The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-10

The foregoing was a modest personal
tribute to Nine. Francesca Romano
Magdalena JaEauschek, written the day
after the news of her death last week.
1t would not be an uniting epitaph to
to one whom many, looking back into
the years, regarded as a great artist.
Memory, as it concerns stage achieve
ments, is apt to serve tricks, and ideas
of greatness are likely to be exaggerat-
ed with time. But one who recalls the
Janauschek of fifteen and twenty years
ago will not hesitate, nevertheless, to
lay the tribute of greatness" at the
door of her tomb.
The world of the theater passed
Janauschek by. Even at the height OF
her power a sudden change in the form
of American theatrical entertainment
left her without auditors. There came
a day when the gloom of 'Bleak
House." Of Deborah" of Mary
Stuart" of Marie Antoinette," and
other plays, even when interpreted by a
queen of tragedy, failed to interest. For
above all things Nine. Janauschek was
q tragedian. She scorned anything that
was trivial And she was fnsistent that
she would reign to the end. Her belief
in this was so strong that she permit
ted a comfortable fortune to be sacri-
feed on her last disastrous tour.
Nine. JanauSchek'S career in America
was of almost historical Importance.
She came here in 1867, coincident1y
with the second visit of Ristori, the
two making a histrionic mark in the
records of our theater But, unlike
Ristorf, Janauschek came without the
fanfare of an international manager.
She was scarcely known, save to
travelling Americans and those Germans
who remembered her at Prague and
Cologne and Frankfort, and had wit
messed her splendid triumphS of Munich.
The first visit was not made under
what a manager would call suspicious
circumstances. The country was ring
Ing with the name and fame of Ristori.
But Mnl.e. JanauSchek followed close
upon the heels of Ristori'S repertoire,
and II was not long before it began to
be noised outside of the German circle
that there was a woman playing at the
Academy in New York who could hold
her own with the Italian actress in
Alfierf and JiaCcometti, and perhaps
give her some points in Schiller. Rich
ard Grant White. Montgomery Schuy-
leT, and a few other able and enthuSi-
astic writer's began to discuss the Ger
man school and to make comparisons,
and so it was that Janauschek's ster-
ling histrionism came slowly to be
recognized by the American public.
Her distinguishing Characteristics were.
when well understood, as unlike Ris-
tori's as the German is unlike the
Italian
In that first season Nine. Janauschek
played in German all the best known
of Schiller's plays and came closely in
to contrast with Ristori in her Mary
Stuart and deborah. She could not,
nor, indeed. did she care to. resort to
Ristori's art to produce an illusion. She
could not make up Elizabeth or Mary
Stuart with the pafnstaking assiduity
and marvellous historic and pictorial
accuracy of Ristori but in all those
crises where histrionism of the elder
kind could assert itself in defamation
and action she excelled Ristori in the
force and sublimity of her tragic
power.
At the end of her first American sea-
son she had won for herself a secure
and almost unique position upon our
boards.
She made up her mind to appeal to
the English speaking public in plays
that she believed would interest them
much more quickly than the classic
drama. It was with this view that she
had a version of Dickens BLEAK
HouEe" made. which she called "Ches-
ney Wold,' and in which she played a
dual role. She performed this play ali
over the United States, with the vary
ing success of most travelling stars,