The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-28
OLD AND new FRIENDS
Gave a Royal Reception to Nine.
Modjeska
IN MARIE ANTOINETTE
1t Was q Powerful Tragedy and Was
Rendered With Extraordinary
Artistic Skll-A Strong
Company.

Company.
After an absence of many years.
Madame Modjeska appeared before
another Butte audience at the Grand
last night, presenting her new histori-
cal tragedy. Marie Antoinctte," writ
ten for her by Clinton Stuart. Madame
Modjeska was given a royal reception
| by house full of old and new friends
and admirers go.
! marie Antoinette" is gloomy play,
necessarily so because it is purely his
| torical of the period which gave birth
to the awful and bloody events of the
| French revolution. The play opens
with prologue, by which Antoinette.
| in her joyous and careless life at Lit
tie Trianon, is contrasted with the un-
| happy queen during the days preceding
her ignominious death. The harrow
| ing character of the play and the fidel-
| ity of it's performance had it's notice.
able effect upon the sympathetic audi
| dence. Several women We're so over
come with emotion that they had to
| be assisted from the house.
The role of Marie Antinette is a Sc
| we're and trying one and one that would
tax the physical powers of the strong
1 est actors, and the strain upon Mod
| jeska's strength was noticeable, yet the
part was played with great power and
artistic skill, and in several scenes the
fire of her great genius blazed forth
| as brilliantly as ever. She was espe-
cially powerful in the climax Of the
fourth act when the revolutionary Off
GERS tore her child from her breast and
carried it away.
Madame Modjeska's supporting COM
pany is strong one. John E. Kellerd
,11Ny Iynh ~ ~fT 0,1fr fhn
good. but weak king Cassius Quinby,
a revolutionist, played good part
and so did Mrs. Hannah E. Sargent,
who played the part of a female revo-
lutionary leader The other members
of the company were well cast. The
splendidly staged.
Tonight Mary Stuart another his
torical play, will be given, and for the
matinee this afternoon AS You
Like It."
| The career Of Josephine Jeanne Marie
| Antonette de Lorraine, wife of Louis
| XVI. of France, upon which Madame
Modjeska's play is founded, was one
of the saddest and most unhappy of
royalty recorded on the pages Of his
| tory. Marie Antoinette was the young
| est daughter of the famous Maria The
resa, the war empress of Austria, and
was born at Vienna Nov. 2, 1155. At
| the age of Is she was married to the
dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI. and
instantly scandalized Versailles by her
Austrian frankness and simplicity, her
unceremonious pleasantly and detesta-
| ton of rigid etiquette. The ladies Of
| the court were jealous of her and hated
her cordially. and soon after the acces-
sion of Louis XVI. libels We're indus
triously circulated about her by her
| enemies and accusations of constant
|
| proof of none We're ever offered. Her
| fatal faults were her girlish disposition.
| love Of pleasure and fine dress and an
| absolute Indifference to public opinion.
The affair of the diamond necklace, in
| 1885, hopelessly compromised her in the
eyes of the French people, although his
| tory credits her with innocence of any
grave offense in that regard. She was
| equally unfortunate in her political
role and shared the opprobrium called
| down upon her ministers and she was
| an object of fanatical hatred to the
Paris mob from the first hour of the
! revolution. When too late she recog-
| nized the condition of the public mind
! toward her and. more through fear
| than policy, pretended to take an in
terest in the common people. but the
| latter, seeing through her shamminE.
hated her more for it. The attempted
! flight of the queen and her husband
! followed several outbreaks of mob vio-
| lence against her. but the royal fugi-
| tives We're recognized and captured.
| The life of the unhappy queen from
| that time the sckening humliations
to which she was subjected while i'm
| prisoned and separated from her fam
lily. her heroic conduct through it all
| and her death by the guillotine. on Oct
15 1898, are facts deep in the memories
of all readers of French history.
The affair of the diamond necklace,
h which figures so conspicuously in the
history of the unhappy life of Marie
| Antoinette. was one of the thrilling
and dramatic incidents of her court
life. The necklace, a reputed wonder
full piece of jewelry, was made in Par
is about the year 1775 and was intend
| ed for the noted Madame DuBarry, IA
vorite of King Louis XIV. Upon the
deathL of that king, however, and De-
| fore the necklace was finished she was
excluded from court. The ornament,
when completed, contained 500 dia-
| monds and was valued at 100000. 1t
| was so costly that no one could pur-
chase it, and conspiracy was formed
to secure possession of it by pair of
| clever swindlers.
A woman named de Lamotte, who
! waited upon the queen, conceived the
plan for the fraud, and her first act
was to persuade Prince Cardinal de
! Rohan, wealthy and vain protligate
that the queen regarded him with an
| eye of favor. This SO tickled his tx
travagant vanity that he was ready
| and willing to go to any length to pre-
| serve this feeling in the queen. De
| Lamotte stated to the cardinal that
| the queen wished to purchase the neck
| lace and would sign an agreement to
| do so if he would become security for
| it, to which he eagerly consented. The
| agreement was drawn and signed with
| the royal signature and by the cardi
| ,,,I ~, 1aft at>t i,,Al
| it from the jeweler and took it to Yer
sailes, where it had been agreed the
queen should send for it. On the fol-
| lowing day a person dressed in the uni
| form of a court valet called on the car
| dinal and, upon giving the sign OF
| recognition. I'm the name of the