The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-01-08
Hedwig Reicher.
ny Ashton Steyens.l

The finest actor since Modjeska
that has come to grow up with this
aew, raw, interesting country of ours.
is Hedwig Reicher, of Germany. In
Klein's 1.-THE Next of Kim" Miss
Reicher is better than Nazimoya in
Ihsen She is tremendous artist.
Perhaps she has come to discover us.
She may-she ought to be-the in
spiratien for that long sought article,
The American. Drama. At any rate,
she will have less difficulty discover
ing us than we will have in discovering
her, for she has all the great sim
plicity of the Greeks, while we have
all the twisted completely of new
race made up of old ones.
She turns the tables on the inter
viewer. 1t is you, it is not Miss
Reicher, who is under the microscope.
She has known your language since
May to state the absolute statistic.
She is more grammatical than you
would dare to be. In time, perhaps
week or ten days. or maybe ten
months-at the outside-she will toy
with English, having fun in it's col
loquial flexibility. For first and last
she is an anarchist.
made her admit it. In fact l ac-
cused; and proudly, yet wothout put
ting on side, she pleaded guilty.
yes" she said, taking the measure
Of the words, "I-am-an-anarchi
She did not apologize for the word
but rather for the common misunder-
standing of it. She loathes bad plays
as passionately as / do, and she
loathes bad acting even better than
I know When I mentioned Elean-
ora Duse, she said: "Duse is the
beginning and the end of what an
actor may do" and then somehow
regular reader of this page q wish
| had his name and address)-I felt
myself to be in the presence of a
superior Miss Reicher was so final
| She talked of actors and acting, and
| of authors and angels, as you and
| would talk of charity or First
Ward ball.
| Sc, nd CO G
peciaHy is she so lovely. You may
| with decency adore her only through
! the self celebrating mechanism of a
printing press. One may say of Miss
| Reicher to a million REQ ders (if they
ever get as far as this page) that she
| is lovely This fact isn't private; il
is very public. Somebody has to pro-
claim it, so why not yours respect
fully? One crosses ones fingers ani
thinks of the loved ones at home and
-one tries to become impersonal. L,
like to be thoroughly impersona
about Miss Reicher, but l can only
in anything in the nature of make
| believe Across the fOotlightS she
Nwon me as a player: in the informa
chat which followed in her dressing
room at Powers she won me as /:
woman l don't get these cases often
but l dare say Miss Reicher is used tC
Kidding herself of them; she can bt
very calm and competent Doubtless
I shall be square with the world one
of these nights when she plays some
thing better than Klein-say, Lady
| Macbeth-but in the meanwhile sh'
is the keenest brain and the hand
soonest girl in Cook county, believe
me- And when she talks to you with
her deliberate perfect English and hel
woidrous. wondering, green-groWi
eyes, she talks to you as though yol
were the only biped in the universe
Her beauty belongs to the whole
world, but her mind is ESQ you fondl,
fancy something for yourself alone.
1t didn't take Miss Reicher more
| than five minutes to find out all tina
knew, and then we fell back upol
herself She fiatters our language
Her supple lips are brimful of music
she opens them widely to be articu
late, and one sees two rows of short
perfect teeth. In them and their girl
do you get her strength, rather thai
in her outer jaw, which is merel.
beautiful The mind has not ye
broken the curve. You sense spiritu-
atty, but at the same instant you fee
the presence OF healthy animal who
could walk or ride you into a stretch
er. The way she wears her dark hail
closely to her skull and the unwhitet
pallor of her skin are testimony t6
her passion for the open country.