The San Francisco call., 1906-05-20

Liza-AIy dear Boris Nikolayevich! Drop
this. / am cripple. am abnormal
Chepurnoy (calmly)-Then l must per-
ish like a dung beetle.
tEnter Yelena. Prota SOW and vagin)
Liza-Shall pour out some tea for you?
Chepurnoy-Nery well. What can do T?
But do you know, YelizaYeta Fyodorovna
you had better marry me- Oh, how you
and would I'LL the world with moans,
Liza-How you trif1e. 1t is painful and
stranger
Chepurnoy (calmly)-Consider it. What
else are we TO do, you and 1?
Liza (frightened)-Yo had better be
silent. Be silent.
Yelena-Well, yes; it is beautiful, but
in conception 1t is not profound, and the
subject is not accessible to many.
Vagin-Art has ever been the property
Of the few. Therein lies the pride Of art.
Yelena-Therein lies her drama
Vagfn-Such is the opinion of the ma
5ority, and for this reason alone am
against it.
Yelena-Don't pose. Art should ennoble
mankind.
Vagin-Art has no aims.
Protasov-My friend. there is nothing
that is aimless in the world
Chepurnoy-Except the world itself
Lza-My GOD! have heard all this
thousand times.
Yelena-Dmitry Sergeyevichi life is
hard; man often grows tired of life. Life
Is rough, is IL not? On what is the soul
to rest? Beauty is rare, but when 1 see
something that is truly beautiful it warns
my soul, like the sun that suddenly bright
ems a gloomy day. It is necessary that all
mankind should understand and love the
beautiful; then moral would be con-
structed upon it. The people would rate
their action as beautiful and as ugly And
then life would be beautiful
Protasov-That's wonderful, Lenai
Vagin-What have I to do with man
kind? Iwant to sing my song aloud, alone
and for myself.
Yelena-That will do! What's the use
Of your words? 1t is necessary that art
should reflect mans eternal yearning
toward the distance, toward the heights
When there Is such yearning IN the artist,
and when he has faith In the sunny pow
er of beauty, his painting, his book, his
sonata would be clear to me, and dear, he
would strike harmonious chord in my
soul. And II grow tired would take a
rest and would again be eager for work,
happiness and lifei
Protasov-That's capital, Lenai
Yelena-Do you know, sometimes I pic
ture to myself a canvas like this: A steam
ship going in the middle OF the boundless
sea; green, angry waves embrace 1t greed
fly, and certain strong, mighty people
stand by the sides on the fore part OF the
ship. They simply stand there. their
faces are open, brave and smiling proud
ly, they look far into the distance. ready
to perish calmly on the road to their
destination. That's the whole picture,
Vagin-That's interesting. Yes.
Protasov-Wait
Yelena-Let those people go under the
sun on the yellow sand of the desert
Liza dnvoluntarily, in a low voice)-The
sand is red.
Yelena-That's all the same All that is
necessary is that these should be extraor-
binary people, courageous and proud, un-
shaken in their desires and simple even as
all that is great is simple. Such a picture
could make me feel proud of the people,
OF the artist who created them, and IL
would remind me of those great men who
helped us to go so far away from the
brute and who are forever leading us near
er TO man.
Vagin-Yelena Nikolayevnai Somebody
will stand alone on the forepart Of the
ship. His face win be that of a man who
had buried all his hopes on the shore be-
hind him, but his eyes burn with the fire
of a great tenacity. and he is on his way
10 create new hopes-alone amidst the
lonely.
Protasov-A storm is not necessary Or