The San Francisco call., 1899-07-09
EDITORIAL VARIATIONS.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. N#a#A*Ax@x%x~*@xAxA*
BY JOHN McNHUGHT.

!
or somebody else; one whose native hue
of resolution was always sicklied Ger
| by a pale cast of thought, and whose
! enterprises of great pith and moment
| turned awry and lost the name OF ac-
| ton.
| Sarah says Hamlet was not that KIND
| of man at all. She insists he was
| crafty, resolute, determined schemer
| like Richard III; hesitating at MOTH
| ing. but sacrificing everything to the
| one object he had in view-that OF re-
venge for his fathers death.
| So peculiar does the Bernhardt pre-,
sentation of the melancholy Dane ap-
| pear to the London critics that one
among them declares it to be an or1g1-
nal creation, born not of Shakespeare
brain, but of Bernhardt's nerve; and
he suggests that the new thing on the
stage be advertised as The Princess
| of Denmark"
For all that Sarah Bernhardt is
| great genius and a new Hamlet, she is
none the less a woman and has Wo-
| mans ways. She insists on the last
word, and he who would deprive her
of it must talk long and talk fast. She
herself to be commentator as we'll as
an uncommon actor. At any rate, she
is not a crushed tragedian" by any
means, Her letter on the subject Of
Hamlets character Is too long to be
quoted in full, but it is only fair to give
at least something Of what the creator
of a resolute Hamlet has TO say for
herself and her latest new thing in the
drama.
After reviewing the incidents of the
play and explaining how they reveal
the true nature of Hamlet, she says:
LAS soon as he gathers what is in his
fathers mind and learns of his mur-
der, he forms the resolution to avenge
him; but as he is the opposite of
Othello-who acts first and thinks
Observation-Disclosures thinks before he
acts, which is proof of great strength
and great power of mind.
Hamlet loves Ophelia, He renounces
his love! He renounces study, He re-
nounCes everything in order to gain his
object. And he attains 1t. He kills tho
King while in the blackest and most
mortal sin; but he kills him only when
he is absolutely sure.
when he is sent to England he takes
into an enemys vessel, and announces
his fame that he may be made pris-
oner. certain that he will be brough,
back. He calmly sends Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern to death. All this be-
speaks young, strong and determined
character.
when he dreams, 1t is of his plan-of
his vengeance. If God had not forbid
den suicide he would have killed him.
self in disgust of the world. But since
he cannot kill himself, he will kill"
If that be not Shakespeare's Hamlet,
so much the worse for Shakespeare
Bernhardt will steal the character from
him and make it anew even as he stole
it from some forgotten playwright and
made it to suit his own notion. It Is
clear the divine Sarah is every inch a
woman. She will have nothing to do
with hesitating men; or if she becomes
interested in one who has been doubtful
and irresolute, she will instill resolu-
tion into him. Whatever be the char
acter she plays, or the man she plays
with, there is sure to be some snap to
him before she gets through with him.
For the rest-there is no reason why
we should complain of her attempt to
overthrow the conventional Hamlet.
Sarah will soon pass and there will
never be another, but the old Hamle,
will live like the chestnut tree for
thousand years.
To the Association Of American Ag-
ricultural Colleges and Experiment
Stations in convention assembled in
this city, there came on the day of the
oDeninp session this telepr9 M.
TRAER, Iowa. July 5. 1899.
DR. A. c. True, San Francisco, Cal: To
the Association of Colleges and Stations
greetings From sea TO sea we hail the
our shoulders under their yokeS, that
knowledge may increase and plenty rule
JAMES WILSON,
Secretary of Agriculture.
The beauties of the sentiment ex-
pressed in that telegram are many, and
it may be added they are mysterious.
The I'VE" who from sea to sea
hail the workers of every land as
brothers are doubtless the agricultur-
lists, but just why farmer should
talk of increasing knowledge and es-
tablishing the rule of plenty by put
ting his shoulder to the yoke of his
brother is not clear. for the average
farmer knows that to get a move on
stalled wagon the proper way is to put
a shoulder to the wheel of the vehicle,
and not to the yoke of the beast that
draws it.
1t is possible that Secretary Wilson
in becoming a Cabinet officer laid aside
his bucolic OK sense when he picked up
the language of official station, but the
chances are the explanation of the
mysteriousness of the telegram is to be
found in the date. When a thing is
written on the day after the Glorious
Fourth, it is not to be critized too close
ly. On that day anything goes so long
as 1t means well.
From the revelers who in these happy
summer days, straying from the busy
haunts of care and strife where men
earn money, have gone to the romantic
regions where one can do nothing but
spend it and time, there come strange
stories. One of these wanderers claims
to have discovered a sort of earthly
Nirvana, a town where the weary cease