Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-10

persensitive lot. But we ,overdo our su
persensitiveness. sadly overdo 1t.
Let me cite a difference in the pom
Of view Of peoples as to characters ina
not only do not express them as a people
but that really put them in an od1ou:
light Take. for example. the character
of Lieut. Pinkerton, the American nava
lieutenant hero of Puccinis very wonder
full and very beautiful opera, Madame
Butterfly 1 suppose that never in th'
history of opera librettO-making has there
been rawn-unintentionally. and ever
naively. of courSe-a more desplcable Gao
than this Lieut.. f'inkerton, supposedly
gentleman of the American naval service
What does he do? He marries confldlnf
little Japanese girl, and there is a baby
born. He deserts her as lackadaisicallA
any Malay walks off from his wife
Not only does he desert her and her child
but when he marries an American WON
an he fetcheS that American woman
visiting Japan, to inspect the little Japa
nese maiden whom he has married anC
deserted. Could anything possibly be
more revolving, more mean, more con
temptible than that? l think not And
yet l do not seem to recall that there
were any riots over the character OF
Lieut. PinkertOn when Madame Butter
fly was first produced in America. The
Americans saw at once, Of course. thai
Pinkerton was the meanest kind of "A cad
but what did that matter to them? What
hurt was it if the Italian hbretto maker
an American officer and gentleman! The
Americans listened to the haunting music
they watched the action of the piece they
enjoyed the performance. That was all
No rioting. little discussion by the
critics of the mean character of the Pink
erton person, and that was all.
IF the Irish Players were to show in
one of their plays any character so ut
terly and hopelessly despicable, viewed
from any thinkable angle. as Lieut.. Pink
erton. | dare say we should have the
theater burned or dynamited about our
ears. Such is the difference in the mat
ter of constituencies between the Irish
and the Americans. between the Irish and
i might say all other peoples.
Again: Perhaps the most distinctive
race of people In the world today out
side of the Irish land both of these
races retain their distinctiveness more
than any other races think that is
universally granted are the Jews. y
proud people, the Jews; extraordinarily
SO; so proud that they have kept their
racial characteristics intact for thousands
upon thousands of years, with scarcely an
alteration even in the point OF view.
much less in any essential line of con-
uuct. 10 the Jews make any uprOdf
over the often utterly false depictions of
Jewish traits, the carcatures of Jews
that are constant view not only in the
theaters given over to variety, but often
in serious plays? They do not They
have no time for such trifiing. Moreover,
they are willing to grant that all Jews
are not perfect Jews; We Irish seem to
be unwilling to grant that all Irish peo-
pie are not perfect people. A few nights
ago L went TO see performance at d
Jewish theater here in New York. There
was most despicable character of d
young Jew in the play He was roundly
Missed. but he was accepted as type. In
English and American plays there is near
ly alWays-always, perhaps l ought to
say-a villain. and often a villainess.
They earn the quick Interpretation of the
audience, but they are recognized as ex-
listing types. and the playwright is not
scorched and reviled because he has put
such types into his play. In other words,
/ am afraid that some of US Irish are
too unwilling to confront the facts of
life. namely, for one of the facts that
there good Irish and bad Irish. just
as there are good and bad people the
world over.
But. tush. am tired of talking of
the theater. The theater is merely one
of the instruments of we Neo-Celts. Ii
belongs to our general plan Of education.
of recreating the ancient Irish ideal. Dc
you know that nearly all of the school
in the ancient Irish language? They do