The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-17
ETTERS OF
TWO WOMEN
BY ZOE BECKLEY.
Enter-PaSt!
New York. Tuesday.

Enter-Past!
New York, Tuesday.
Oh, Maize dear:
1 wish 1 could laugh and Shrek
loud enough to wake myself out OF
what seems to me a weird, foolish
nightmare But it isn't. It's real. It's
weird. It's foolish It's like a scene
in a play written in a foreign Ian
guage by someone half rnad-only
that it's being played in my life ana
there's no dropping the curtain on 1t
and I'm in the cast! 1 know. dear,
this sound silly to you; but it FEELS
INSANE to me! AMI yet why should
it? 1 have seen it hundred times on
the stage
I'll try to be coherent May, Paul
has a pasti It's a Russian actress, and
it walked out on the stage in a Yid-
dish theater and stepped into my life!
No, as I reread this letter thus far.
see that 1 am still incoherent So
I'll try to tell it just as it occurred
and leave the Mysteries till I've told
my story.
| Last night Paul said:
Honey. how'd you like to see some
thing different in the way of acting?
There's a Russian troupe playing on
They've just come over. They're
good. Will you Gomez"
| We went, May, such a theater and
such an audience! They all knew
]
seat before the curtain rose. Paul
introduced me to gentlemen with
| boards, and ladies with hair, dress,
| jewelry and accent all as foreign as
tho we were in the other side of the
world.
The curtain rose Paul had drilled
me on the story of the play, so I fol-
lowed pretty we'll 1t was CONT
mental triangle story. Maize, these
continentals! They clamly dissect
everything on the stage; things you
and 1 would not breathe before men.
But it was ell so sincerely presented
that there was not a faint of offei-se.
The players hal a style which to
me seemed on the verge OF hyster1a,
so unrestrained is their emotion. But
there again, sincerity saved them.
remembered that Russian don't sup
press their feelings as we do.
Well, dear, the first act was nearly
over, when a new character walked
on the stage for the first time-a
woman. She was slim, fiery, black
haired, black-eyed. From Paul
heard an involuntary whisper.
"Bhozhe mov!" Il think that's how
you'd spell it'd
knew it was Russian for my
God!" And 1 stared at Paul. He il
turn was staring at the actress a:
though she were a ghost-and I CUES:
she was 1 touched PauFs arm, beine
frightened to death that he'd make q
scene or something. Inen nearC
him draw a long breath and settle
back into his seat.
! 1 focused my attention on the wo-
man. Plainly she had noticed Paul
She was giving some character in the
play a frightful tongue-lashing. bu
from the moment when Paul had hal
risen from his chair eve had thirt
row places she kept sending looks
in our direction. 1 felt that every
one in the theater saw the whole
thing and 1 was too miserable to live
When the lights went out at the enc
of the play, there was an usher stand
ing in the aisle beside Paul.
This is Mr.. Danskoi?" he asked
well, Miss Luboff asks if you will
kindly see her a few moments. Sh'
is waiting in her dressing room"
Tell Miss Luboff." said Paul quiet
ly, that my wife and 1 are leaving
2 now for home. I cannot spare tn
l time now" And he hurried me int
my coat
Sonia Luboff is a woman I uset
: to know in Petrograd," said Paul a
We left the theater. That is all h.
said. 1 haven't cared-or dared-ti
ask more. And there we arei AM
= what's the answer? Eat.