The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-28

 osorss Arls4rsts, after sil. the whole questiop in -6eDfllnus." Ills perforrn- ance is Of rers, artfstry. Of living ac- tors only e!r John Hare and perhaps role. Yet would rather write of Emily Gtevene That MT, Arifss's lembcdienent Of Septimus would be q
 histrionlc treat was a fofegone con- ciusfon- But AIes Stevens sis an un- certain proposition.
 If T wsrs going in for, the job of lprophesying I would foreteli . great member hor7 She Is young niece of Mrs. Fiske. ana Is dangerously Ike her. The eccentricfties in the fam ous actresa's method are safe because
 back of them she has long experience In fhe traditional way of doing things But Miss Stevens has not. So when
 she strikes boldly out she sometimes. hits t and sometimes comes . crop l per for lack of authority. Tn -Septi-
 mus, for instance, she spoiled a, clf-
 max because she was so good. What
 mean by that is that her exceilencc
 was SO marked in the earlier portion
 of the scene that only a great actress
 could have sustained the tension to the end. The point Is Emmy.s dis covery that her lover has married an-
 other woman and her terror of the Rejecting conventional stage de- vices Miss Stevens simply sat facing the audience. trying to steady herself, but her knees knocking .visibly to-. gether. If was 50 vivid a picture of brave fear that the critical audience burst Into storm of applause. The enthusiasm seemed really to unnerve. Miss Stevens For after that she seemed actually to lose her nerve. The end Of the act came weakly. Yet 1t was no mean accomplishment for young actress to have presented an effect so worthily similar to Mrs. Ftske's great attack of trembling af- ter the murder of Alec D,UrbevilIe, in
 Tess of the D'urbervilie's." which was the sensation of ten, years ago Hark, hark, the jolly dogs bark.
 The dancers have come to town;
 Some are in tights. s Some are bare sights M
 And none wears decent gown.
 Two uncommonIy tall handsome. symmetrical young woman, reared in tcultured luxury, but suddenly need.
 Ing money to live on. thought of the stase. as place to liquidate their
 beauty; but they lacked voices to
 speak or sing with. and how might | they be sufficiently entertaining as
 dumb exhibits? Pose as live statues2 ?
 Degrading. familiar and ill paid. Why
 not dancer They didn't know how to,
 and start in early childhood for
 such distinction as the historic Fanny
 Eilsier or the Adeline aGenee. just now the best-paid performer in New
 York. who speaks q few line halting-.
 ly. but dances wonderfully. The prob- lem was how. might young woman
 from polite society; put herself son
 public show full length, and be ad-' mired. not disdafned, by their own
 sort Of people? Perhaps a solution was derived from Annabelle Whit
 ford long, lean girl of the ballet
 chorus, who got celebrity by declining
 to do wicked stunts at the notorious
 Seely bachelors supper. where a police
 raid sent Little Egyptts hootchie-
 cootchie indecencies into vaudeville.
 Annabe1ie did well. for awhile with
 classical barefoot dances at rich folks.
 after-dinner entertainments
 The two young women who needed
 to pass from idleness to industry, Isa- beliaf Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, are
 dancing with their arms now mote
 than legs at two big theatres After
 moons, and getting much money there
 for from modish women mostly. Jsa-
 bella was the original half-naked
 dancer for arts sake. She began sev-
 eral years ago with Grecian god l desses at private houses. Last season
 she matched up with watter Dam
 rosch. and now they have had our l great opera, house for matinees Beethoven, lying on his back in the long sleep, might turn over to stop
 the nightmare of hearing his sym
 phonies played as music for Isabeila's
 anatomical exercises They are no scribed particularly; but they are a
 mighty modish fad.
 Ruth St. Denis Is new thls year with Hindoo dances initiated, and likely elaborated from the rites in
 Asiatic temples. Her show Is an hour and half long,. costs as much as drama and like Isabella's draws large
 assemblages of women chiefly. Why are these young women's artful dis lrobements more interesting to their sex than to the othera Anyway. both are fit for class of students, to I sketch And Ruth introduces herself | in a dim religious light that makes
 her seem far away from the garishIy
 lime-iit pallets of the extravaganzas.
 The whole house Is black. Low pipes ana faint tomztomss make weirds music An indefinite, mysterious
 light flickers before locating ttself,
 and in It's disc appears white-robed priestess. She uncovers an. urn, and | from 1t the smoke of Incense arises.s One after another of eight censors are thus set going. and in a haze of vague | illumination the inner lines of a temple become visible. The priestess
 has done this in fully epveIop gown, l with much of slow turning. twisting and pictorial posing. Is Ruth an I ordinary dancer? No. no.
 So when. in the ensuing scene, I
 discover her squatted on an altar, l with crossed legs exposed to her bare
 toes and her long arms folded across
 her stomach. like a Hindoo idol. do I think it an indecorous sight? We'll.
 not then. Afterward--perhaps A half dozen genuine East Indians go | through with some eyolutions. pre-,