New-York tribune., 1917-07-29

VIII" Tree loved flowers and women
alike, and would have liked to play
Tennyson's "Becket" (Which Irving
did, and reechoed the poetical saying
of that monk, Men are Gods trees and
women are Gods flowers" l remembe%
how particular he was in choosing Ile
best and most beautiful flowers to take
TO Nine. Bernhard when she lay seri-
ously i'll at Mount Sinai Hospital, in
New York, and was about TO be oper-
ated on. We drove from one florist to
another on Fifth Avenue, as we couldn't
get what he considered suitable, and at
last had them tied in ribbon of the tri-
color as a compliment to Bernhard. /
accompanied him to the hospital and
she expressed a wish to see him. He
found her full of vitality, courage and
enthusiasm" He asked her If he might
give the public a message, as he was to
address an audience (at the close of his
own performance at concert in the
Metropolitan Opera House for the bene-
fit of the Mutilated Soldiers of the AL
lies. With fine gesture Bernhard
said, "Tell them"-and then she kissed
him on the cheek. At the close Of the
concert Tree respectfully threw to the
audience "the kiss of the greatest
woman l have ever known" and then
at the conclusion Of his speech Tree,
! dressed in the uniform Of Colonel New
come, automatically reached a climax
by saying, "Colonel Newcome bcgs re-
spectfully to salute the Star-Spangled
Banner" and brought the house down.
1t may be recalled, in reply to criti-
cisms that Tree was essentially an arti-
fetal actor, that he always shed real
tears at every performance on the death
| of Colonel Newcome. / believe, how
ever, he did use little glycerine in his
makeup for Marc Antony's Grafton over
the dead body of Cesar, and was very
/ fond of quoting the line, "Oh, pardon
me, thou bleeding piece of earthl" the
| last said sotto voce frequently when he
was apologizing to somebody. There
was a good deal of Antony about Tree,
and he was never tired Of telling the
story, especially at ladies' meetings, Of
| the two old ladies who were sitting
| knitting in the dress circle on the occa-
sion of his first production of "Antony
| and Cleopatra" at his then Her Maj
esty's Theatre, when Queen Victoria
was still alive. During the progress of
this somewhat erotic play one Of the
old ladies looked up at the other and
said: "How unlike the life Of our own
dear Queen!" And Tree spared no
pains or expense in the elaboration of
this, as he did all other Of Shake
speare's plays he produced, ayerring
that Shakespeare would have availed
himself TO the fullest advantage of
everything that was available had he
been alive. And so Tree surrounded
| himself with the best painters, design
ers and archaologists. In this particu-
lar play of Antony and Cleopatra,
while celebrating the scene of Marc
Antony's return, Tree .dilated in detail
/ on all that he required, from the local
color of the desert to the purple avn
! ing over Cleopatra's throne, and then
turned his attention TO the crowd in
general and Cleopatra's retinue in par
ticular lie thought it appropriate that
| the Queen should be surrounded by
| four or five Cor was it six?) of her and
Antony's little children grouped around
Cleopatra to greet the return of their
| father, in whose absence they had pre-
sumably been born. But the suscepti-
bic responsibilities OF Trees leading
lady were shocked at such a suggestion,
and she refused TO be surrounded by a
group Of natural offspring, which she
/ claimed was indecent" TO Trees oe-
wilderment and dismay. 1t was "the
| most natural thing in the world" TO him!
He argued and reargued and tire
argued Gas he put it) in vain. but with
the ultimate result that his leading lady
at last consented TO being accompanied
by couple Of tots, a boy and a girl, one
on each side Of her. TO Trees apparent