New-York tribune., 1907-10-29
AS TO CRITICISM.
Dramatic Reviews and Managerial Temper


The wife OF the tragedian Edmund Kean. in q
conversation with the widow Of David Garrick.
mentioned the annoyance sometimes expressed by
kean to adverse criticism Of his acting. Mrs.
Garricks comment pertinent. 1T is a pity"
said the rect, that your husband allows himself
20 be troubled Davy never did. Davy always
wrote his own notices." That statement, to the
custom Of the departed dramatic chieftain, may
have been somewhat fanciful but il indicates the
only method Of criticism by which managers could
certainly be pleased. Hardly a month passes with
q shrill plant from somebody who has not been
accepted. by dramatic reviewers, at his own valu-
alton. Once 1t was the gentle Edwin Forrest, bel
lowing about critical conspiracies and, It has
been thought, provoking the terrible Astor Place
riot. once Fl was the virtuous Fisk, Jr,-who
because the reviewer for this paper declined an
annual bribe TO puff him, and publicly refused his
hand and acquaintance, threatened TO drive him
from the press OF America, and tried TO execute
his threat. Once IL was Dion Bouccault, who
proclaimed that all writers wsre venal, and that
"a critic (whose identity never could be learned
but who is believed 10 have been Mrs. HarrisO
had swallowed a bait with a hook in it." Once
Ct was Wilson Barrett, agitated because Young
Hamlet" aged IS was not accepted as the ideal
image OF the Dane If the subject were pursued in
detail, the line would stretch out TO the crack OF
doom. Miss Olga Nethersoe, agonized by the re-
eeption Of her pious labors with "Sapho," Tan
query" Carmen" etc, burst into print with her
woes. The community has lately had ''an object
lesson" of the extremes to which dissatisfied
sgers Will CO. to check adverse comment, in
appeal TO law which, if it has been properly in
terpreted. is. unquestonaby, unjust-an excellent
example OF what Fenimore Cooper mentioned the
destruction. by the courts, Of that equity upon
which law should rest. Last there
Chirps about conspiracy" from Mr.. Greet. Now it
Is Mr. Harrison Grey Fishe, manager OF the brill
liant accomplished actress. Mrs. Fiske and of other
theatrical ventures-a man from whom more
sible conduct and more sensible language might,
reasonably, have been expected-who heaves his
massive intellectual bulk into the critical breach,
70 bulwark and protect another suffering Keats.
In the person OF Mr. Percy Mackaye, and
appreciated genius, in the person OF the foreign
actress, Nine Kalich, of whom he has been for
some time unsuccessfuy. trying TO make another
MOdjeska. Mention should be made that Mr..
Fiske sent a copy Of his document TO the editor
Of The Tribune at late hour last Thursday
that publication Of it Friday impossible,
and with it sent polite note asking the courtesy
Of The Tribune to print this attack upon its
dramatic representative. His letter. however, ap-
peared in The Brooklyn Eagle" Of Friday, before
The Tribune had opportunity TO publish it, and
a. is understood that the communication was, in
fact, sent in duplicate TO other papers. Indigna-
ton sometimes dgnifies the mind: in his It
seems TO have degraded it. There is a courtesy
in journalism that gentlemen should not forget.
This IS Mr. Fiskes brosdside: