Evening star., 1903-10-10

MR.. BELLEW AND THE CIGARETTE
The prospect Of KyrIe Belew-classic Bel
lew-the hero of thousand romantic
''swashbucklings, and the remembered Ro-
meo of many beautiful Juliets, stalking
about in drawing room dress in the identical
Jerome IS. Jerome style of modern stage
villain seems odd indeed.
Worst of all, this master swordsman-the
familiar beau-igallant of hauberk, sword
and plume, will be compelled as Raf1es to
smoke cigarette. Shades of Shakespeare,
interrogated on the matter in Philadelphia
last week, Mr.. Bellew side-stepped and
came back with an apology. Il will con-
fess,' said he. that it does seem strange
to me, but in difference to art, the part and
my friends Hornung and Presbrey | have
dared it, and am now doing as well as can
be expected. 4
Il have stuck to the text-the prompt book
calls for "a particular brand of English Gig
arctic. andsI laid in a big stock of the real
things before sailing to America The Of
fensive part o. the bally business is that
there IS continuation of the cigarette busi-
ness that the saudience does not see at all
but perhaps that is just as we'll"
What do you mean?" l asked curiously
why, simply that get beastly sick every
night smoking them. Pm no smoker. This
part Is the first in twenty years that has
compelled me to smoke upon the stage
and though like my part Immensely l do
wish the powers that be could manage to
cut out those cigarettes
Apart from the cigarette penchant of Raf-
fles, MI Bellew is or should be ideally suited
to the fascinating HOrnung hero.
Reared at the vice regal court of India
(Mr Bellows mother, as the wife of Sir
Ashley Eden, chief secretary acted as the
Nlcereine throughout the actors childhood
and afteTWard an adventurer in many
lands. the strange contrasts in Bellows own
experience bear many resemblances to those
tod OF Raft'es as partial explanation of his
singular character. Like Rafties, BelIew has
been at one time the companion of princes
and at another beggar in the ''Neyer
Never Land
A CURIOUS MISTAKE.-"The female
star with the angular handwriting is no
longer popular with me-" said Walter
Hodges. who is the star of +. E. Johnston's S
production of Bronson Towards great COM
edy, Saratoga
OF course there were the usual queries to
which Mr.. Hodges made reply as follows:
when Mrs. Patrick Campbell the Eng
lish actress, was playing in New York.
wrote to her asking for the courtesy of two
seats L inclosed a stamped envelope with
the address. Walter Hodges, The Lambs,
New York city
Time passed by, as time has a habit of
doing, and | received acknowledgment
of my request. Meeting Mis-. Campbelrs
manager on the street one day, L broached
the circumstance to him.
why said he, the seats were mailed to
YOU for Mrs. Campbell herself wrote the
address. while stamped the envelope. She
had lost your address, and L told her to
send 1t to the Lambs Club
well i'll look 1t up / said, and let
you know. AS l entered the Lambs Club
there were DeWolf Hopper, Willie Collier
and a group laughing over a letter one of
| them was exhibiting, and which as soon as
I IVA. SEp IA S-ca1 to
Then the sequel was out, for the letter
held in my hand was several times super
| scribed with Not known here--keep;' Try
murderers' roW-night watch and finally in
red ink was this: Not here yet-try Lambs
Club of Warden of ToInbs.'
Mrs. Campbells angular writing of The
Lambs made it look like The Tombs' and
to that famous prison my seats had been
sent"
MEMORIZED 10000 WORDS-The COM
parativeIy few people who had an oppor-
tunity of witnessing Mrs. Leslie Carter's
marvellous performance of ''Du Barry dur
ing the extremely limited engagement of the
Belasco masterpiece at the National two
years ago have not the slightest idea of the
amount of work required to prepare for the
impersona ton of the milliner girl Jeanette
Vauvernier. who dazzled Louis Quinze of
France just as he was tired of almost ev-
erythlnR IN lie WOflu-anQ particularly
the beauties Of his own court at Versailles
Mrs. Carter confesses that the Du Barry is
the hardest, longest and most trying role
she ever attempted. 1t took her nearly four
months TO memoriZe the lines of the part
all of one summer spent at her retreat at
Shelter Island. She further AYERS that it
is the longest role that any actress of mod
ern times has ever essayed. The average
part in a society play" consists of about
| 4 600 words; the popular meodrama of these
days allots about 4,500 words to the lead
ing part; the principal parts of the up-to-
date musical comedies contain about $500
| words. The part of the Du Barry, as COM
pared with some of the most prominent
| leading roles of the successful plays of the
past two decades, Is by all odds the longest
During the five acts of the Belasco play
Mrs. Carter is called upon to speak over
10000 words, besides resorting to much
''business" or byplay. Ten thousand words
would make rather a respectable sized
novelette,. None of the chief feminine roles
| of plays of recent production have contained
within couple of thousand as many words
| as Mrs. Carter speaks every night In ''Du
Barry" When "Cyrano de Bergerac" was
| first presented in this country much news
paper space was devoted to the fact that