New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-04

"rho theatre and the church are habits with
.ouo Tho theatre and the church alike are also
attracting folk who are hunting for they kho"
NOT what. Thousands have already given up the
search, md tens of thousands more are "ai''nS
TO be searched
Al this pont Mr.. Macdougall apologized lie
uos bc warned, about to the word art lie
soid he didn't mean to be offensive, but he couldn't
for the life of him think of any other word 'hat
would answer his purpose so we'll
"Say what we will, art has its use. IL Is rs
downright and practical thing to me as making
and selling and forwarding carpets would De- IL
in NV line Well then, its use is to entertain ana
TO instruct.
"Wbv instruct Because If the artist has moth
ing TO say he is bore. The use OF art Is 10 ieeu'
The artist is the chef of the soul OF man. you
can't feed on froth for long. The artist Is the
iovial prest-none the less sincere Tor all thA''
The test Of him is his sincerity. The sinceresl
teachers have always ptted themselves agalnS'
art when the artists ticked palates only Inc
hefty artists have ever and ever given oate royai
70 the Church when churchmen evaded reality for
cant
"Clever. vapid entertainment may fill one thea
tire and empty ninety-nine. Fashionable cant may
draw for a day and scare for a generation. Gov
ernors and governments managers and manage
ments. sooner or later learn to readjust to peo-
pies wants and needs.
"a question of wants and needs. In the end
they are the same to the wise. Your kid hows
for chocolate and needs sleep. The people want
TO be entertained while they learn; and the same
again backward; like children. Only, don't tell
anybody said So
What with watching the nmitable delivery Of
these opinions and trying to keep mental pace
with the man who had thought them out, the Job
of interviewing Mr.. Macdougall was fast making
the writer wish he might have paid his 81 for
seat and given himself up solely to the enjoyment
of the occasion.
There is one thing about Mr.. Macdougall. You
dom have to think up any hypothetical questions
He lnjects his interrogations.
"You can't keep the kids of to-day from a
tweatieth century school that is a twentieth
fury school. You can't keep people out of the
movies When the theatre is as alive to the
real condition of things you will not be able to
keep them out of the theatre, either. The movies
know how to move. Let the actors know how TO
act There is a mighty public champing for the
theatre that one seldom or never enters now.
"In the beginning and in the end it is magma
ton that tells Leg is good, but brain is better.
Let us practise economy. Why get the lesser out
weigh the greater in the theatre any more than
elsewhere? All other things being equal, choose
the actor or the actress with the Grecan leg.
81 you, these things seldom, if ever,
equal-though the legs may be- The good leg off
the stage is not necessarily to the purpose the
stage Give the artist with the right brain
and the wrong leg for the job. 1t is so! 1t is
part and parcel of my work to attend to that"
1t was plain to see that the Scottish Theatre, If
started in this city, would be different in
phatic gestures Mr. Macdougall continues:
81 can mould Grecian form for few dollars,
one better for the play than Mother Natures
own. But the best of stage direction cannot sup
ply brains.
even the architect buges the Greek column to
make the stone look straight in perspective. The
artists of the theatre will bulge the human col
to TIT the bulge in the artists BRAIN Even
now we bulge the word, the manner and the voice
in the theatre. Why not the body? l plump for
the actor with his brain the bulge.
81 will not be bothered whether the actor is fat
or lean, bald or matched, straight bowlegged
or groggy eyed. Actors are rare enough with all
the doors wide open. Why open only one door
one width? Is it because the commercial mana
ger doesn't know his business? / sure it is.
prescott surveyed all Mexican history, in his
blindness as no other could. Huber, perhaps the
closest of all observers of the bees used the eyes
Of his wife and servant We are accustomed to
blindness of a sort in cabinet minister's but
eral distinguished ministers have been physically
blind as well.
"How many would have suggested all that lay
latent in Helen Keller?
an this months American Magazine is
account Of a blind young doctor in an Illinois