The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1914-11-21
TOrtures of Neuritis Can't Take
Sunshine From Marie Tempest

mistaken. When II comes 20 q Quss-
ton Of tact In its relation to business.
she might easily have put In . word
for London. where her raj bread.
and butter lies. Yet she didn't boom"
London. II was with the reverse
English. a. We have It In billiards.
THAI she said:
Il believe that audlsncss here. TAX.
Ing them ~ . whole. are moro appre-
ciative ana betteP read than those Of
London. Now. here's the point: We
are giving an essentially British play
yes. = provinciaiiy British play-And
yet lines that went for nothing in
London have never failed to win
laugh here. I must confess surprise,
and the only explanation can md
Is that Americans are great readers.
A. . little example. the reference In
tho play to Jane Austen never raised
. ripple In London. whereas It always
brings . laugh here. Moreover. the
knowledge generally OF English con-
ditions. political and othsrwis,. that
your audiences display has aston.
ishsd me. For one thing. there's no
denying that Arnold. Bennett and
Bernard Shaw have boon morY widely
Apparently. your audiences, taking
them all In all. arc better educated
than those We get At homo. We have
q certain class. to b sure. that 10
fully Informed upon any subject; but
] am speaking Of playgoers gener-
ally"
her head As though shs had said
what she really wanted to say and
was ready to take tho consequences
She gave the impression Of q woman
who would let nothing stand In the
way OF her intelligence. Then her
naturally merry mood came back a.
she said:
THE Joy Of playing here IL that the
moment a joke Ia out Of ones mouth
tho audience 10 on to Il like q bird.
Countries differ In this respect.
never realised this 20 thoroughly as
when ] went to Dublin to act. II was
bad enough to cross the Irish Chan
mel. but much worse whom got on tho
other side. They not only refused to
take mo humorously, but they de-
clined to take me at all. 1t was dead.
came through Newspaper. took my
revenge. ! said what ] thought-in
short that the Irish, though having q
great sense OF fun, had no sonse of
humor. My mplimentary remarks
went the rounds Of the newspapers.
and. speaking vulgarly, got 'beans.
Oh. how they gave II to mo! I was
sick enough crossing the channel, but
much sicker on the return trip.
had gone over full Of hope and faith
In the Irish sense Of humor only to
stand 1t at all until another English
company made the venture with one
Of Wilde's wittiost plays. I think Il
was The Importance OF Being Earn.
est'-with the same discouraging re-
suit. But member Of that company
hnaIly enlightened me. After the ut
ter failure OF tho Wilde piece. he
spoke to q girl-she may have been Q
barmaid-about II. There's nothing
strange In that she told him. we
talk like that every day And there
better than Il could send. Appar-
entity Its own keen wit was too much
for US. I was told Of q throaty tenor
who was In tho midst OF . ballad
when q boy In the gallery caught him
up with . wall and . rhyme at the
same moment by Ginning In: oh.
Lord, my eighteen pence
Miss Tempest put the story into
song with that delightful gift OF hers
that she exercises so rarely. and then
laughed at the expense OF another
ed Dublin gallery. What Ia II,
Mickey?" called out boy a. the
tenor began to bleat. II don't know"
came the answer from the other aida