The Washington herald., 1916-01-31


. of many people. And certainly
of myself, for l would surely at this
moment be much happier in America
than In England. Life, OF course, In
the midst of a great nations gigantic
throes is fraught with keen interest, but
the tension tries ones nerves. Always
| suffering from insomnia, a motor with
a strange voice driving by my window
in the dead OF night takes on the bur of
Zeppelin. / jump up and look out
at the dark streets, and my thoughts
are also dark.
The illustrioCs person who said After
all the people one knows are never
bombed" is wrong. I know lady who
had what Brer Rabbit would call the
Tip cen" of her nose bombed. She was
standing by, luckily, an open window
otherwise the glass would have cut her
to pieces when a piece OF shrapnei en-
tered and struck her nose. 1t bled pro-
fusely. her face has been swollen for
weeks and she was so unnerved that
she had to go to Brighton for a change,
and there she bought some old Leeds din
ner plates which she now hates. But that
might have happened anyway. Without
my nose being bombed. I have bought
many things / thought 1t impossible to
live without, and subsequently. and r-
respective of any shrapnel whatever, l
have grown to loathe them.
One object in particular comes to
memory. We were in beautiful Baden
Baden, my Rose and !, wandering about
the streets one perfect morning in June.
Suddenly beside US trotted a wise black
dog, a mongrel with faithful brown eyes,
carrying in his strong mouth a good-sized
market basket. We followed him and he
entered a flower shop and carefully de-
posted the basket His mistress praised
and petted him, and when I entered told
me that she wrote out a list OF what was
needed, meat or poultry and vegetables,
bread and cakes. and he went to market
and stopped at the bakers, and came
back with the various provisions. never
I lettering by the way, but always prompt
and Trustworthy.
IT would have liked to buy the dog.
only knew 1t to be impossible. But in
the window was a china hat turned up
side down filled to the brlm with violets.
bought that The woman did not want
| to sell 1t. The violets, yes, but the hat
was an arresting, snowy object, she de-
INJURED. In the end my persuasion pre-
vailed and I walked away with that hat.
It was impossible to pack It in a trunk.
so Rose carried II about the remainder
of the summer. She also brought It with
difficulty back to England. And each
year that china hat and I have suffered
more and more from incompatibility un-
I'll now we thoroughly detest one another.
| But well do recollect the heavenly day
when l thought 1t a heavenly hat! The
mood, the hour. Is everything.
There are comparatively few people
now in a mood for the theater except the
soldiers who come from the trenches.
They stop at Victoria Station. wash their
faces, get a shave, and II they have no
visible wounds, hurry to the play. They
want another world, poor fellows OF
| lightheartedness and color, and careless
| ness and gaiety, and It Is provided by
the mummers, who show almost as much
courage as the soldiers to pursue their
avocations, for these days even applause
Is half hearted. The audiences wish to
be amused, anxious faces break into
smiles and occasionally a burst of hys-
terical laughter almost moves one to
tears.
And London wouldn't really care II all
the theaters were closed tomorrow. Act
tors who are blessed, or cursed, with
! quick sympathies feel this instinctively,
and 1t is very pluCky in them to be able
to act at all And they are unfalling and
unselfish in constantly giving their serv-
| ices for charity.
The lord chamberlain has recently re-
ceived a deDutation from the Society Of
| West End Theatre Managers at the St
James Palace, and granted them the
| right to allow smoking in the London
theatres. 1t is possibly only for the dura-
ton of the war. and to make the Tom
mics feel quite at ase. but very prob
ably the permission will never be re-
scinded. and as the theatres will have to
be more carefully aired and ventilated
this is all to the good
"MavOurneen." by Louis H Parker, at
His Majesty's Is a success. Lily Elsie Is
sweet. winsome and appealing as Patricia
| IOBrien, convincing innocence even to a
long string of platOnic pearls given her
! by the King Bat Her Irish brogue Is
| like broken Dutch. She should have taken
lessons from Laurette Taylor. Why is it
that beautiful actress almost always
| relies on her looks and her charm rather
than on honest. painstaking work? This
| Is why so many lovely women are OUT
stripped by men. They realize that only
hard work will carry them to the top of
their profession. Beauty Is an admirable
asset. but who ever looks at the beauties
with whom Rejane surrounds herself
when she is on the stage? The play Of
expression. the revelation of woman's
soul. is more engrossing than the con-
temptation OF well-shaped nose or the
rOsiest of lips.
But "Mavourneen' does not depend on
Its stars. At a matinee early in the
| week there was not a seat left in the
mouse II is a perpetual pleasure to hear
| Sir Herbert's finished actors real ex-
ponents of their art, while the most
pleasing scenery and costumes possible
of invention delight the eye. The most
! wonderful feasts of color in brocades,
silks, satins tissues and Jewels l have
! ever seen have been on the stage OF
His Majesty's. And "Mavourneen," mag
nificent in scenery and costumes, almost
eclipses them all How happy It must
| make an actor feel to know that for
once in his life he looks as handsome
as he can look Malcolm Cherry in such
a beautiful Charles II that one feels the
| little Irish girl is virtuous indeed to have
| repulsed his amorous advances, and he
was not only amiable over his discom.
! future, but he heaped Goals of fire on
! her lovely head in favors to the young
nooleman whom she preferred to a king.
| Is this true to life? l leave-if I have
| any-my gentlemen readers to determine
Besides the splendid productions, the
theater is finely proportioned, gaily dec
! GRATED, airy and as clean as a new pin.
Some years ago, at a matinee of The
! School for Scandal" l wore a chic bls ok
| velvet hat, and anxiously deposited II
on the red carpet under my seat but
there was not a speck of dust visible
I II lac