the first play perhaps in which Sir Henry Irving gave us a taste of his wonderful talent.
 In the first aot-to give slight re- Eume of the play-the ghost of Louis, killed in duel by a eerhein Chafeau Renaud i'll the fo1us6 af toiitalu Ii bIeau. appears to Fabien, his brother. The seo~ ond act takes us to Paris, and through varied incident to the death of Louis. Here Irving was Louis.
 h tho third act, however, 1t is Fabieu Gho is once moro before us, who has constituted himself the avenger of his brothers death He meets Chateag Renaud and demands satisfaction Re. maud is worsted and falls to the ground. Then suddenly the ghost of Louis ap- pears, and, to personate the spirit o9 tue dead man, Irving had had to dy to khe wings. make his way below the stage and take his stand upon the trap, which conveyed him upward to the gaze of tho thrilled spectators
 How was 1t done? The audience was amazed. Yet tho explanation is com. paratiyely simple: Irving stepped be- hind "property'' tres. His "double'' instantly filled his place, taking good care not to face the audience when it was necessary for him to confront the ghost. Hence the lightning change from mortal to spirit and the resultant be- wilderment of the beholders.
 Neither Is tho "Gorsican Brothers'' Ehe only play in which Irving has con- trived to take double part and yes nonplus the audience by the adroitnesH of his metamorphosis.
 Those who arc familiar with the Lyons Mail" will doubtless remem- Ner the most telling scene in the play. Here Dubosc, the murderer, is tn an attic, gazing down upon the prepara- tions being made for the execution oE the innocent Lesurgues-whose likeness to the real murderer has brought him to such terrible paas-an expression of horrible glee upon his face, olappIng his hands as he sees the apparently doomed man step forward to his death.
 But his oxultation is premature. Le- surques is reprieved, and the crowd suddenly catches sight of the villainuus face of the real murderer at the attic window. The door of the room is bat sered in. Behind it stands Dubosc. Tine wretch is dragged from his refuge, and as they do so Irving -Lesurques coolly walks in upon the soeno of turmoil
 The door of the attic is made to open inward, thus shutting Irving Dubosc from view of the auditorium. In mo- ment he clips through trap. His "double'' takes his place, to be hustled unoeromoniously by tho crowd of "su- pers, " whose duty it is also to conceal the mans face iu case the fraud should De discovered. Irving -LesurQues can hen come on in his new yole.
 But an actor has been known to play two parts without the assistance of @ dummy.
 In a certain play it was the duty of the hero to leap out of the window of his room and to enter from door on the opposite side of tho stage clad ill differ ent clothes, though otherwise the same.
 This, however, VAS juggling pure and simple. Tho actor dropped into his second dress in much tho same way as an American fireman is reputed to jump into his uniform. The costume consisted of hut ono piece with patent fastening down the back, and as he leaped through the window frame he leaped into his clothes, which, so 10 snooIr cbut behind him and left him re