The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-13

f1outs the popular British sentiment
which supports the institution:
Nobody will deny that the normal
assumption in England is that without
a censor the stage would instantly
plunge to the lowest practicable ex-
IRENE of degradation-an assumption
quite undisturbed by the fact that
Literature, without Censor, behaves
far more decently than Drama with
one. For myself, as dramatic author,
1 can say that few things would sur
prise me more than to meet represen-
tative Englishman who regarded my
desire to abolish the censor otherwise
than he would regard the desire of
pickpocket to abolish the police. To
such an Englishman, it seems the most
obvious piece of common sense that
some respectable person should be made
responsible for the propriety of the
plays to which his daughters go; so
that he may be guaranteed against the
natural propensity of the theater to-
ward RIGHTEOUSNESS. Accepting the
court standard of decorousness as abso-
lutte, he considers that if a lord who
is a member of her majesty's house
hold cannot be trusted to decide ques
lions of propriety, nobody can. No
competitive examination, no professor
ship of Dramatic Literature, no control
by an elected representative body, could
give him any greater sense of security
than the position of the Lord Chamber
lain. And, I may add, they could give
the dramatists no greater sense of Sc
curity ether
II have decided" said Robert Down
ing, ito turn comedian; not farce CO.
median, mind you, nor yet minstrel, al
though some of my friends tell me that
my darby impersonations would make
hit But have up my sleeve a plain,
pastoral play of life in Indiana, which,
while it is mostly comedy, rises to some
very intense, if quiet, climaxes and to
that I will pin my principal hopes for
next season. 1t is called Just a Com
mon Man. and is by young actor
author who has scored considerable
success in the East. I have the part
of the plain but eminently manly
Hoosier, and while I do not hope to
drive Denman Thompson and Sol Smith
Russell out of their respective fields,
think I shall make a hit in it,
An English actor thought himself
damaged by a criticism of his perform
ance and brought suit at law. The
Judge decided that the jury had better
see the actor. But the play in which
he had been condemned was not to be
put in evidence. Indeed, the critics
lawyer claimed that it made no diff
ference, as the actor was equally bad in
all parts. The Judge thought this in
Dictated a prejudice on the critics part
and fined him two farthings. The actor
had to pay the costs of the action,
which amounted to much more. A Ger
man critic recently had to pay fine
of 81 because he said that an actress
had not played a part we'll through her
lack of personal refinement. The words
in which that opinion was expressed
were decided to be an insult.
Agnes Sorma will act in Paris during
the exposition. No German actress has
attempted that since 1872, but one who
has recently been in the public eye was
about to go to Paris when the war
broke out. This was Paula Ulrich, who
celebrated the other day the fortieth
year of her membership in the Dresden
Court Theater. In 1869 she was to
have gone to Paris to become a mem
Der of the Theater Francois, but the
war broke out, and after that such an
unusual course was impossible. The
possibility of Sorma's success in Paris
NO visit