The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-11
r-l.s Finds Diversified Amusements in Paris

I hold up; and a third, as a climax to her
mimicTy of voIuptual madness, falls in
7 ContOTtiOnate ta7gle of bare arms and
/ legs in a fluffy heap of soft fabrics. This.
mind you, is a public resort, open to all
NwhOll pay the price Of It. The Bal
/ Tabaran. unlike some Of these shows
! that = shall have to so 10. has no male
! dancers, other than exuberant volun-
/ teers frTm among the visitors This
/ night an OveTiOyed New Yorker of
wealth tipped off the bandmaster with
! SO to play a cake-walk, and accompa-
| MED a highly proficient girl through
/ that exercise in negroism.
/ Here, as in New York, drama Of
/ weight and momentum comes to a
I standstill in summer, and don't expect
I me to tell you of any new masterpiece;
/ but, again as in New York. the volume
| Of theatrical amuSements in Paris, al
/ though light and gaseous, is more ex-
! pansive than in winter; and so, after
! giving accounts of the layout for hot
weather at home, have come abroad to
[ see how European capitals divert them
selves when the temperature is high.
x 4
Twelve theatres in a week. From the
| conventional Franchise to the eccentric
Antoine. And 1 have not yet seen a
play with any other subject than the sin
forbidden by the seventh command
ment. New York when 1 quit it was re-
senJful and denunCiatOry of stage de-
pictions, earnest and ioviaI. of mems
and wOmen's improper sociality. Paris
audiences of high degree and low are
more than cOntent-they are delighted
with dTamatizatiOn of evil behavior
by lovers. The subsidized Coincide
Franchise has to act a MOliere play
periodically even in summer. and 1 saw
one Of these expOsitiOns Of exceedingly
formal French dramatic art An ensu-
ing new piece, though, had for its hero
Inc wife who preferred another man
to her husband simply, solely and car
nally, because he was the handsomer of
the two. The point that counted in
know Thyself,' however, was a terse
and testy old general in whose house
hold this scandal breaks out. He is &C
customed to obedience. The wayward
wife is his niece and her joint sinner
is an officer on his staff Separation is
the only treatment in such a case, he
says, and so he sends the woman to a
convent, her lover to military life in At
rica and her husband to commercial life
in America.
To drop from the highly legitimate art
at the Franchise to fantastic art at the
antoine In Ia Clairiero" is a wife
who, loving another man more than
her husband didn't hesitate d tell them
both Of her determination To leave one
ana in The other. The cddity of tnis
piece lay in the refusal of the fcIlcw
she chooses as love" to love her. Sic
was he ardent TEMPER hs the cuy re-
slSJant, and the passages in which the
usual manner of such wooing was re-
Versed-the woman being the pursuing
animal and the man the fleeing crea-
uurc-seemed to be relished keenly
X X x
In an effort TO estimate and compare
the acting of not dissimilar matter at
the two diverse theaters, I came to the
opinion that the standard o. excellence
at the Old house IS no higher than at
the new CandOT COmpels me to say. /
Also that you might see a hundred
plays presented in America without OBJ
serving equal haTmOny-hOmogene
well. team work. 1 don't like the ways
OF French actors in classic dramas
their artificial demeanor, chanting dec
lamatiOn and avoidance of anything !
natural; but when they get down from |
the stills of their old masterpieces. and !
tread solid ground in modern fiction. |
they create such illusions as we, in !
America, hardly ever achieve. Our di- !
rectors won's or can't compel our ac-
tors to DO aught for play beyond each /
his own role.
Unlike New York and London, Paris |
does not keep many plays in steady
use protractedly. The French people /
are of a touch and go sort Electrically: |
they touch the new things of the stage
and go away quickly i'm quest of other /
novelties: and so, although dramatists |
here get fifteen per cent of the gross re- !
Ceipts, stipulated and collected by an |
organized society, they don't get more |
II as much, for their really successful |
work as Americans and Englishmen do |
with their sliding scale Of five 10 |
twenty. Masterpieces are revived over
and over, and make big fortunes for |
their authors; but the produced plays, |
collectively are as ephemeTaI as they
are numerous.
X
If you believe that all the plays Of |
joint misconduct by men and women /
originated in Paris are Immediately du-
plicated in America, you need to Be |
informed that not one in a hundred is |
ever carried across the Atlantic, or !
even the English channel The sub !
jcCts are prOhibitive. They may be |
written about and read about inOffen-
sively, but not witnessed without shame
in a public performance-nOt by Ameri- /
can people anyway. of the same good
social grace with those VINO enjoy them
here without blushing. The Vaudeville
is a fashionable and artistic theater. II
is there that the few French f7rces