Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-22

believe they will be glad to see me again
I'm crazy over America. I've crossed the
ocean twenty-five times, always with these
two maids, who are sick as soon as they
see q gangplank. and l have to take care
Of them all the wav over. Twenty-Five
times! Think OF that.
Yes. In November. and l suppose | VIII
play Mr.. Maugham's piece all the time l
am there, n It is liked and Of course IT
will be. don't you think so7 l believe there
are certain little touches in that clever
work that nobody but Americans could ap-
preeiate. It's extraordinarily bright,
don't you think so2'
Extraordinary is London's smart word at
present. and Miss Tempest uses 1t in nearly
every sentence.
and Fitch and Business.
Isn't It fine that a man makes his sue
cess when he has practically all the world
before him TO enjoy Il in? So many, and
It seems to me that is the great tragedy
Of life. get what they want, but they get It
when the spirit of enjoyment has been
killed by friction and disappointment and
the waiting and worrying. II I had &c
define happiness I should call II getting
what you want in life when YOU want It.
Oh. Mr.. Vaughan is one Of the lucky ones.
clyde Fitch IS another. isn't he? And
their work is much alike? Yes? Ex-
traordinarily so. I should say. only per-
haps Maugham's is a little more subtle,
the dialogue a trlfle more sophisticated,
but that may be that he has not written
as much as MI. Fitch has. Mr.. Vaughan
says he got to know women by reading
their magazines, do you believe It? I
wonder II Clyde Fitch did, too?'
Miss Tempest interrupts herself to say
that you cannot stay a minute, not a single
minute after she begins to get ready for
her part as It makes her too terribly nerv-
Gus to have anybody around at that mys-
FERROUS moment OF her career and you
promise with equal emphasis that you will
run the very second you see the beginning
OF preparation. The conscience Of both
being satisfied, you sink into your chair
with a staying expression on your face,
and Miss Tempest begins to prepare for her
cue as II nothing had been said on the
subject. She lights another cigarette and
takes up the phrase at the point Of dis
location.
what She Wants to Play.
Next to 'Penelops.' 1 should love 10
play Truth in Americe. I suppose there
is no question that It is Mr.. Fitch's mas
terplece; It does not seem to me that there
could be. But the reviving It is a matter
Of taste entirely.
Il might be accused by the friends Of
Mrs. Bloodgood of trying to institute COM
PARSONS and that would be the furthest
from my thoughts. 1t is one Of my best
parts and one in which I have always
taken special Interest; besides that, the
psychology is so interesting. Oh, the
hundreds of women / know just like that,
who would rather lie than eat, lie, and
lie, and lie until finally 1t gets to be sec
ond nature and they don't know when
they do 1t. They are absolutely ignorant
Of the havoc this pleasing custom creates
and they go on until they come a cropper
as they did in the play or else they sim
ply leave a pernicous trail of evil behind
them entangllng others In a web OF deceit,
the innocent suffering for the guilty. 1t
shouldn't be allowed to drop from the
stage; it's a perennial lesson in morals.
Carries Her Cherished Things.
ITS a great thing, is 1t not, to leave a
cherished remembrance when one steps
from one life to the other-or even when
in this life you change from one role to
another. l think IL was the fear of failure
Nhu NhN poiailN WISH " BIO" DO grace
fully that made me decide to leave the
operate stage for the dramatic, not but
what you can be an operate singer and
infuse a little dramatic action into your
part, but l use the terms merely to dis
tinguish my present career from the past.
"One day l stopped short. / had made
a success, really a satisfying success in
the operas l had attempted, 'Mignon' and
Martha and 'ManOn' and the last light
opera The Red Hussar,' which l APP
peared in on the other side was especially
t well liked.
E But the strain-the fearful, nervous
strain. I don't believe there is anything
3 quite so bad in the world, In comedy
5 you can hop in on one leg II the other is
broken, and what's the difference? But
D in opera you must have a ~voice-strange
and novel as the idea may sound-lt's up
4 to you. the opera singer, to convince the
. public not only that you have II but that
1 you have 1t in good condition.
2 And you stand in the wings ana YOU
5 don't know whether 1t is going to ring
true, whether it is husky or clear, whether
4 you are going to make god or not, and
Y that strain goes on night after night and
: night after night. Sometimes have been
9 ready TO scream aloud in sheer hysterical
. panic.
r Heroes Before FOOtIIghts.
III a man felt as afraid at the moment
r Of facing the battlefield he would turn and
run. l believe that the footllghts have
I shown on more heroic people than the
glare Of war itself. Sometimes the tragedy
a Of these struggles will be written by one
$ who knows-the bodies crippled with pain
and sickness, the aching heads, the tired
, brains, the exhausted Williams and the
heroines, loathlng their virtuous words.
q who have obeyed the signal and gone on
as II the applause OF the ticketholders and
2 lukewarm notice in the press the next
morning were all that they could possibly
desire. .
II think I have been more lucky than
some In being able to turn my talent in
another direction before II was too late.
and my dear enemies had tho right to say
! that l did II because ! had to. didn't
| have to. but l had common sense and a
certain pr~escience, and It's good for me "a
: hear, as l frequently do, the oh. why did
a you leave opera instead OF the silent
1 Ignoring Of the subject, which is worse. a
thousand times worse, than any hostile
criticism. Extraordinary how eloquent
that silence can be.
But / have not given up my music en-.
70 tirelV only I have ghapgna gts ...f4t-