Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-17

RAAAIHHNaAV may hnN9A hNNAAN az "
be mad. or merely feigning madness, but
into his moments Of solitude he gave him
speeches Of soliloquy which embody in preg-
nant sentences the fruit Of not only long
experience in the AFFAIRS Of the world but Of
deep philosophic rumlnation as we'll. Ham
let is not alone in scattering these gems OF
wisdom, bright and radiant In their setting
OF chaste English, but the king. old Polo
MUS, the grave digger, and others, each from
his sphere In life, presents US with diamonds
Of counsel and pearls Of thought. so that
one may seemingly never exhaust the store
contained within the play which tells Of
those tragic events at Elsinore. Even after
repeatedly having seen the play produced
by some Of the best and some Of the worst
actors the American stage has known, and
after having read and rereRd the text Of the
play as accepted by the highest authorities
on Shakespeare, one finds each time on
turning to the well known lines a new light
flashed back. as though the ray had caught
another facet Of the gem, and thus illumed
a hitherto unseen beauty. Lovers Of good
English. OF deep philosophy and Of homely
wisdom clearly set forth will never tire Of
reading Hamlet" But to get back to the
text: Did Shakespeare know anything Of
what Is called In modern police p~arlance
1.-THE third degree?" 1t is known that at least
orce in his life Singer VIII Of stratford
came within the purview Of the law, and 1t
is not improbable that during the days when
he strolled the country In company with
other players he was again and may be
again in contact with the powers that we're
in those days, and he may even have come
within the knowledge OF the Elizabethan
prototype Of the twentieth century front
nA4a - AZ nT avAANH - 49, I.NNl. .-1 -
the sixteenth century he enunciated a propo-
sition which is still potent and e~ffectual In
the awakening Of conscience. To be sure,
there Is accessibility that the thief-takers
Of the world have prohted by the experience
of four centuries that stretch between the
now and the time when the tragedy Of
Hamlet" was FIRST enacted by his
majesty's servants" Charity for the Bard
Of Avon naturally inclines US to this view
Of the case, for It not only exonerates him
Of being suspected Of a more Intimate &C
quaintance with the methods pursued by the
authorities Of his time In overtaking Grim
inals and unearthing crime than is seemly
or becoming In one so wise and gentle, but
1t lends an added luster to his brilliant halo
by suggesting that he had already con-
ceived 400 years ago a plan which is scarcely
Improved upon though still practiced. For
example, the police Of Cleveland during the
week solved a murder mystery In almost
exactly the same way that Hamlet verified
the story told him by bis fathers ghost and
fastened on his uncle the guilt Of his fratri-
cidal crime. It appears that an honest
burgher Of the Ohio metropolis was done to
death by an unidentified man while walking
along a shady byway in the outskirts Of the
city, accompanied by his wife. "Cherchez
10 femme is also a maxim handed down
from a past era which has been incorpo-
rated into the lexicon OF up-to-date police
practice. the receptivity Of which is not con-
lined to tangible articles alone. After the
ordinary methods OF obtaining information
had been exhausted, the police sought
out the woman and arranged the
play. On a dark and gloomy evening,
accompanied by two officers the widow went
along the route over which she and the MUIR
tered man had gone on the night Of the
tragedy. At the point in the journey where
he murder was committed another of1cer
tprang from the shadow and discharged a
revolver. Conscience leaped into life, and
he widow shriekeds the name OF her para
hour, who now occupies a cell with a charge
~ murder against his name. Here, indeed,
The play was the thing in which the guilty
conscience was ~entrapped.
What would some Of the rest Of us do
did we not have better control over our
nerves, or were our consciences not under
the sedative and soporihc influence OF some
powerful moral anodyne? Isn't 1t In a
sense at least a blessing that we are all
In a measure capable Of raising our hands
In Pharasaical self-congratulation and rem
dering to God thanks that we are not like
other men and women? Those beams
within our eyes are Of some service, at
least, for II they should be plucked out, 1t
IL quite probable that few of US would
care to bother about the notes that OBJ
beure our neighbours vision. much less visit
the theater where the mirror is held up
TO nature. Not to make the. application
too personal, the play is continually point
ng out to us the weakness and foibles
OF human kind. showing us the fruits OF
wrongdoing and the rewards OF right, and
ever marking the path along which lies the
way to earthly happiness, and yet how
eften does the play entrap the conscience:
Hardly a phase of human life but has been
exploited with dreadful realism on the
modern stage, and while II is undoubtedly
saying too much to charge that no good has
come out Of all this teaching. there is
certainly no manifestation Of any general
reform having its origin in the presenta-
ton Of any picture Of real life on the stage.
Books have set people to thinking, and
thus have wrought great changes and
srought about social reforms OF much mo-
ment in the worlds affairs, but somehow
the influence Of the stage has as yet had no
lueh triumph. It may be that the pictures
lhown are too evaneseent, their settings
too. nebulous and their endurance too brief
to leave a lasting Impress. II may be
that the failure is due TO the application
Of Pope's we'll known postulate regarding
Vice and familiarity Herewith. What
sVer the reason, the fact is lamentably APP
parent that only in rare instances does
the play really entrap the conscience OF
The auditor, and even rarer are the re-
Iorms that may trace their genesis to the
.ctor's art. That this is so should not be
charged against the actor. for n his art
Toes not have Its effect Immediately, IL
must in time do good, II only In that for
1 moment Il diverts the mind Of some
Sne into a channel OF thought along which
I might not otherwise have wandered.
Nor should the actor despair. because he
aas before him the example OF teachers
Ind preachers for ages. who have dinned
doctrine and dogma. supported by threats
n the direst damnation and most condign
u temporal and eternal punishment into
he ears Of a needless world, which stil