New-York tribune., 1910-06-19
CHILDREN Of THE STAGE.
Continued from page six.

Continued from page six.
child prodigies? Do we not know that Hof
MANN in despair from being robbed of hi:
medium Of expression by being taken of
the stage. contemplated suicide?
All Of the above began the practice OF
their art at the plastic. the formative
period Of their lives; that is, as children,
long before the age-fourteen-whfch Mas
sachusetts has decided is the time when
the actor may appear professionally.
It may be true. as Mr.. Lord says, that
most stage children drop out OF the pro
fession.'' 1t is as true perhaps of any other
profession. Those who give promise of
great things do not always reach expecta-
tions, and fall by the wayside. Edwin
Forrest and many other actors forsook the
study of the ministry for the stage, and
some ministers have reformed and gone
on the stage.
Mr. Lord quotes Charles w. Eliot, presi-
dent emeritus of Harvard. as saying that
il belittles the skill and power Of the actor
to suppose he cannot fnpersonate youth,
and. by the same manner of reasoning, I
suppose, if q youth, he cannot inpersonate
a child of three or four!
Dr.. Eliot, It is said, exclaimed: How
often DO we see an actress Of sixty playing
Juliet As matter Of fact. do we ever
see an actress Of sixty play the role Of
Juliet7 And If II were so performed, is
there any one possessing powers Of obser-
vation above those Of a mole who would
be deceived by such {, thing? 4 player Of
sixty might irnpersonate a man of thirty
or forty, but no boy or girl of fourteen,
not even a dwarf, could possibly simulate
Z child of three or four and escape de-
lection
The inference IS that Dr. Eliot was
drawing the long bow. He knows that
Illusion is the soul Of the drama and that
its absence means death TO the success
of that drama There may be some things
that Dr. Eliot does not know, but this is
not one Of them.
As for the naive expression Of Mrs. How
ard playing Topsy when she was a grand
mother, it may be well 10 remember that
Topsy is played with blackened features
and that the wearer of a burned cork
face may be eighteen or sixty for all one
is able to detect otherwise. The real Won
der would have been for Mrs. Howard,
when g grandmother, to have acted Eva.
and not been laughed off the stage.
Much stress is laid On the declaration
that Of 800 children under the age Of IF
teen who went on the stage in New York
City in the year 1875 only i've can now be
found who are on the stage In any capac-
ity'' Wonderful Assuredly three hum
dred Of them never went on the stage
with any idea Of making II a profession,
had no scintilla Of talent for It, but were
merely engaged as '.fll-ups'' TO give vrai-
s1-oc-
engagements that brought few wei
come dollars TO needy parents.
The hiring Of such figurants goes on
here and throughout the country every
theatrical season, and bears no relation
whatever to the prfncely paid services of
child geniuses who give powerful indica-
tions Of becoming future Mendelssohns,
Mozarts, siddonses, Keans, Salvinis, Ra-
Chefs Ristoris. FORESTS, Booths or Jeffer-
sons Mr.. Lord has said elsewhere that
instances could be given Of children who
began on the stage and ended on the
streets. Instances, indeed, can be given
Of the offsprings of ministers. doctors and
lawyers who ended similarly. All of which
proves nothing, except that human nature
is fallible. It is sadly true. as Mr.. Lord
states. that the Massachusetts Supreme
and that no child may work. 1t really
seems too bad that that which the poet
tells US is
The youngest of the sister arts
Where all their beauty blends,
the art by which so many master spirits
have enthralled the world, should be pro-
nounced by the august body of legal gen
tiemen as on the same mental level with
the labor Of the factory hands and the
bobbin boys Of the mills One wonders
what Shakespeare. NIoliere, Goldoni, Sir
Henry Irving and Edwin Booth would say
10 this?
Seriously, there is an educational value
in this whole discussion which Mr., Lord
does not seem TO appreciate.
No spurious substitute can take the place
Of children in ''The Tempest" "Midsum-
mer Nights Dream" Macbeth" Richard
III" King john and other classics dear
TO US. Il would be an injustice TO the
public 10 rob it Of the proper presentation
of these classic dramas 1t would be an
Injustice TO the dramatist 10 narrow the
scope of his theme by the exclusion of
children
II Jefferson were alive to-day he could
not play rip Van Winkle" in Massachu-
sets Uncle Toms Cabin, ''Litt!e LoPd
FauntIeroy,' Peter Pam East Lynne,
.'Ten Nights IN a Barroom," etc, also
could not be given there, except with
nlakeshift substitutes nowhere approach
ing the emanation OF the spirit of child
hood" so essential 10 the successful pres
entatioE of those dramas. and by success
I mean the moral and emotional effect
upon the public
IL nF,gg
genius of the drama TO class its few mo-
msnt5 Of daily artistic endeavor with the
dr.,,dgery OF the child of the factory and
the mill and. as well, 10 shut the door OF
opportunIty IN the face Of that stage child
who Is generally one of the Httle Eeniuses
Of the poor. FRANCIS WILSoN.
New York, June -, 1910.