The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-11-04
An Analysis of English Players.
BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

New York, Nov. 2.-Three opponents
OF modern dramatic art at it's London
pest have just presented themselves in
New York with three very unusual
plays. Anglomania, once offensive here.
Is by-gone nom. There is no indiscrim-
mate acceptance of English things on
faccount OF their origin. That Lena
IAshwell. Forbes Robertson and Henry
tB. Irving come from approvaI> over
,there has no more to do with their well
come than IL ought TO.
The lady stranger among them, Lena
/ Ashwell, was not helped to London re-
EoWn by beauty. That is clear at the
fight sight of her. She may have been
pretty when a girl, but not possibly
beautiful. At present she is comedy
woman, with an almost handsome face
and tall, plant figure. Her own dark
hair is unbleached, and her visage is
not colorcd more than to produce the
effect of a natural complexion under
stage lighting. Upon her entrance she
does not look like an actress, but a
youngish woman i'm a state of genuine
ness. Her voice i'm it's first words TO a
New York audience sounded harsh and
metallic, but that came of nervousness,
evidently. for very quickly it was toned
agreeably to the utterance of a trained
English speaker, which is as devoid Of
cockney accent as a Yankee twang.
Miss Ashwell has not said much be-
fore you forget to think of her elocu-
ton, and listen eagerly for what she is
saying, with no regard for how she
says it, Just as Clara Morris used to
thrill you. so this actress sends her
voice straight to your heart with what
ever message il has 10 convey. She
knows the theatrical tricks, but does
not play them openly. If she came TO
America at 90 with the skill which has
N11~ L.
would go wild with enthusiasm over
her. Not that she is a genius, but she
is gifted, and IL she were as young as
the girl she assumes to be in the play.
she might arouse us as Clara Morris
did with untheatric emotionalisn1.
The drama chosen for the American
debut Of Miss Ashwell, THE Shula-
mite" is boldly original and startling
" peculiar A rich old Boer farmer
has taken for a second wife young
girl TO whom. in his admiration, he APP
plies the Biblical description of the
beautiful Shulamite woman; but be is
a grim religiOnist, and a believer in the
scriptural injunction that wives should
obey their husbands; also, in the sacred
assertion it is godly TO chasten those
we love: and for "chasten" he reads
''chastise" when his beloved bride is
disobedient. Deborah has borne Dom
Simeon's whip meekly. as South Afri-
can wives do. but now Robert the
young superintendent of the farm.
teaches her the shame and degradation
of such usage.
So when Dom Simeon comes at her
again with a rawhide she is deter
mined not TO take the strokes. But how
avoid them? sudden idea comes to
her She knows that he has prayed to
God that as Abraham became a father
al hundred and four. so he at 90 or
Whereabouts may beget a child by his
bride. On the impulse Deborah tells
him that she is i'm a way to yield him
offspring. That is a lie, but he believes
it joyously, and becomes kind to the
wife where before he was cruel.
1t is said that. i'm a weeks practice