The San Francisco call., 1913-07-27

the dreamy east is nnally ana eHtlIeiy
obliterated, it seems certain that no
school flying the dragon will ever
thrive by teaching the art of Asiatic
acting. nor will any Mongolian con-
servatory survive the waves of Bee
thoven harmonies to perpetuate the
singular science of oriental counter
point.
Already the ear piercing squeals OF
the Wou Wang hero and the shrilIer
song OF the oriental Apollo are dying
out along the further frontiers where
the east becomes the west, and the
New Chinese" hurry to forget no less
the melodic eccentricities of their age
old static music than the falsetto
ira gedy Of their ancient drama.
Here in San Francisco, where the
Mongolian metamorphosis is being
fastened by direct contact with the
occident, they will inform you that
never will another Chinese theater be
erected. No celestial Phoenix will ever
busy himself with the ashes of the
destroyed playhouses that used to
flourish noisily and with many odors
in jackson and in Washington streets
FEW days ago I started out to
n garner some facts about the con-
4 dltion of theatricals generally in
Chinatown and I was so simple that
! thought to gather them from the
Chinese themselves.
Let me say at once that the Chinese
are an economical tribe. No doubt
they have to be; but their economy
Of information amounts to positive par
simony. If Chinaman has a fact, he
saves it up. On no account will he
part with it. Whatever he does with
it, l can not say, but it is certain
that he doesn't impart it. at least to a
Caucasian.
However. that's not what I was going
to say.
Ever since the fire or at least ever
since new Chinatown took old and
odder Chinatown's place. the plaint Of
the tourist has been constant: Whats
become of your Chinese theater?"
Nearly everybody has heard how Sir
Henry Irving used to sit on the stage
of the old Jackson street temple of
Thespis and pretend to admire the his
trionic art of Mongolian Macbeths,
Hamlets and Lears, likewise 1t is pop
ular information how Paderewski. him
self no weakling in music, used to
haunt the Washington street theater
and there regale his esthetic soul In
the banging. smashing and quawkings
emitted enthusias stically by the indus
trious and entirely sober gentlemen
comprising what was known to a few
as the orchestra. Paderewski was one
of the few. And there was another
whose fondness for Chinese fiddling
has added to the material wherewith
the guides have fed the voracious tour
lists for many years.
Our former fellow townsman. now
famous, Edgar Hillman Kelley, sat, in
the early eighties, so long at the feet
OF celestial drama lists and musicians
that he endured a real Chinese inspira-
tion out OF the clamor of which he
wrote a Chinese suite full Of ingenious
clamor.' He was wont to haunt the
Upper" and the Lower theaters, as
the Jackson and Washington street
playhouses were known to their Mon
golian patrons. and there he'd plunge
his sturdy muse through the thick,
curling incense of many slender burn
ing punks into a regular yellow sea
of unprecipitated feeling-or something
like that.
Anyhow, these and many other facts
such. for instance, as the labyrinth
inc cellars underneath the Jackson
street theater-are familiar to tourists
visiting San Francisco. They cry aloud
to be led there and feel cheated when
they're told that these institutions. as
we'll as the opium dens Cor most of
them) belong to an era of an odorous
past.
Why don't the Chinese rebuild their
theaters?" one is asked.
That's what I started out to learn.
JUMPING at once to the answer, I'll
skip, temporarily. the tedious tale
y Of my adventures trying to pry
truth from silent celestials. of whom
even Of the type now called new
1t may be said in all honesty that they
preserve everything from fish to facts.
and bottle everything from spiders to
speech.
The reason why there is now no
Chinatown theater and why there
never, in all human likelihood. will be
another is because there are no Chinese
actors left. The idols CD of the Chinese
stage who formerly played the ira ge-
dies, comedies and satires of modern
Chinese literature are either gathered
to their families in China or to their
celestial ancestors-if it may be pre-
sumed. which 1t shouldn't be, that Chi
nese actors when they put on their
eternal makeup -read Elysium poppies.
When Uncle Sam concluded in 1892
that he didn't want any more coolies
in this country to stir the patriotic
eloquence of any more Dennis Kear-
neys he put an end to the immigra-
tion Of the Chinese actor Not that
ar actor is considered on a level with
= coolie from Canton. He isn't. He's
nor even on a level with a Chinese
undertaken. The Mongol player is II
the very bottom of the Chinese social
scheme. He is ranked" even by one