The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-11-06

a woman. Shet is not feminine; she is not
/! domestic; she has 10 true maternal in
stinct. yet somewhere in her burning soul
there is an ideal. a distorted ideal it is
true. but nevertheless an ideal.
"Prisoned in the little bit of a secluded
village. where she was born. her soul
from childhood chafes against the bars
until it becomes callous. Ambition. ambi-
tion. ambition that cannot be killed and
Will not die. urges her on to accomplish
some great object, a something tina her
surroundings cannot present.
She hates everything and everybody
about her. and finally she sets herself the
mean task of forcing a reformed drunk
ard to drink again. 1t is not a great thing
to do. yet it is the hardest thing to do
that Hedda finds. and she determines to
accomplish it.
in her behalf it may be said tina she
does not really wish to make q drunkard
OF the man.. she rather takes the view
point that he is now just as much a slave
to temperance as he had formerly been
to drink-that he would be more of a man
II he could drink without going to ex-
tremes. She succeeded in making him
drink again. but she failed inasmuch as
she makes him once more a drunkard.
Sometimes don't know what to think
of Hedda. She seems so inhuTnan. Other
times l believe that Ibsen used her to per-
sonify the inpossibility OF satisfying hu-
man ambition.
1T Is frequently urged by moral writer's
that such plays should not be presented.
They claim the pieces are too weird and
CHASTITY and magnify the bad side of hui
man nature. / am of n opposite opin-
ion. i rather believe that such plays
achieve good results, for when one sees 4
character like Hedda one finds her so
hateful. so unattractive, that one deter
mines never to be like her. and to. cor
rect any characteristics that may resem-
BILE Hedda's.
The play. too, is a sermon for the am
bilious woman whose ambitions lie along
tie wrong path. She sees where it leads
and she determines to avoid it.
For myself, although Hedda does inter
est as a stu:y. she is revolving to me as a
woman
"Zapfenstreich" Taps will be given Its
first Western presentation by the Heine-
mann-welb stock company at the olym-
pic Theater tonight. 'Zapfenstreich' ,s
a military drama. which sets forth the
abuses of German military life. the injus-
tice which grows out of military etiquette
as practiced and upheld in every garrison
town OF the German Empire. A young
Lieutenant hetrays the daughter Of a sub
altern.. The girls sweetheart, himself Il
Sergeant In the service. resents the Insult
offered to her and is killed by the Lieu
tenant in self-defense. A court-martial
follows, which Is depicted on the stage.
and the details Of the case are brought to
light. The Lieutenant meets the charge
with a plea CT self-defense. but his COM
rades despise him. The girls father,
Sergeant Major Volkhardt. to be enacted
by Ferdinand Webb, in a personal inter-
view with the Lieutenant, Seeks repara-
ton. He is denied, and in desperation
kills his unfortunate daughter in the
L~ieutenant's presence. The situations of
the play are said to be developed with I'M
usual strength. EIaerchen voikhardt, tie
only female part in the play, has been
given into the keeping of Louise Pellmanl.
Clifford Leigh lis one of the most versa
tile members OF the Girl From Dixie
ompan at the GFaIfo. M. le,Sn piayeu
juvenile. roles at the old Gaiety Theater
in London. and according to his state
ment, the musical comedy of to-day is a
development Of burlesoue as given on the
English stage by John Hoilingshead at the
Gaiety Theater. some thirty-five years
ego, rather than an evolution Of Hoyt
comedy or such e-xtravaeanzas as Rice's
'.ias:' Hollingshead. late in the COS, pro-