Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-06-07

liefs, which. If lived up to, would
change the world. They were not en-
able in Froebel's time; nor are they yet
accepted in the full sense necessary
to world reformation; but the ideas of
brotherhood and unity embodied in
Froebel's kindergarten. have strong.
deep-lying roots that will nourish and
sustain them. until justice in the spirit
of Christ shall govern the nations of
the earth.
After the reading of the above inter
esting paper on "The kindergarten
Mrs. Thos. Brannigan SAM as a solo,
one Morning, On So Early"
Extract from Thesis-"An Exposition
of the Theater," by Theron CatIin
bennett followed:
In our digestion and appreciation of
the present we seldom revert to origin.
In fact few of us are interested in the
origin: but we are satisfied if we &C
cept the present.
The theatre as We know it today
had a purely religious origin, it was in
Greece 600 years before Christ. Odes
were chanted at the festival of the god
Dionysis who was the diety of vegeta-
ton and giver of earth's increase.
The chief sacrifice offered on this &C.
casion was a goat, so these odes were
called goat ongs, tragOdia. u
word tragedy. This performance was
participated in by 1880 people, some
of the participants of the God being
known as Selenvi. who were of comic
shape in body having horses ears and
tails. There were also the mainades
women who were clad in the skins of
goats or fawns, who clashed symbols,
waved torches and %garlands, beat
hand drums and blew shrill flutes.
Such ecstacy of worship brought the
vine to be the chief attribute of Dion
ysus, and wine became useful in sum-
ulating this necessary part of the rit-
ual. So Dionysus ultimately grew to
be the god of wine, known in Latin as
Bachus.
This performance had as many acts
as there were changes of masks, which
seldom exceeded three changes. Plots
grew slowly and finally Euripides
wrote a complete narrative, the AL
cestes, in 43S.
These same Greeks travelled through
the villages and sang lively choruses
in honor of their harvest god. These
/, choruses were called komodia village
songs, hence our word comedy. Com
edy was p~ropagated in Greece. but ii
was not nourished like tragedy in
/ Greece. Comedy was nourished in
t England and France; but it was no
| perceptible till the %crusades in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, when
! mental activity began in all branches
5 in commerce, politics and the arts
Thus began tragedy and comedy, the
first two elements of the theatre.
5 In the instructive pages of Mr.. Maui
5 rice Albert We can trace the propaga'
: ton of two more elements, the opera
? comique and the melodrama. Mr.
). Albert traces the steps by which the
showmen came first from exhibits OF
walking, then they speedily broke out
? into song and dance; but the showmen
T relied upon %acrobatics as an import
[ ant element in the delight which they
gave to those who paid to see their
I performances. These performances
l were main features of a fair held al
. Different seasons in Paris. When the
I fair outlived its usefulness and was
: abandoned, more than II of its thea
| tres was firmly established on the bou
J levard, to remain to this day the home
i of m~elodrama, born nurtured and
/ brought to maturity in the fair.
, From the same primitive song and
l dance in the same kind of variety
: show in the same hundred years (1Sth
/: 18th centuries), was developed the op
! era comique, not merely the comic op
; era which is often only ~buffoonery and
glitter, but the finer form Of which
Grown of Diamonds" may be taken as
, the type and of which "Mignon" anC
Carmen" are later examples. But
the opera comique it is true is not
: wholly the child of this folk theatre OF
: the fair. but there was another child
the child of the comedie Italiene, q
!, folk theatre established in France tc
afford shelter for Italians driven from
! their native country. The banished
Italians put music TO improvised com
= ic plays, which bcame known as the
. "Comedia DELI Arti," These Italians
. in their primitive opera freely mingled
a~crobatics with dramatics, and theil
. clown while soaring on some higt
tone had to turn somersaults as wei
as crack jokes. So the origin of tbs
y opera in Italy, as many presume, /!
: false. Some Italians were connected
9 with it, but it was under French sup
I port, in France, that these Italians
helped to propagate the germs which
ultimately grew into opera.
r We now know the propagation of al
Y the elements which gave to us this ulti
. mate growth-our present theatre. lie
MS summarize.
I The tragedy, or goat song, and come
e dy, or village songs, through purely re
/ ligiOus motives originated in Greco,
2 600 years before Christ but comedy di-
D not develop till fifteen centuries latel
in England.
. The melodrama and opera were chill
/. dron of France, born at the annua
n fairs OF Paris, and these children were
q not born until 100 years ago.
, What is this ultimate growth? Is il
detrimental or beneficial 10 the prog
ress of civilization.
! VIM. Dean Howells says; In the