New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-05-14

hors concours and about them the world
goes on talking long after technical
criticism has formally fixed the balance
between their merits and dement's.
Strictly speaking. this balance is beside
the point. Genius has it's own unac-
countable powers Of fascination Hence
the still living appeal of Rachel. Who
has been the heroine Of many pages
and will be the heroine Of many more.
She was the child of an itinerant
pedIer. one Jacob Felix. a Jew, and
began life in ignorance and poverty.
With her sister she was singing In the
streets when Victor Hugo was struck
by her sickly but original personality.
gave her a larger coin than she was
wont TO earn and heartened her with
some friendly words. A similar chance
meeting led TO the determination Of her
career. Choron, a well known musi-
clan Of those days, stopped TO listen TO
her. and thought II worth while TO test
her voice with a view to training It..
On finding that she gave TO promise
as a singer. but had a certain crude
declamatory gift, he turned her over to
ST. Aulaire, Of the Coincide Francaise,
and before long she had become pupil
of the great Samson. Every reader OF
theatrical biography is familiar with the
story Of her debut at the Theatre Fran
caise as Camille. in Les Horaces." All
the signs were unfavorable. She was
still IN her teens. and her thin, unde-
yeloped physique was against her. she
enpeared in the middle Of summer, be-
fore a house more than half empty. But
Samson has recorded that "at the end
Of the celebrated curse she was covered
with applause loud enough to have come
from an audience Of 1000 spectators.
Some of the comments made at the mo-
nent by Mile. Mars point TO the new
corner's purely professional instinct. and
account for her success on purely
theatrical grounds. "She walks the
stage well. And she listens we'll
All. I told you'll She does not
declaim. she speaks" But Mars knew
that there was more than technique In
the air Just then, and. when one OF her
COMPANIONS remarked that Rachel lacked
strength. the excited observer, thrilling
with a new sensation which she, pecu-
l,arly. was fitted TO appreciate, turned
upon him saying: But, sir. surely you
will allow her TO husband her strength!
Are YOU afraid she will not grow old
soon enough? She grows taller while
she acts, this young girl" In that last
sentence the experienced actress testi-
fed TO Racheps possession Of something
more magical, more mysterious, than the
faculty Of the casual clever player. She
knew genius when she saw 1t.
That is the transcendently interesting
thing about Rachers early triumph-her
animation Of a power infinitely apart
from everything that is taught in the
schools. She had no education, but she
had intuition. There was no intellect
20 her, but there were veritable furnaces
Of passion. Jules Janin. who made and
unmade theatrical regulations, had to
be cajoled into seeing one OF her per-
formances, but she took him by storm
"She Is a priestess. Pythoness,' ne
wrote of "this child Of seventeen" But
perhaps the best Of all the sayings on
the young Rachel is the one made by
Edwin Forrest. That little Jewish
girl" he said, that little bag Of bones.
with the marble face and the flaming
eyes-there is demoniacal power In her.
II she live. and do not burn out too soon,
she will become something wonderful"
It was for that reason. because she
was possessed Of a demon, that she
overwhelmed her audiences wherever she
went. and II is for that reason that her
name even now. as we have said, car
ries a spell. She had the presence, the
demeanor, the art, to match her in
spiration. Here is the portrait left by
Samson. her master:
Rachel was over the middle height her
forehead was arched. her eyes deeply set,
and without being large. very expresstvej