New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-04-24
THOUGHTS OF VARIOUS PEOPLE
ON A VARIETY OF SUBJECTS

ARIEIY OF SUBJECTS I
talk like their grandmothers. With
the single exception of Homer, there
is no eminent writer, not even Sir
Walter Scott, whom I can despise so
as | despise Shakespeare
when measure my mind against his.
The intensity of my impatience with
him occasionally reaches such a pitch
that it would positively be relief for
me to dig up and throw stones at him,
knowing as [ do how incapable he
and his worshippers are of under
standing any less obvious form of in
dignity. To read "Cymbeline, and to
think of Goethe, of Wagner and of
ibsen, is, for me, to imperil the habit
of studied moderation which years of
public responsibility as a journalist
have made almost second nature in
me.
Compare with the above the follow
ing brief commentary by Walter
Savage Landor-All the faults that
ever were committed in poetry would
be but as air to earth if we could
weigh them against one single thought
or image such as almost every scene
exhibits in every drama of Shakes
pear9's unrivaled genius.
Minneapolis Tribune The New
York Sun in a rather sympathetic re-
ference to Governor Johnson of
Minnesota as Democratic presiden-
tial possibility, refers to him as be-
longing in the class of "plain, sub
stantial, plodding, safe and sane
individuals who are oftener than not
called to high honors in this country"
The governor may meet some if not all
Of these requirements, particularly to
the mind OF a newspaper evidently for
an acceptable substitute for Bryan,
but those who have camped on his
campaign trail would hardly classify
him among the plodders. He has a
gift of speech and a personal magne-
tism almost Bryanesque in their
effectiveness.
A prominent senator, commenting
on the evident desire and determine
ton to give Theodore Roosevelt a
third term, is accredited with this re-
mark: II cannot see how it it that
the people of the country are ready to
render up their liberties and establish
| a one-man power. Here we see the
people willing that lease of power
given no other man shall be extended
to a popular idol. There is no great
step from third term to dictatorship,
and if a dictatorship we're necessary
to enable the president to carry out
the ideas of reform and the curbing OF
corporations and trusts, the present
temper of the people indicates that
they would give him all the power
necessary, and that means all the
power of government.
Minnie Madden Fiske. the famous
actress-A national dramatic conser-
vatory-perhaps patterned after the
Paris Conservatoire, but in certain
particulars adjusted to the spirit o.
modernity that typifes the best dra
matte aspirations of the time-woulG
rescue our stage from the lamentable
conditions that prevail. Such a con
servatory would afford technica
training. It's curriculum would in
clude all those branches in which ou]
young actors are mostly deficient
voice-placing and culture, declama
ton, dancing, pantomime, fencing
etc., besides the study of dramatic
literature. The science Of the stag
would be taught, mental insight stimu
lated, and proficiency demanded ant
acquired in technique, which is tn
} foundation upon which talent can rea
it's edifices of imagination and pas