The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1902-02-15

the rear seats i'm the gallery. In liter
ature she belongs to the school OF
Dickens. Dickens calls attention to
the subjects he intends you shall cry
over by turning his back and loudly
sObbing while he drags Little Nell or
the orphan COpperfield forward. This
action hardens the hearts. The most
emotional audience will not cry to
order.
In the days that woman tainted, cried
and screamed when any one of hun
dred accidents happened, Miss Morris
would have satisfied the public. The
new woman is hard-headed. The ath-
letic girl with the muscles of a cat
is not easily frightened and Mysteries
are no longer common. Women are
ashamed of tears and the great streams
which used to flow have been checked
by the practice of self-contrOl, and by
outdoor sports. The contemporary
woman no longer expresses emotion as
Clara Morris expresses it. Allowing
for dramatic exaggeration, the picture
is still so highly colored that there is
no place for her on the stage. Time
was, not many years ago, when she
answered the definition of a great
emotional actress, expressing by tears,
shrieks, fainting spells and shudder-
ings, grief, pain, disappointment, anger,
ct cetera. Nothing was left for the
imagination or for the constructive in
stinct of the audience. We have grown
sophisticated. The modern actor hints
things, the audience leaps to his sUg-
gestion; it is antiphOnal. Miss Morris
does all the work herself, and in her
last seasons upon the stage her
audience watched her demonstrations
as cOldly as Nero watched the con-
tortiOns of the men upon whom he tried
his pOisOns.
On the other hand when lecturers
are drug on the market, Miss Morris
lectures are crowded. She is an in
teresting woman, and as she tells it,
the story of her life is fascinating. The
Ancient Mariner had to hold on to his
auditors or faSten them with his eye.
Miss Morris uses no eXtraneOus means
to keep the audience in their seats,
and a lecturer who can talk to a
blase audience for an hour and
a half without resorting to hypnosis
or an anesthetic is extraordinarily gift
ed. Her lecture was well composed
pathos and humOr were cOntrasted
directly, but not abruptly; her transit
lions are worthy of a veteran profess
sional story-teller. From introduction
to epilOgue there is not moment
wherein the listener anticipates the end
or wishes for it. Hers is like no lee
ture 1 ever heard before. 1t is original
but that is not it. 1t is vivid, but
that is not it. 1t is also a trifle hysteri-
cal. She makes a personal appeal
She deprecates a critical attitude. Her
lecture is more properly a recital No
one else could deliver it with the same
effect, though the emotional fervor she
eXpends in uttering it is superfiuous,
according to preconceived definitions of
lectures. Her recital is the essence of
herself and that is the charm of it.
After having seen Clara Morris in
Camille or as Miss MOultOn there is no
critic on earth so fatuOus as to believe
that any criticism or demonstration of
the falsity of her method could change
Miss Morris acting. Ideas, expert
ences, virtues, sins are translated by
her Immediately into emotions and
thus expressed. Whatever the vogue
is now. her expression of life was fxei
when she was born. When her acting
ceased to be a truthful stage picture
of the characters and manners of the
modern women, they ceased to please,
and the actress lost popularity She