Omaha daily bee., 1907-03-03

tlOnt the Lyr1c IL 10 'DloW IN again. anu
over the river the Independents" are bid
ding for Omaha patronage at the New
Dohany.
%
strain often Too Great.
Lena Ashwells breakdown and sudden
cancellation of her American tour do not
constitute the first time that players have
been stricken in the theater or on the stage
itself and have suffered severe illness and
sometimes death itself as a consequence.
II was only a few weeks ago that Bertha
Kaloh playing the older Friedlander girl
IN 1.-THE Kreutzer Sonata resumed her
tour. For weeks she had lain in a hospital
conyalescing from an attack Of appendi-
citis from which it was thought at first
that she would not recover.
John Mccullough was stricken down as
he was playing "Virginius'' on the stage
of McVicker's theater in Chicago. In this
theater all the giants Of the drama have
appeared. Mccullough in his day was the
prime and especial favorite. For several
days preceding his collapse he had been in
wretched health. The night that he went
20 pieces he was on the stage playing his
part.
Henry Irving was, as every one knows,
struck down in a provincial town in Eng
land while he was playing Thomasa
Beckett in Tennyson's play of the same
name. The details Of his death were sup
piled by several members OF his company
who visited Chicago not long ago as MEM
bers of the company of his son. II. b.
Irving. These actors, who had been with
Sir Henry the night that he was cut down,
said that they had been most impressed
by the loneliness OF his last hours. He
was to have supped alone after the theater,
TO have seen nobody, and to have gone
straight TO bed The men that were with
him said that they felt that with all his
greatness he had not been a completely
happy man.
Ellen Terry, who is now acting in this
country In Captain Brassbound's CONVEX
sion." was incapacitated for a long time
for stage activity. She is not the most
robust woman in the world and the in
tense work she has done in her life has
made some inroads upon her power Of re-
sistance. Therefore she is particularly
susceptible to influences that produce III
ness.
Just after Blanche Walsh left Chicago at
the end of her last engagement there she
went to st. Louis, there to produce her
new play, THE Straight Road" While
her nerve" She is a VIGOROUSLY bad
first nighter, even. as Grace George and
some other experienced actresses are. In
ST. Louis Miss Walsh went all to pieces
She had to go without playing several
nights. although by the time she got to
New York she was In good shape.
To look at the bouncing Fay Templeton
no, one would think that she had any
nerves of which she might by the prey
Yet for more than year she was away
from the stage purely because OF a nerY-
Gus trouble. Domestic grief brought II out
and with the failure of her health she
retired from the stage. Since she has re-
turned TO 1t in ''Forty-fve Minutes from
Broadway" she has been all right. This
has not, however. been the case with
Victor Moore, the chubby man that plays
KID Burns In her support. For five weeks
this season he was out OF the cast because
OF sickness. thereby showing that It is not
always the men or the women that look
as Il they never got sick that succeed in
keeping their health.
when THE Social whlrr' was being
played at the Casino in New York last
summer the leading part was taken by
Adele Richie The business Of making
her horse jump the barred gate at every
performance and the ever present dread
that she might land out in the audience
instead OF upon the stage so worked upon
Miss Ritchies nerves that she at one time
retired from the cast TO reeuperate.
Miss Ashwelrs acting has been done in
the soul-stirring emotional lines so long
that her whole being has been strung up
TO concert pitch II was small wonder that
she broke down under the great burdens
Ethel Barrymore, who really do little act
ing that is a serious strain upon them.
break down, II would be strange II those
players like Mas Ashwell. who are always
exposed to the greatest dangers OF physical
ana mental fatigue. would not go to pieces.
The late Edward Morgan always had
trouble with his health. He was stricken
several times during important engage
ments and was compelled 90 retire from
the stage temporarily. Hts last seizure
was followed by his Incarceration IN a re-
treat for the insane and this was followed
by his death.
That Is the way that William Seaman,
the predecessor Greater than all his fol-
lowerS OF olcott Mack and the rest. went.
and other actors and actresses have trod-
den the same way.
There was once a time when those play
ers who were TO play emotional roles got
themselves into the NJ condition by conious
potations Of brandy, or whisky. or wine
About the old actors, Il Is no unusual
thing to learn from their biographies that
they looked upon these means OF stimula-
ton as all right In themselves. and wrong
only when they were carried 10 such OK
cess that through their fundamentally II
became impossible for the player 10 give a
performance al ali. Edmund Kean and
many OF the old-timers let drink fasteu
itself upon them with such q hold that
they never were able 10 break 1t on II
downed some OF the best OF them eventu-
ally. one OF It's last victims was Barry