Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-02


experienced, is the present ever golden;
it is ever gilt and tinsel All this is as
clear as that two raindrops, being alike,
should be like unto each other.
The poor old present is ever in a
very bad way Henry Becque, the
famous French dramatist, summed up
this matter in few true words. He
said, in his Souvenirs of a Dramatic
Author: 1.-THE theater has reached its
end many times. yet somehow it con-
tinues to flourish despite the gloomy
prophecies of the professors and the
malcontents. Every season that same
cry rises to heaven-'La Fin du thea
ter; and the next season the surtain
rises on the same old houses, on the
same old plays"
If our old friend Roscius, the Roman,
could wake UP and look about, he
would be greatly surprised to learn
what lovely things had been said of
him and of his time. And so along
from age to age. If Betterton could be
galvanized into life, propped up in bed
and Cibber's Apology and few other
old memoirs and dramatic histories,
read to him, he'd probably be amazed
to re-extinction. Garrick's was once
the golden age" also a piece of in
formation which, could the dull, cold
ear of death be warmed into life,
would be of decided interest to David.
And then we come along to the days of
Forrest, and then of Booth; golden age
after golden age-andSall very miser-
able, grinding, disappointing ages till
Time had torn off a few pages from the
calendar, when they become scintillat-
ing and beautiful.
Henry Becque was right-the present
age is always in the doldrums. 1t has
always fallen from it's high estate, it's
splendid opportunities, it's glorious
promise. Each age of the drama is the
most dreadful and horrifying that was
ever known since the world began-that
is, Of course, if we give ear to the har-
rowing bewailments of the retrospective
mourners and, as Becque says, the pro-
fessors and the malcontents."
AS to what the golden age should be
like depends upon the person and the
point of view. The actor, very likely,
would call that age golden in which he
received the most gold; the manager,
when the actor worked for his art alone,
and when successful plays were as plen-
tiful as pumpkins-and as cheap; while
theatergoers would very likely put the
hallmark Of approval on that age when
the box office was abolished and all
plays were offered for inspection, like
books at the public library, free gratis.
Distance lends enchantment, not only
to the distant mountain, but to the
azure hue of memory. Old ladies and
gentlemen never cease to prate about
actors, actresses and plays of the past,
for the plays and players they see later
in life can never appear to them quite
the equal of those vividly remembered
and hallowed ones of youth-when hope
was new and life was fresh and beauti-
full. This is why the aged lack that in
terest and attention which was freely
given in their younger days. They are
hr.r,w MI
go to the theater with a pocket scale of
dramatic weights and measures with
which to test theatrical wares.
But the most difficult auditor of all is
the confirmed bookWorm, who keeps
green not only the memories of those
actors whom he saw in his youth, but
those he has met with in his books.
This sort of person likes to have his
actors, as his authors, dead.
Albeit the popular actor of today can
coddle this delicious thought, can lay
this flattering unction to his soul; no
matter how great the actors of the
future may be, to the aged, now the
young and enthusiastic, they will not
appear anything like so splendid as he
does now, and so while the future is
hidden. like an eye when asleep be-
meath its lid, time will surely bring it's
reward. The aged look on the past
with regret, on the present with i'm
patient dislike; while youth views the
future with feverish hope, the present
with joyous delight. This is as much
part of existence, of the regular order
of things, as breathing is of life itself
This continuous belittlement of the
present is as ingram and ineradicabIe
as the cats feud with the goldfish Did
any actor of today happen to excel very
many of the great actors of the past as
a Vatican fresco does a political trans
parency, nobody, for fear of being
thought raving maniac, would have
the hardihood to proclaim it,