Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-25

bit for your story; TAI II out Of the story
and Try to make Il go In a play II falls
absolutely fiat and will not reach over the
footlights even so far as as the first row
OF stalls. why? Nobody knows. Play
writing is founded on an entirely dissimilar
idea from novel writing and what that
idea is nobody has yet defined.
II have never been in America and I
am extremely anxious to come TO your
country. although I have not yet been able
TO plan for II with any certainty. When
you look ahead and imagine a success
you think Of the things you will do when
II comes. America doomed large in my
ina ginings, but the success brought with
II obligations and work and responsibilities;
some of the thlngs It meant to me nave
had to be cut out.
81 want to study your people. I expect
to be greatly impressed with your live
ness your initiative, your difference TO
ourselves. I imagine you much more hos
pitable to the stranger"
His Notions of America.
Mr.. Vaughan inquiries IL it Is not much
easier to work and play in America. He
has heard so.
Judging from the few American plays
I have seen here, I believe that you actors
work together better than ours do; that
each helps the other and that your en-
semble is more satisfactory on that account.
/ may be wrong in this, for / have seen
beside Arizona which l consider one Of
the best melodramas ! ever saw, only the
play of 'Strongheart' on which to base my
assumption. l never saw a play where 1t
seemed to me you got so completely the
idea that everybody was working to help
everybody else and that the success, as a
whole, meant more to every one of the
cast than an Individual triumph. 1 espe-
cially noted this in Robert Blossoms part.
He Is to appear in a play of mine this
coming winter in America. 1t is called
The Noble spaniard.' The scene is laid
in Calais in 1850, it is a comedy and the
costumes of the period are very amusing.
when I speak of America l think Of
Pittsburg. want to see 1t more than any
place in the world. 1 have heard that there
never was a more ugly city, and l don't
believe It. ] know that I shall find it as
beautiful as Florence. Whistler, you
know, had to come to London and teach
the English people how to appreciate the
Thames, the foggy days, the heavy smoke.
He revealed artistically in the atmosphere
conditions which had been acceptend as the
great aesthetic drawback, with Italy al
ways in mind.
~PittsburE'S "AtmOsphere."
Beauty exists in the eye of the beholder.
You must make the beauty yourself, in
other words. When 1 was at the age when
one is tan ght, but does nothing for one
self, l was made to believe that factories
AMI factory chimneys, the pail of smoke,
the gray days and nights were ugly things.
Now 1 know better, and I believe that
shall enjoy in P%ittsburg the climax Of ar
tlstic delight that l have learned to find
in environments of that kind.
There is one that am especially fond
of. 1 have never seen a more exquisite
landscape. 1t is along the Midway on
the road to Chatham as you go to Paris
by the Dover route. Don't miss seeing 1t
from your car window. There are times
when it is as delicately tinted as a Corot
landscape, there are moments when 1t is
like an impression Of a huge fire opal"
Having proved to his own and the inter
viewers satisfaction that Pittsburg and the
Midway share the worlds beauty and
charm, with a leaning toward Pittsburg,
MT. Vaughan goes calmly on to announce
that whenever he is not in London he
lives by preference In a small place oppo-
site Bellagio, on the Riviera, where he
goes soon to fill the many orders for
plays which will keep him busy for some
months to come. 1t is there that his new
piece which will be produced by Mr..
Frohman is to be completed. 1t is called
Smith" and is a serious play. 1T is in
tended to show" continues the speaker,
how it is possible to lead the simple life
even amid complex surroundings. The
-s-N ~ - 4 ----1
one. but l hope 1 nave succeeded in finding
a novel viewpoint. 1 don't think the time
Of it's American production has been de-
cided upon"
Censor, AuthOr, Actor and Critic.
'"The censor2 Oh, we love the censor, he
is so much better than the police. Every
play has to be sent to him to read over and
it's ten chances to one that it escapes his
blue pencil. But when you have the censor
against you, you often have the critics
with you, so there again is the balancing
law.
In one of my plays. "A Man of Honor
it was necessary to use a very ugly word,
and l used it because that was the only
word that would do. The censor promptly
crossed 1t out, saying that one might en-
ploy the verb to seduce' In a melodrama,
for it was expected there and no melo-
drama would be complete without it, but
not In a serious play; it was too offensive.
Not having a synonym in my vocabulary
that would fill the place, a happy inspira-
ton occurred to me and l said, 1 will leave
the word out for the actor who plays the
part to say what he pleases. 1 did SO. and
the actor being in the same dilemma as
myself, merely scowled, waved a twisted
finger and thumb and looked unutterable
things at the climatic moment. The critics
the next day said that a man less versed
in the art of playwriting than Mr..
Vaughan might have committed the SOLE
oism Of using a crude phrase. but he, with
his accustomed art. merely suggested and
In that way made his meaning doubly
clear and wrote himself down a master of
method"
ANOTHER ILLUSION SHATTERED