The times., 1899-07-30
DRAMATIC SYMPATHY.
Guidance Supplied by the Stage as
to Its Offering
From the London GIobe)


and nurse the baby is the unerring guild
ance it gives to our sympatnies In real
life we find these are perpetually mis-
placed and then we get disgusted, and are
tempted to bottle them up altogether, when
they have a knack of turning sour. For
moral health requires that a man should
eXude sympathy, and not keep the pores
of affection closed; and the drama offers
him a charming and perfectly safe outlet.
1t shows you exactly with whom TO sympa-
thize, and if you follow its very plain lead
you are never deceived. 1t never invites
| your affections to brood on added eggs;
| they will hatch before the curtains down.
The least experienced playgoer knows
\ that he may give his sympathies unre-
servedly to certain characters at first sight;
| for instance. to all the young of four spe-
cies, the boy, the girl, the young wife, the
/ young soldier sailor, tinker, tailor, yes,
even to the young lawyer. You may invest
your feelings in any one under twenty-five
and be sure of ample profits. No one, with
one exception, is bad on the stage before
Twenty-Five; or, if bad. not so very bad,
but slightly bad, with so many lovable
excuses that they rouse your sympathies
more warmly than If they had let it ilone.
The exception, however, should be. care
fully noted. Though the young wife IS per-
| fectly safe to turn out all right you must
| beware of the young widow, and watch her
carefully before you sympathiZe with her.
| 1t is strange how much the loss of hus-
| band may pervert the instincts; but, sad
| it is to say. young widows on the stage
often turn out wildcat stock willy, wicked
| ly fascinating creatures, who are found to
have poisoned their first, or to be not
really widows but trigamists; who break
up homes and cause the letting down OF
back hair. So, directly you hear that a
young woman in a play is widow keep
your sympathetic money tight in your
pocket, and only pull it out when omple
security has been offered.
You are quite safe in feeling warmly
from the first toward the bluff not TO say
| vulgar, matron of any age. AS long as
matron is a shade coarse she is all right
at heart, SO yours may go out to her free
ly. If she is refined, there may be doubt,
but vulgarity is convincing of inner right
eousness and rectitude on the stage. AL
so, you may safely sympathize, before he
| opens his mouth, with the really stout
man, who puffs as he waddles: whether
he be vulgar or refined. Downright fat
men never do anything wrong. There may
be few exceptions, but, as rule, benevo
lence increases on the stage with the
square of the distance between the brace
buttons; gauge that distance with your
eye, and you will know how much sympa-
thetic stock to take in the character.
A man, too, of any size, as long as he
has a gray wig and walks with tottering
steps, is quite safe for you TO love. He
would not harm a fly. But the weakness
at the knees is a sine qua non. Real viii
lains on the stage, no matter how old, al
ways strike erect. Then you are often in
troduced to porcupine man. with his bris-
ties up, all sternness and harshness, with
everyone speaking i'll of him. But pray,
be not deceived. Sympathize with him at
once. 1t will turn out that he has been
misunderstood all round. He is the man
who supported all these years the widow
and eight children, anonymously, by
post. Upon his breast, and no other did
the heroine's father breathe his last sigh
in foreign land, and he betrayed the fu-
neral expenses, too, including tombstone.
And he is going to do the noblest action in
the whole piece. He is the very man to
come down with the ten thou. to make the
young couple happy. He is the man who
takes from the villain the compromising
letter, and now hands it back to the re-
pentant and weeping wife, and asks moth
Ing in return, not even a cup of tea and
a wafer. He is the one who has secretly
bought the mortgage from the creditor.
and now burns II in the gas crate, to the
liberation of the decayed family. He is
the noble soul whosstands on the burning
deck, so to speak, when all other friends
have fed.
If you are told that anyone you are in
troduced to is "cottager'' embrace him
morally, at once. Cottagers are the most
exemplary of mortals. They are walking
treatises on ethics. They always shelter
the poor damsel who has wandered bare
foot on the mountain side, fleeing from
the wicked aristocrat, or give board and
a doss in the hayloft to the innocent hero
when pursued by misguided police They
are amateur poor law unions, too and
, bring up no end of deserted orphans. A
mere "laborer'' may be anything; but il
he is called a "cottager" too depend upor
it he is right investment for your affec.
= tions. Then if you see, at the beginning
= of piece, smiling father in a happy
e home, with family of cheerful sons ani
5 daughters, don't envy him; pity him, ant
0 | sympathize with him straight off; ere Ions
! he and his family will be struggling il
the depths Of undeserved calamity of tn,
most poignant kind, enough. you are told
TO make the angels weep; and, of course
you will do ditto. II man introduce!
, himself to you on the stage by cracking
jokes. or by being extra cynical, you ma,
safely extend TO him a lukewarm sympa
thy, but not too much. He won't come Il
, anything. He will be too busy thinkin,
of his jokes or sarcasm TO do any harm I,
4 anyone, or much good either.
If a mysterious man comes on, who won
Q say who he is or where he comes from
y turks about in spots. peeps behind doors
5 and behaves in way that would entai
v his rapid exit from decent society, dom
: trust TO appearances, but take him to you
d hearts core. He is working all the tim
10 set right some gigantic wrong. and vii
u do 1t, and give him name and address, il
his own good time. His conduct is the op
r posite of that of the bad man with the fel
e design, for the latter on the stage alway
4 has the most plausible reasons for hi
6 presence which disarm all suspicious.
p the mysterious person is a woman, yo
a may invest in her with equal safety; sh
s will be found, certainly, TO have been way
d ward in youth, but she is only lurkin
r about now to atone for all, and will do sc
when II suits her.
: There are other good guides to your SYN
e pathles. II a man calls for wine 10 drin
: on the stage, he may be gay and thought
e less, but he is pretty safe to be sound Z
a heart. But If he calls for spirits it is quit
y another pair of shoes. Yearn not towar
him. Such man is irredeemably bad. an
II you must turn from him in aversion ii
!, instant he orders the rum or brandy. FC
he always orders one or the other. Neitht
k, Scotch, Irish. or gin is ever distilled on ii
stage. Also. II you see person in any grei
physical distress; cold hungry. with an II
3 lti pam Va
Iy in a snowstorm or drenched with rain, yc
Iv may feel for them freely. Really bad pei
pie always escape these predicaments the
N being reserved as a Christening to the we
he meaning. II is true the last physical di
s. tress of all, the one with the moose, conn
to the latter, but only after the curtain h,
n gone down. Another sure sign of rectituC
v is to mop the brow. 1t is curious thir
that whenever you see perspiration on Il
J. stage you may let your sympathies go o
|