The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-08-31

WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.
Nine. Francesca Romano Magdalena jan
auschek lies stricken at Saratoga, with the
shadows Of tie pale repose upon her fur
rowed face. She is the last of the heroic
actors who preserved for US, a little more
than a quarter Of a century ago, the best
traditions of classic drama and almost alone
kept tragedy alive with feminine hands up
on a stage already invaded by the furniture
and frivolity of the Second Empire.
Nine. Janauschek came to America in 1867.
eoincidently with the second visit of Ris-
tori. the two making a histrionic mark in
the records of our theater. But, unlike Ris-
tori. Janauschek came without the fanfare
Of an international manager. She was
scarcely known here, save to travelling
Americans and those Germans who remem-
bered her at Prague and Cologne and
Frankfort, and had witnessed her splendid
tiumphs at Munich.
The first visit was not made under what
a manager would call suspicious circum-
stances. The town was ringing with the
name and fame of Ristori. A whole corps
or trained and Travelled connoisseurs, with
the pen of the brilliant Kate Field in ad-
vance, lent their talents to Mr.. Grau's ven
ture. But Mime. Janauschek does not ap-
pear TO have been deferred in her endeay-
OTIS. The play "Medea" was at that time
the property OF Nine. Ristori by right of
eminent domain, and a German 'Medea"
was very apt to be a bore, If not an i'm
~ Al uuulSilCt.
Enthusiastic Writers Began
to Discuss German School.
But Mime. Janauschek followed close upon
the heels of Ristori's repertoire, and if was
not long before ii began to be nolsed outside
OF the German circle that there was a
woman playing at the Academy who could
hold her own with the Italian actress. in
Alferi and Jiaccometti. and perhaps give
her some points in Schiller. Richard Grant
White, Montgomery Schuyler and a few
other able and enthusiastic writers began
to discuss the German school and TO make
{ comparisons, and so It was that Janau-
schek's sterling histrionism came slowly to
be recognized by the American public. Her
distinguishing characteristics We're, when
well understood. as unlike Ristori's as the
German is unlike the Italian.
Mime. Ristori belonged in the ~strlctest
sense of the word to a school which not
only in Italy but in France adopted the
italian motto Fingere ingiamo"-"To
feign, let US feign." All her intellectual
training had been to the end OF controlling
her own emotions and preserving, even in
the whirlwind of her passion. a s~elf-con-
scious supervision and regulation of it. Her
enthusiasm never betrayed her into forget
fulness of what was due to supervised and
synthetic details. Her work was Plorentine
and exquisite.
Janauschek, on the other hand, was al
most Gothic at times in the massiveness
and ruSgedness of her triumphs. II one
actress was Evolutionary, the other was
emotional. If one was the mistress of an
exquisite realism, the other was the mis-
tress OF a passion that in the German
tongue swept away criticism like one of
those moving glaciers that bury the most
delicate no less than the most formidable
obstacles. Such has always been the di-
viding line in stage art. There has never
been n Kenbie or a Rossi on one side
without a Kean or a Salvini on the other,
and although Rachel is the real historic
and artistic antithesis of Ristori Nine.
Janauschek exhibited enough of the heroic
in her acting to diferentiate her at once
from the Southern genius.
Won Her Position in
Strong Contest.
In that first season Nine. JanaEschek
played in German all the b~est-known of
Schiller's plays and came closely into con-
trast with Ristori in her Mary Stuart and
Deborah. She could not, nor, indeed, did