The Irish standard., 1913-11-22
A MEMORIES"
Mary Anderson Writes Interestingly
About Some of the
Eminent Personaees She Has Met
ina Most Brilliant Career

A wide gulf would seem to divide
some Church eccelsiastics from the
Stage, although the education of the
CORNER may, in the case of great
actors especially, be supplemented
with much benefit by the lessons Of
the latter. The custom is. however,
somewhat beyond the philosophy Of
the writer who has just found inter-
esting food for reflection in what one
of the greatest actresses Of modern
times, Mary Anderson, has to say in
her volume, "a Fem Memories"
about some Of the eminent person.
ages she has met in brilliant career.
Among these have been Cardinals
Newman, Manning, McCloskey, Pre-.
.Sniers Beaconsfield and Gladstone,
Generals Grant and Lee. Thackeray.
and many others. OF Newman, whom
the actress met at Birmingham. she
writes that, contrary to her expecta-
ton, she was surprised to find the
Cardinal very small and fragile. "No
picture of him gives the spiritual
beauty of his face. His thick hair
was SO white that it looked as If some
snowy powder had been thrown over
1t. His eyes were light in color, small
and full of expression. When he
smiled they had the youthful look Of
boy Of ten. His manner was plea
SAINT, though not so winning or court
ly as that OF Manning, who might
have been q prince in the most bril-.
) liant of assemblies.
Cardinal Newman had more of the
reserve of the student about him.
During our first interview he start
led me by saying: SO you go as far
as young lady can go-as far West,
! mean he explained in answer 10
my look of surprise, I believe you
were born in California The youth.
ful twinkle in his eyes was so irrestst'
ible that laughed heartily. can still
Sc his slight, almost shrivelled
figure, clad in black and red cas-
sock and the beautiful head and
snowy hair with the scarlet skull
cap"
/, Cardinal Manning, evidently en-.
ough, had little regard for the
theater, since he expressed the view
that all actors must eventually end
by becoming "shams." Miss Anderson,
as she then was, defended her fellow
actors with considerable spirit, but
could not move the Cardinal, who
said: From our cradles we have all
a tendency to act. Small boys pretend
to be men, soldiers, anything but
what they really are. Tiny girls play
at being mothers, grading their dolls.
The socalled art Of acting increases
this tendency in those who witness
1t, almost as much as in those who
practise it. His dislike for the thea.
ter, says Miss Anderson, was so
marked that he could see no good in
it; its tendency, as he said, being
downward and pernicious. Miss An.
derson agreed with the Cardinal,
however, in Gas she tells us) censur:
ing the practice Of acting plays in
schools and converts for young girls,
as destructive of modesty and tend.
ing to cultivate vanity and self.
consciousness.
Cardinal McCloskey, the actress
only saw when that prelate was lying
in state in his cathedral. Mr.. Glad.
stone she met first at breakfast in
!. his house in Downing Street. "There
was youthfulness in the face and
fire in the eyes that none of his
portraits suggested, while the ex.
preston was varying and sympa-
thetic. Without an atom of self-con.
seriousness, his simplicity and charm