The Washington herald., 1907-11-10
"The Road to Yesterdav.o

large audiences to the Belasco Theater
all of the week. is a play which, whether
or not Il pleases all those who see il, is
possessed of those qualities which lift
the stage from its low estate. as a
mere purveyor OF folly and distraction,
into that higher realm to which il so
truly belongs, whore il exercises It's
functions as teacher. and stimulates
10 thought In this clever play we have
crystaliized as il were. tendency Of
thought that has been Increasingly
manifest through the past ten or. fifteen
years; the tendency that has led think
ers TO speculate on those lives we have
lived before" Mr.. Rudyard Kipling was
one OF the first OF the moderns TO call
attention in striking way TO this
thought in his The Finest Story in the
World" the tale told by the London
bank clerk, who could cast part OF his
mind back to the time when he was a
slave. rowing in a Greek tireme Some
thing of the same sort OF thought was in
Mr.. Kiplipg's Puck of Pooks Hill" and
in his The Brushwood Boy" the dream
love Of the two principal characters in
THE Road to Yesterday being remark
ably similar 20 the incidents in Nj Kip
Iing's story.
think that the large success of The
Road 10 Yesterday as play is due TO
the dim, but not the less clearly per-
ceived. echo It evOkes in the spirits Of
those who see II. There are few OF US,
indeed. thank heaven, so incrusted with
gross materialism, but the fairy-sprites
OF fantastic memory have visited us in
golden moments Who is there who has
not in some strange country-for it is
among the hills and the meadows that
the visions love to linger-come suddenly
upon turn OF the road, and been struck
all at once with the feeling 'Why.
have seen all this before. There is
little church beyond. and yonder is a
winding stream And behold, there
they are. though you could not possibly
have really known it, and have never
even been near the spot before.
We cannot say that incidents like
these are evidences of reincarnation, for
as Tennyson says:
Behold. know not anything.
But we have the right 10 fancy and
10 dwell lovingly on the days that were
before our times and to recognize. in
some indefnable and subtle way, that
the lives they lived and the deaths they
died" have Influenced our lives for good
or III.
The past. back to a certain limit Of
time we can grasp; the future extends
into the infinite at one bound. There is
no step. not one tiny little inch ahead of
us TO guide us.
Not one returns 20 tell us Of the road
Which 10 discover we mus, travel too.
But back there in the past we have the
written history OF those who lived be-
fore us ana "as prophets burned and
back OF the written history. we have the
history OF the ruined cities. the temples.
and the caves; and back Of that we have
the evidences of the eternal rocks with
which evidences our finite minds are
capable Of dealing-up 10 a certain point
And as we commune with the stored
past in reverence and in wonder and
perhaps. with a little fear. we come to
be aware of a presence, real and divine
that permeates il all
Who is there who can look back over
the road 20 yesterday-that road over
a
feeling Of sadness:
Tears. Idle tears. I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth % some divine DESPAIR
Rise from the heart, and gather 20 the eyes
In locking the happy Autumn fields
And thinking Of the days that are no more
Always il has been the sob of the
poets-ah, for return TO youth. a re-
turn for ever so little space. back along
the fower-strewn, happy road to yes
terday. And it is because this beautiful
drama so wonderfully played by Miss
Minnie Duprce and her company, invites
us 10 the company OF the poets. stimu-
lates US to tender and loving thought;
helps TO take US back. in fancy, a little
way upon the road that its appeal is so
universal, uplifting. and fine
And in spite OF the pathos Of It all,
there is an undercurrent Of dainty sa-
tire in The Road to Yesterday" in the
way Il recalls what We so thOughtlessly
speak Of as ''the good old times" There
is another lesson that this play will help
us 70, the lesson Of contentment Il
teaches us that roquelaires and small
swords periwigs and trunk hose are not
essentials 10 romance. To see this play
is 10 be reminded that the good old
times were in many ways mighty I'M
pleasant and uncomfortable times. 1t is
through the discomforts they. our fore
fathers, suffered that life is easier for
US Of to-day. What they knew, we know.
and have added to their sum OF knowl-
edge. Thus far We have Travelled along
that road Of life which stretches back
how many tO-morrOws? A play that
evokes these thoughts within us must
have an influence far-reaching. an ap-
peal almost irresistible. a power for the
good which few sermons from the puIpi.
could surpass in usefulness.