The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-12-01
DO ACTRESSES SHED STAGE
TEARS21

TEARS?"
GoodIand has been enjoying more
theatrical performances thus far this
season than it has for some years dur
ing the same period And besides the
phenomenon that general prosperity
brings plays, there are other things in
teresting with reference 70 the thea
ter, and among them is the subject of
tears. The feminine star in matters
OF tragedy and sorrow has to cOnvulse
herself into a passion Of tears, and If
she reaches her art properly the audi
ence will weep with her.
A French scholar, says a magazine
article, in considering this subject di-
vides tears into three classes
These are mechanical tears, invOl-
untary tears, and semi-vOluntary
tears. Mechanical tears occur when
people are tickled, when they cough
when they become sick, and so on,
simply because the muscles Of the
eyes contract violently and SO squeeze
the tears out, the tears which are con-
stantIy being secreted and keep the
eyes always washed clean with each
blinking of the lids. Any violent &C
ton which causes the muscles to con-
tract sufficiently violently causes US
to cry
Why do people cry at the theater?
Not because they feel deep emotion,
but simply because, he says, the au-
dfence initiates the actors, repeating
what they say, and all uncOnsciOUsly
to themselves going through the same
physical conditions as the people on
the stage, and by contracting their
brOws cause their tears to flow.
Few women Will agree with this
- =
ter Of that for how often are we NOV
ed to tears by reading book or poem,
when there is not only nobody on the
stage for US to initiate, but no stage
at all. and there is nothing between
the author and our own imagination
Under these circumstances at least
ordinary people Will refuse to believe
that their tears are purely mechani-
cal as the French author declares
One of the greatest values Of the thea
ter is that il teaches US to be sympa-
thetic towards the suffering Of others
by showing US in the most poignant
way how they suffer, and making US
suffer with them. In this way our
tears come, not mechanically, but by
the direct action Of emotion through
seeing the suffering which is as a rule
hidden from our eyes by our friends,
so that we are able to know only com
paratively little of their griefs and
sorrows- Even the actor who only
initiates the suffering of real people
suffers 50 much at the time that the
tears come as the result of that suf-
fering-
Ask a woman like Mrs Kendall, who
has probably drawn more tears from
the eyes OF the present generation
than any other actress of the time,
whether her tears are mechanical, and
she would undoubtedly give an en-
phatic denial to the contention Of the
famous Frenchman- She cries real
tears, which stream down her face
and make her handkerchief sOpping
wet She doesn't cry drops Of gly-
cerine carefully placed beneath heI
eyes to simulate tears.
What is true Of Mrs. Kendall is true
of most of the actresses who play en-
otionaI parts, for they weep with
though not for, the character they
represent. A notable instance Of this
is in the case Of Mrs. Leslie Carter
the famous actress who made so great
a success in Zaza and who has lately
been acting "Adria-'' In playing Nine
Du Barry she told a lady that she
really weeps so much in the last act
ttat at times she doesn't believe she
can ever cry again The next night
however, her feelings are so wrOugh'
that the tears come at the bidding Of
the emotion, and she Is as tired and
racked out as if she herself had beer
undergoing the real suffering she had
been dpicting.
Her tears are certainly not me,
chanical. and the women who cry witt
her, and the men who cry with her
would be the first to deny that there
was anything Of q mechanical natur'
in their tears
Oratory is so closely allied to act
ing that the effect produced by {
speaker is closely akin to that on tn,
stage, and juries, it is well known, art
often moved to tears by the in'I'as
stoned Utterances Of lawyers, though
the juries are not emotional women
but supposedly Unconditional men No
body could say that their tears werD
mechanical
Undoubtedly, perhaps, there ar
cases when people do cry without an
really sufficient motive, as it appear
to the outsider, but what outsider
however, acute his faculties, can form
any absolute estimate of the emOtiOna
characteristics Of another?
The French critic, indeed, recOg
nizes this. when he admits that Their
are cases when we cannot help crying
because we are compelled to by a.
irresistible feeling What this feelin
is, however, battles him, though h
has TO admit we cry because we fee
sad-an answer which is by no mean
complete in itself
But. all said and done, the Ques
ton really comes to this-we cry be
rausa We have IN Won for one reason
another for another reason, every wO
man for her own particular reason
and as long as the world lasts. tears
unhappily. viii have to be shed
though all the professors in the uni
verse mOralize the question
NOT s1aIINUS THE PARTICULARS.
he El-rrIsn-to-. lCnInn Rsrr,hIic.a 2