The Washington times., 1916-01-14
By FLORENCE E. YODER.

Rchan.' a glance from his great
blue eyes, which nose glasses failed
utterly to hide or reduce In size
She was one of the greatest wom-
en- the American stage has ever
known
You see. 1t was because she hac
TWO things-comedy and tragedy.
She was versatile. She was one or
the few who had the opportunity
TO display both of her talents ana
receive equal credit for each" \
father high collar. and tight-iIttinS
coat. coupled with the duty Oi
waving away motors and bugg.-s
with the cane, prevented "A fuII-
face view at any time durin. me
walk. but lightning glanccs from
time to time REINFORCED the idea
tnat the eyes were really a. big as
they looked and revealed the iac;
tnat the brows were heavy ana
quite golden. as was. indeed. the
hair. Or what there was of it 10 oc
seen.
Which, judging from the fleet with
the hat off. was quite as good a view
as any to be had. "NUw here in
America" he went on, they don't
want versatility. If man Shows
that he can do more than one thins
the managers and the critics seem 10
think that he is cheapening himself
and causing no end of row. But
ii isn't that way over in London"
Lightning glance. "Oh no. They
like it over there. The more differ
ent kinds of work man is able t.
do the better they like him. but over
heah, it's different.
They want the very same kind o:
thing here all OF the time. whether
the people want it or not. There Is
no good reason why | should not
have played tragedy "A great deal
more than | dTd-.the people wanted
it. But the critics didn't want me to
play it. They had all sorts of things
to say about my appearance in this
role of ShyloCk in production Of
"The Merchant of Venice" in 1901.
OF course. l didn't pay so much al
tcntion to everything that was said
But then, one cannot but help heed
ing the warnings Of some of the crit
les. But / did prove in an advertise
ment which | once wrote up and had
printed that the box office receipts
for my appearances in tragedy were
much larger in one instance that the
receipts for my appearances as CO.
median. The difference amounted to
several thousands Of dollars. II that
isn't conclusive proof that the public
likes to see favOritc in more than
one style of work, | don't know what
proof i."
There was sufficient apparent sin
certify on the part of Mr. Goodwin to
give the interviewer courage to ask
question which needed an answer
in al good faith. DO YOU think
that the critics nowadays are worth
paying any attention to-" Another
one of those Glances and then a
chucile.
We'll. YOU see it's this way. We
pretend that we don't care one single
bit. and look TO our audiences for our
sentence. but on Tuesday morning
we run out or have somebody else
run out and buy the papers. and
then we read what Is there. and then
throw the paper on the floor and
stuff" But we always read it.
Yes. ] like this vaudeville. but
dye know ]. can't feel as if | am ON
the stage. Not u bit of it | feel so
close to those people out front. with
their heads all tilted UP. just across
the way. and | simply cannot treat
them as | would an audience on the
legitimate stage. | just get out there
and want to talk. It's just like TALK
ing with people.
of course. on the legitimate stage
i never know that the audience is
there at all. l simply do not know
that they exist. If | did. of course
| would get out of my role. and that
would be fatal.
Il have just signed another con-
tract with the moving pictures tor a
long period. ! ,ikc pictures"
The conversation veercd to the Ma
tional Theater. and to the manager
Mr.. Rapley. whom MI Goodwin
called young Harry. and to the elder
Rapley.
Then came the mention OF many
names that were mere tradition tc
the interviewer.
Largely, for the reason that a
the time of this comedians heydaS
when he created one of the mos