The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-27

SPSStidi. DouplltSS IIldHy Wtie thoi
who remembered her first visit to the
city, and who went with an admirable
veneration for their first Impressions
But what sombre gap between the
Juliet of the old Park theatre, so like
one OF Thorvaldsen's nymphs, and the
dignified British matron who expounded
the Shakesperian text to us.
But to return to my floral metaphor,
that reading was somehow to us like
the mellow Indian summer of long
season that had lasted half a century.
There were lingering in the great gar
den many rugged stalks that had borne
their burdens of beauty. Forrest, Ris-
tori, Charlotte Cushman, La Grange,
Janauschek, Murdoch, Walack, were
among them, no longer, perhaps, eff1or-
escent, but hardly yet ghosts. Three of
them, like Mrs. Butler, came and sat
down by the gentle Preside of their re-
collections, and gave readings for us
in that same hall. With them died out
some of the larger vibrations Of the
drama-all that Rubenseque stroke
and emphasis that had been so priced
in their time; that exaggeration Of the
emotion and almost ballistic indiVid-
uality-these things were singing their
swan song then.
One would say that the appearance Of
two such representative women as We're
Mrs. Butler and Charlotte Cushman on
the same platform would have been an
intensely interesting and contrasting
exhibit of the two schools of drama that
have always diverged and that now
We're about to give way simultaneously.
l do not at this moment think of any
other conjunction that brought into
such close comparison both the differ
ences of temperament and the modify
ing influence of two environments. To
compare, the readings would it seems
to me- be not unlike comparing mas
terly statue carved in granite with an
equally noble statue cut in marble You
felt that Miss Cushman needed larger
perspective. She lacked the fading
transitions and the soft luminousness
or marble. When she read Henry
VIII" you felt that something in her
asserted itself along the lines Of Car
dinal Wolsey.
Miss Cushman was suffering at the
time with an incurable disease, but it
did not cloud her judgment or break
down her indomitable will. She had
great admiration for the elder Salvin,
just then preparing to visit America,
and as yet scarcely known here, and
she had the courage to say that in his
Othello he would remind the older gen.
Grafton of AMERICANS of Edwin Forrest,
but unlike Forrest, he had outgrown
much of his elemental stress under Ital-
ian skies. One day when talking with
her, / quoted Mrs. Buffers remark
about the ghost stories She nodded
her head affirmatively, as if acknowl-
edging common truth of the profess
sion, but she made no comment. At
another time, however, she said sud-
denly, with all the force of matured
conviction and all the strength of a
trained utterance "Unless the stage
has some noble purpose, involving self
sacrifice and suffering and looking to
the betterment of mankind, it's labors
are snare and delusion, and must
end in ennui and despair. The new doc
trine that the drama must tickle the
mob and not teach the heart cut away
the only prop that kept 1t above the
mob. No woman can grow old in its
service and see that without being
sad"
What ghost Fechter is. He merely
glimmers at intervals out of forgotten
history. He has become myth in flf-
teen years. Charles Dickens saw him.
Kate Field vouched for him. The elder
Dumas actually believed in him. He
was one of the gigantic phantoms that |
CLEANED like meteor and then faded. !
II / were to repeat in words what he
said to our sensibilities with his ro- |
manticism, you would ask me disdain-
fully to show you the footprints. Alas, |
there are none. / rode up from the |
wharf with him when he arrived in this
country, and that arrival Judged now
by the far-away vibrations must have
been an important event. l well remem-
Der the triumphant buoyancy of the
conqueror, the polite and thoroughly
French ease of his superiority. He had
danced on classic thrones. Armand Du-
val had been his advance courier, and
the ambassador himself was Prince
of Denmark. He came like the Lafay-
cite of the Franchise to embrace Amer
lea. He had played with Rachel in lies
Doche had kissed him pub
licly. Dumas had broken out in short
gasps of ecstasy: 1.-THE most youthful,
the most ardent, the most enthusiastic,
the most insinuatlng of artists. What
variety Of talent! Mon Dieu, what skill
in conception, what marvellous electric
slocution!''
A very prince in manners, Fechter
was also hero Of romance. His expert
ence in America left only the trail Of
meteor. Twice it was my good fortune
% come face to face with him, once as
have said when he landed conquer
'r. Then the years slipped away, and
me day took the cars in Philadelphia
o so to the little village of Rockland
Centre in Bucks County to call on Ar /;
nand Duval, the farmer. II
My recollection Is that we got out at
station called Quaker Town, and even
hen the anomaly Of the French Ham
cts coming to Quaker Town to farm
dashed over me. We had to so a mile
II two to his place and we passed him {
N the road without knowing him. He
vas driving truck wagon in cloud
f dust, presenting an indistinct COM /;
ination of the market gardener, and 4
he Alpine guide, dressed in loose, bag
y trousers of coarse stuff, velveteen t
moking Jacket, enormous boots reach
ng to his knees, and a spreading felt /
ombrero shading his face. Two large
ogs were running after him in the t
Dad. i
u h1a 1y H., Cfa p,,I = te, |