The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-09

wear the mantle of Rip Van Wrinkle.
 France has a wonderfully clever actor in NJ. Coquelin, who has been seen m | the United States, while the British stage has Mr. John Hare, who has also delighted American playgoers These gentlemen are finished actors i but neither seems to have the quality which makes comedian the idol of the public-neither has the vital spark of
 heavenly flame" which distinguishes genius from talent.
 Can Jefferson's place be easily filled j?
 The question may be answered by another position: When was Booths
 place filled, or Florence's, or Barretts, 11or Mrs. Gilbert's or Mrs. Drew's? After
 the death of Edwin Booth men said
 that in good season there would appear a tragedian capable of presenting Ham 1 let and other Shakepearean roles as nobly and with as great a measure of
 genius as Booth. The world is still waiting for Booths successor. There
 have been Hamlets, but not like the
 Hamlet of Booth, MT. Henry Irving, ithe English tragedian. is an actor of
 exceptional ability and a man of in
 tellectual force. Many Americans
 have seen him in the role of the Prince lof Denmark. It never occurred to one Eof them that MT. Irving, with all his talent, could interpret Hamlet as MT. Booth did. It is no disparagement of
 the versatile English actor to say that ! playgoers found him lacking in the es- sential attributes of such a Hamlet as
 Booth portrayed so subtly and thrill- ingly Within the last few weeks Bal tifnore has seen another English actor
 essay the role of Hamlet and give a thoughtful scholarly and intellectual in iterpretation. But with all his excellsnce this actor, no more than Irving, fills the place of the lamented Booth. Nor
 does any other tragedian of the United
 States or Great Britain fill the void by Booths death.
 In his day MT. Jefferson had imita- ltors. None. of them could fill his place
 while alive any more than the traged- Hans who played Hamlet while Booth Twas in his prime could convince dis- terminating playgoers that they were lequall to Booth. To say that we shall | "
 Acres, a Caleb Hummer pr. Pang- floss equall in every respect to the inimi- ltable Representations of MT. Jefferson lseems to be rash and unwarranted as- lsertion, in utter defiance of the ex- Iperienees of the past. Good actors and
 actresses we shall have, no doubt. The lworld is large an the stage is an in- Iviting field for men and women of tal- lent. There are excellent actors and ac- ltors and actresses in comedy and trag- ledy who furnish the public with satis- factory entertainment. It is no deprecf- ltion of their work to suggest that pos- lsibly the conditions which produced a Booth and a Jefferson are an impossi- lbility in this practical and utilitarian Iage. Even England, the birthplace of Shakespeare, with it's long line of emi- Inent actors and actresses and it's in Ispiring traditions of the stage, is not lproducing actors of genius like Jeffer- lson and Booth. Nor is it the place of la Booth or Jefferson only that is yet to lbe filed; Perhaps after Shakespeare s ldeatl Englishmen said one worthy to lwear his mantle would soon appear. Perhaps when Mozart, Haydn. Beeth- loven and other composers of genius
 passed away their, countrymen thought ltheir places could be easily filled. Per- lhaps when Goethe, Schiller and Victor
 Hugo were gathered unto their Fath- lers the cynics confidently asserted that ltheir equals would soon arise. The truth lis, there have been great men and wo- men in art, in literture, in music and on the stage whose places have never
 been filled since they passed over to | the silent majority. The fact that the
 world wags along without them, con- ltenting itself with the best that it can
 get from contemporary art, drama and Literature, does not mean that the
 places of the illustrious dead have been filled. It means that the world simply accepts the inevitable and, if it can-
 not get the highest quality of genius. takes whatever the gods give and flat Iters itself that it is blessed even if lgenius no longer manifests itself.- l Baltimore Sun.