Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-01
TALK WITH BEERBOHN TREE
New Actor Knight Ranges from Wit
to Philosophy.
TITIE NoT YET REALLY in usE
Two Advisers who Help Out the In
tarview keenly interested in
skyscrRpers, hut Not sure
of American Plans.

N~ NAN ~ al uhllEIE al least.
advises at your departure a taxi rather
than a hanson with a manner that would
grace a court function. English women
who shop in the forenoon with trains to
their gowns drop them when they approach
the bit Of pavement that fronts the estab-
shment so as to get into the picture
PROF erly. Messenger boys going by tilt
their foolish little caps more rakishly over
their big ears and chsuffeurs toot trium-
phantly.
In the delicate Brightness OF the Empire
reception room stage ingenues ask each
other II 1t is really true, as Wilde said,
that a woman who would tell her age
would tell anything and when you
mention the reason for your appear
ance to one Of the employees he
shutters "Sir-Mister Tree for the new
dignity has not reached the faclle utter
ance of everyday u~tterance. Incidentally
you learn that while It is quite proper at
this moment to say Yes Stree" when
Sir Herbert addresses you he will not be
Invested with his new honors for another
week, having been merely formally noti-
fled Of his coming reward, after which he
will be welcomed to all court ceremonies
and levees, an honor which has been be-
slowed from time to time upon Squire
Bancroft Henry Irving, John Hare and
Charles Wyndham.
Radical that he is, one OF the members
of the Tree company said that ali the
honors Jumped together did not amount to
the o. NJ. (Order Of Merit which George
Meredith had and that really so far as
l can see the only good a Sir" does an
actor is the knowledge that 1t pleases
mother" 1t certainly pleases as we'll the
corps Of theater attendants, whom 1t has
invested with a halo Of superiority.
On the Way Up.
So far as can be discovered in a casual
inspection the only weak point in the
magnificence Of the whole establishment
is the possession of a tiny elevator, which
is introduced as an American lift" and
which you work yourself by means of a
pressed in thumb. You don't know why,
but it stops when 1t gets there, which may
be the reason It is called American. The
termination Of your journey is high up
for London, the sixth story, and you wait
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Trees word Of vel
come in a charming corner facing an oak
door studded with big black nails. You are
visibly impressed. and II it we're not that
you are allowed another moments respite
in the dome you would feel yourself abso-
lutely unequal to the occasion.
The dome consists OF a suite OF rooms,
terminating in the sanctun sanctorum Of
'Sir Herbert" where he works and re-
ceives guests and professional compatriots.
1t is a pleasant room with a semi-workaday
aspect. big easy chairs and leather COW
cred couches, The writing table has a
fresh bouquet and is peppered with coro-
rotaA anyoYoNaa Thar Is q fIragopoa taIa-
phone very much In evidence, which rings
continually the Information that there is a
line of impatient people waiting to stand in
your footsteps. While It is being told with
rare patience that Sir Herbert is fright
fully occupied,' you note the small inner
suite beyond the reception room, where
during the busiest season Sir Herbert lives,
never leaving the theater. day or night.
One Feature of the Dome.
There is one artistic feature of the dome
which deserves special attention and which
is later pointed out to your notice by it's
admiring owner. This is the line OF wall
panels, representing in the outer room
scenes from the tragedies of Shakespeare
and in the inner a corresponding number
from the comedies. Behind his chair is the
Falstaff, by some critics designated as
Beerbohm Trees best bit OF work. The
mural decoration was done by Charles
Buchtel. whose paintings OF Tree as King
John, Malvolio in Twelfth Night" and
Isadore lizard in Business is Business
are masterpieces OF clever portraiture. The
originals Of these are in the actors posses
sion. and he also calls attention TO q
water color by a well known Japanese ar
fist, representing a typical London crowd
of first nighters. pit and gallery, watched
by Jealous boobies, entitled Outside His
Majesty's Theater."
1t is during the busiest of the busy sea-
son. when the fifth annual revival of
s-hakespearean plays. with a new one every
night, Is on the docket, preceded and
succeeded by two weeks Of The School
for Scandals series that has been Lon
don's most popular success-that the
few minutes interview is accorded,
and It Is natural that the first
impression OF Sir Herbert Is that OF
q very tired man. which even his great
height and generous sized figure does not
counterbalance. He is not essentially diff
ferent from the Tree who visited America
twelve years ago and today admits with
a sigh that he only got as far as Chi
CaAO, Eo SAduub SIX Iett one men anu
has lost all right to play the lean and
melancholy Dane, judging from physical
proportions alone, He is clean shaven. lie
slightly bald. has pale eyelashes. which
shade very remarkable eyes, OF the color
of turquoise matriX normally. which change
expression and tint, from the sapphire Of
a pleased hospitality to the gray green of
cynical outbursts against the submerging
tenth who believe themselves fitted to be
playwrights because they own a bottle Of
Ink, toward whom he is particularly bitter,
PIayvrItinE Not Easy.
II is Of them he says some time during
the interview. "It is only the smaller think
ers In literature who imagine that they
can turn out a play as easily as they cover
a sheet Of paper with scrawls. When the
play is produce they recognize what an
undertaking it is and that you don't often
find a good one any more than you often
see c comet, a great poem, or a great paint
ing. Playwriting is the most difficult OF
all arts. You can afford to try expert
ments in America perhaps, for you have a
theatergoing public drawn from a popu-
laKRh of eighty or 100000 coo" A poetic
Looking young man has drifted in and
eoied himself serpentinely in a deep chair.
II you have committed the mistake >men-