The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-11-22

but there is a saving grace in her ma
ture-nOt due so much to religious influ-
ence. however, as to an aroused instinct
of decency-and she refuses to rejOin
him. For that he knocks her down ana
leaves her. Mrs. Fiske's skill is ad-
miIably effectual in this scene.
= X
Mind you. l am not at all inclined to
be rhapsodic over Salvation Nell" as a
play. Some time or other. a genius Will
write masterpiece in depletion of set
Element work" among the ignorant, i'm
poverished and thereby degraded sin
ners of New York. Edward Sheldon has
not done it for Mrs. Fiske. Years ago.
in a tragic brevity by Horace b. Fry,
this brave actress made a poor. crude,
Slatternly, ill-behaVed wife in our Ital-
ian quarter. fascinating ugly charac-
teriZatiOn. Fry. was a dabDler in lii
erature, a crony of Booth and jefferson.
and he worked hard, very hard, 70
evolve drama as strong through two
or three hours as that one for half an
hour; and l went Summing with him
repeatedly in his study of hungry and
thirsty life on the East Side. He died
with much tangible wealth, but none of
the success in authorship for which h
would have sliced off hunk of his ma
terial assets.
Why does Mrs. Fiske use Salvation
Nell" knowing, as of course she does.
that ii is not the big play that is bound
to come from BoWery life to Broadway
mimicry? The answer probably is that
Nell is the best Salvation lass she has
found in the reading of many attempts
to dramatize the soul as well as the
body of an East Side creature.
The manuscript of Salvation Nell''
contains little more than the opportuni-
ty for Mrs. Fislle TO astonish audiences,
or astOund them, with realism in her
own acting and the general presenta-
ton. The final third act is as literal as
the first and pleasarter. The scene is
a street in front of a Salvation Army
barrack. A meeting is taking place.
Nell is a speaker None of the famous
m0bS in Julius Caesar" was ever made
to behave more naturally as listeners to
Antony's oration than this rough audi
ence that Nell addresses. Jim Plat
sneaks into the rabble. He fears arrest
for his assault upon her; but he hears
her say. in her account of her own ex-
perience, that she forgives him. That
converts him to decency. The play ends
and Jim.
Next, Isadora Duncan. Naught need
be added TO the printed account of her
bold art in nudity: nor can the dis
/ agreement as to whether she ought to
/ be proud of herself or ashamed, be set
/ tied by argument: but l am bound to
/ give some account of her new collabOra-
ton with Walter DamrOsch, by the in
genuity of which the Metropolitan opera
1 house, home of grand opera in its most
mOdish estate. was crowded throughout
and fashiOnably. The Damrosch orches-
/ ira is away up at the top i'm New York's
musical esteem. Isadora danced in
what she said-and no one could deny,
was the way that the Grecian girls
whom we see mOtiOnless in painting
and sculpture. used to be gracefully ac-
Tive. The theatrical operators. thought
she seemed 10 satisfy all The demand
! there was for her artistic and artfuI
antics. Then she went in cahoots with
DamrOSch's: and I was one of those
who crowded in TO see her dance the
heroine in the opera of "Iphigenia in
Aulis,' while Damrosch's orchestra
played its music. What about it? Well,
the long. 1.-THE. supple young woman
looked like a veritable Greek goddess
as she stood alone in the center of c
vast stage, with her arms and shoulders
cleaning above scant drapery; and
when she whirled into a sweeping
spreading. outfiinging dance. her legs,
like her arms, cleaned long and bare,
too. That was to many spectators. I
doubt not, full value in entertainment
feel sure. too, that very many others
thought only of her exceeding beauty
of motion and not at all of her nudity
If Anthony Comstock, Michael Angelo
and Stanford White had sat side by
side, they would have held three vio-
lently opposed yet all expert opinions;
so wouldn't I be brash to write out
mine?
x X
You may ask me reasonably, though.
to say whether she enacts an operatic
role by WOrdless motions. Well. / wrote
Il play for Mr.. Crane, years ago. and
one of its characters was assigned to
an actor of suppressed yet intense emo
ton: who IN his most heartfelt scene
sat behind a desk with his legs under
il. The part of him that showed above
the desk was in stilled control. and the
part that was out OK the audiences