Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-04
CARNEGIE ON DRAMA
LAID MEMORIAL STONE OF PLAY
HOUSE IN ToLLCRoss.
Special Cablegram to The Star

Special Cablegram to The Star
EDINBURGH, September Andrew Car
negie has laid the memorial stone of the
Kings Theater just erected in Tollcross.
The building occupies a commanding site
In Leven street one Of the busiest thorough
fares. of the city, and is a handsome struc-
ture. The auditorium will furnish a seat
ing accommodation to $500 persons, and
the stage. sixty-six feet wide by fifty feet
deep. is fitted up with every equipment
known to modern stagecraft
At the opening ceremony Chairman
Buchanan said Mr.. Carnegie In his youth
was an amateur actor of no mean dis
tinction.
Mr.. Carnegie said 1t was forty years
since he had stood in an Edinburgh theater,
but he had neither forgotten what he saw
nor what he heard on that former occasion.
The performer was Charles Webster as Sir
Pertinax MacSycophant in Macklins THE
Man of the World" His first knowledge
of Shakespeare came from attending
theateI and seeing the great dramatist's
plays performed. AS a telegraph messenger
boy it was his duty to deliver kilograms to
, the manager of the Pittsburg Theater. The
boys made II practice on such occasions
to ask the doorkeeper II they might slip
upstairs to the second tier, a privilege
which was generally accorded Then a
thirst came for the works themselves. and
in this way he got his Shakespeare, one Of
the controlling events for good Of his life.
Early Days Of Debasement.
The theater. as they knew 1t, was a place
to hear in. 1t was not so in the earliest
theater at Athens. which held 10000 people.
The drama, which came from India, was
originally of a religious character. By the
fourth century A. D. 1t had become so de-
based, however, that the Church of Rome
denied sacrament to actors and excommu-
nicated those who attended theaters on
Sundays and hoy days. That was its first
blow. In this connection Mr.. Carnegie re-
called the fact that in the Athenian the
alter. the place from which the actor ad-
dressed the people (of which the modern
stage was but GevelopmenO was called
the pulpitum, and he observed that from
dramatic representations they should have
good sermons as well as from The pulpit.
For centuries there war with the
church. and for a time dramatic representa-
ton Almost ceased. In this country as late
as 1872 parliament enacted that IL any
strolling or wandering actor, without a IL
cense from at least two Justices cared per-
form play he was to be whipped and his
right eye burned with hot iron about the
compass of an inch. Then in 1912 parlia-
ment passed an act closing all theaters
But 1t did not matter what parliament pass
ed. what the church did, or what social
ostracism might do. through all this stormy
period the dramatic instinct held its way.
1t was irrepressible: it sprang like hope
eternal in the human breast"
First Theater In Britain.
The first permanent theater in Britain
was built in 1861. and he thought the second
one. the Globe. twenty years later. In 1899
the king was graciously pleased to permit
a theater in Edinburgh.
Coming to the present time, what
change was to be noted. The highest and
best were proud to know the members of
the actors profession. CHear. hearD In each
of the two great branches of the English
speaking races there had arisen In our day
one who stood out among his fellows. 1t
had been his privilege in America to know
Joe Jefferson as a friends and of all the
men that he had known he knew Of none
of higher character, of purer soul and Of
kindlier impulses than the delineator of Rip
Van Wrinkle. (Applause) He was also
privileged to know the man in Britain who
had done most In our day to elevate the
stage. and he could say of Henry Irving
(Applause)-what he had said of Jefferson.
AS friends they did those whom they hon.
ored with their friendship lasting good in
setting to them a model of everything that
man should be.