Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-29
BY.
ROY HORNIMAN.
Authof of
1.-THE SIN OF ATLANTIS" Etc.
CHAPTER I.

Idleness and vanity were the incentives
that had driven Anthony Brooke into the
theatrical profession. Indeed, were it not
FOR the idle and the vain the demand for
actors would largely exceed the supply.
The serious, who think they can act.
reckon up the chances and wisely prefer
a season ticket into the city. The idle
and the vain see their chance and take 1t.
Thus. between the two. acting as an art
comes to the ground. If their vanity be
fattered by success the idle become q
little less idle, and condescend to learn a
few words by heart, which they call
studying their parts. They make an
elaborate pretense of having considered
the Characterization, because pretense
can be made at all times and requires
little aSsiduity or concentration. Now
and then some of them are galvanized
into serious work. but such cases are
rare.
Anthony Brooke was more vain than
idle. for he was quite willing to do some
thing. in fact he was bound to do some
thing. He possessed an inexhaustible vi
naturally could not be idle, although he
disliked sustained work. He was pre-
pared to show how the perfect life should
be led. Even in his teens he had De-
practically died out. People fiaunt and
run hither and thither, screaming at the
top of their voices. getting through life
at an absurd pace, but only civilization
bred by German philosophy out of ma
chinery could call 1t living.
Anthony Brooke had neither relations
nor interest on the stage. and. because
he had an imagination which was apt to
take fire at the merest suggestion, be-
lieved the legends as to the huge salaries
paid to young ladies and gentlemen for
doing nothing behind the footlights. He
found that IL he wanted to earn money
Immediately he must be able to sing
to dance, and. of course, he could do
neither. He was unfortunately gifted
with just sufficient intellectual weight to
feel ridiculous as dancer. and of sing
ing voice he had none. He had the adj
ditional disadvantage OF being fair. and
It is an admitted fact that fair young
men do not suggest the embryo dramatic
genius. 1t Is fixed idea with the the
atrical manager that only tall, dark. thin.
hungry-looking young men can act, and
although Anthony Brooke was slim and
graceful and quite extraordinarily good
looking, managers at once showed him
that they would soon think of credit
ing him with the authorship of Shake
speare's plays as with histrionic ability.
1t was true that he had often looked
hungry and thin, but he was not the type
which might have stood INTERCHANGEABLE
for Romeo and a dispenser of iced pol
sons to the confiding infants of the Lon
don streets. Besides, he had a superior
air. and II was instinctively felt that the
superiority was not altogether super
fetal. He had way of becoming per-
sonality in any company which he Joined
before he had been in it ten minutes, and
the qualities which go to make the
atrical manager not being such as tend
to breadth of mind he was seldom en-
gagged twice in the same theater.
Once he had been intrusted with q part
by a well-known comedian. whose recon-
mendation to the public was an extraor-
binary personal proof of the Darwin
theory, and who when he was dressed in
skirts looked like the star performer on
barrel organ. This comedian had en-
gagged Anthony under the impression that
he was incompetent. He himself was so
undeniably ugly that he had the good
sense to secure good-loOking stupid young
men as foils. When he found that An
thony Brooke was likely to make some
thing Of his part he got rid of him: that
is to say. with that candor and honesty
which distinguish his kind he picked
quarrel with him and told him that he
was running the piece. Seeing very plain
~ that 1t was not intended that he should