The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-26

the author of many poems, as we'll as
stories for boys and girls. The first
play Mr.. Langbridge ever wrote was
Fair Rosamund's Bower" produced
when he was 10, and acted at White
haven by a gentleman who thought he
had enough skill to outshine Macready,
u belief, by the way, which cost him a
fortune to disprove. Both Mr.. Lang
bridge and Mr.. Wills take the greatest
possible pains with their work, and
their plays, as they are acted,
are by no means the same as
when they are first drafted. for they
are rewritten again and again.
The Rev. Forbes Phillips, whose pen
name. Athol Forbes, is familiar to the
readers of magazines, is so enthusiasts
in his devotion to the theater that he
has actually an amateur company IN
connection with his church, and he uses
it, among other means, for bringing his
deed, takes an active part in these the
atricals, for he attends the rehearSalS.
and he regards the discipline as excel
lent for promoting punctuality and ODE
structions must be followed to the let
ter while the studying of parts is nat
urally beneficial to the memory.
His first play, which was originally
called Church and Stage" and was
produced last year by Mrs. Brown
Potter, was the result of the sugges-
ton of an editor of one of the London
magazines, who saw the dramatic pur-
work. Mr.. Phillips characters are all
suggested to him by people whom he
knows, though they are not real por-
traits of individuals, for he will some
times mingle the characters of two or
three people in order to produce the
exact character he requires. Indeed,
he thinks deriving impressions from
living people is the only way to make
characters in fiction live, and in this
view it must be admitted that he is
borne out by the experience of many
other writers. All the thinking out of
his plays is done while he is walking
about in the large parish over which
he has spiritual control. for the hours
of the day are encroached upon by
his work as member of the local
school board, the board of guardians.
etc, so that he has little leisure.
Even that little is, in fact, constantly
interrupted by callers, SO that almost
his only opportunity for writing is to
sit up all night. This does not mean
pleasure of doing creative work he
gives up his nights rest and prepares
for the days labor by taking a hot
bath with plenty of liquid ammonia
in it.
Mr.. Phillips passion for the drama
began when he was a schoolboy, and
he spent all his pocket money in go
ing to the gallery of the theater in the
town in which he lived.
The Rev. John Talbot Smith has
done one thing which, were his play,
"A Baltimore Marriage" to be pro-
duced in England, would startle the
playgoing community with a ven
geance. He has introduced real
Pope, Plus VII, as one of the leading
characters. "a Baltimore Marriage"
has for it's plot the alliance between
Jerome Bonaparte and Elizabeth Pat
terson, of that we'll known American
city. Jerome afterwards. as every one
knows, became king of Westphalia
and the play deals with Elizabeth s
n a -0Rnp-r1fw0d neu hi 60 -
though Napoleon had annulled it in
1905, two years after the ceremony
was performed. The reason for intro
ducing the pope-another factor in
the history of the church and stage
was that Talbot Smith had noticed the
great hold which princes of the
church always exercised over the
mind of the American public a
notable example of which was
furnished by the success of
Lord Lytton's Richelieu."