The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-02-14
LARGE AUDIENCE
SEES CLANSMAN
CONTEST TO PRESERVE ANGLO
SAXON CIVILIZATION VIVID
LY PORTRAYED.
ACTORS DO THEIR PARTS WELL
Strong Cast Gives credltable Interpre-
tation to Dixon's Mas
terpieee.


The large audience which filed botf
floors of the Columbia Opera House
Monday night for the production Of
The Clansman, witnessed a true pic
ture of those dark days Of Carpet-Bag
rule in the South following the hor.
/ rors, the tears, the suffering and
death of the war between the States.
We of the younger generation can lit.
/ tie realize the suffering of the men
and women of the South when the
country lay PROSTATE under the heel
of conquerer, and it takes a book
like The Leopard's Spots or The
Clansman or a play like The Clans
man, written by a man whose knowl-
edge was personal with the times and
who suffered with the South, to open
our eyes to what the older generation
bore and overcame. No race, whose
veins carried a drop of towards blood,
none but the virile, conquering Anglo
Saxon, backed as SLOVENIAN said by
thousand years of achievement, could
have risen to the emergency and over
come the anarchy and brute SUI
premacy that threatened to overthrow
the white people of the Southern
States. 1t was the aristocracy of the
South, those courteous, polished gen.
tlemen, who had been beaten pros
trate by Overwhelming numbers, but
never had and never could be con-
quered, who led the way and saved
the South for it's sovereign race.
Horrible as the picture appears
when the curtain is lifted today, the
horrors of reality were MANIFOLD. |
as some features appear,
the ignorance and the gullibility Of
the newly enfranchised freedmen.
made those ridiculous features true
TO life. That they were true the
men and women OF the
audience could testify, and one who
sat near some veteran, who had served
his country through the war and then
rs member of the Ku Klux Khan
lad helped to sweep the negro rule
md carpet-bag rule from the South,
could tell by every look and gesture
hat this fearless follower of the
mighty Forrest was living over again
hose trying times and scenes as he
rowned on Silas Lynch or followed ,
Zen Cameron on some midnight raid. |
)r some aged dame In the audience !
'ould speak to some neighbor and :
~. yes, my only dress was also I
lade from window curtain in those r
mes, and have spent many an hour '
ewing the seams Of a XII Klux gown C
lch as Ben Cameron and his follow Y
rs wear today" 9
Yes, 1t was a true picture, truly I
cted. There we're probably no bril- ii
ant actors on the stage, but all were
frly true to life, and there is little O
'fticism save that Franklin Richie II
Ben Cameron, should have enun- il
ated more distinctly and might have Il
zen stronger actor. without doubt D,
mes J. RYAN as Silas Lynch was in
e strongest actor in the company. IL
Unpopular as this character is, Ryan ia
picted 1t to perfection, and after 81
g audience grasped his meaning and til
$ desire for social equality, they e.
ew to hate him almost as bitterly an
the white people Of South Caro- Sc
learned to hate the real Lynch, m
d Kissed him on nearly every APP tn
arance. Eugenia Hayden as Elsie co
'neman the leading woman, is a ca
ished actress and beautiful wo-
N, and met the trying demands OF no
: part most satisfactorily. Maud CO.
rand as Eve, deserves more than IA,
'sing notice. She portrayed the is
t Of the old negro nanny true TO col
ure. and her laugh could only be do,
result OF true insight and deep Fir
dvbuh ~ true iseiEAt Ho8 3fani tfys1