The Irish standard., 1918-11-16

geous pageant by Louis Parker: she
persuaded Our Mary to take the part |
Of America in it. When into pic |
turesque conference OF the Allied Ma |
tious Mary Anderson rushed in the
costume of her country's symbol, and
cried out, Hold! Into your flrma.
ment bring my stars!" the audience
rose en- masse and stood cheering
while the orchestra played the Amer
lean national hymn.
Must Now Be Fifty Years Of Age.
Our Mary must now be fifty years
of age. and has not trod the stage for
a quarter Of century. Consider the
courage Of the woman in behalf Of
her charity scheme, not merely to en-
dure the labor Of so many weeks and
the strain of acting, but to face the
London public, the young, actors, the
astute managers, who have heard her
glory sung so ardently by her admir-
ers for nearly three decades. When
steeled herself with the thought of
the poor boys in the trenches under
the fire of the guns. What was her
pain to theirs? When she found the
familiar stage scene around her, and
felt the fire of the younger actors, her
love and joy in acting came back like
an old friend; when Ben Greet set
CAS- You Like IT, on natural stage
she found delight in the exercise Of
her talent. When she met the admir-
ing glances of her supporting COM
parry, who will joyfully boast to the
end of their days that the played with
Mary Anderson, when she saw the de.
light in the eyes of her friends because
her beauty and youth and talent SEEM
ed no whit lessened by time, when she
heard the rapturous applause of audi.
ences whos admitted that praise had
not outstripped the reality, when she
saw the thousands of dollars that
poured in upon the suffering, Our
Mary must have realized at last that
she is we'll remembered; that her in
fluence has not waned, that her name
is really benediction, that her ca
reer cast blessing upon it's pathway,
upon the stage, upon her people, that
she is still D. power in the world.
Therein is contained a great lesson
for her and for her people, especially
the faithful of the household, which,
of course, will be learned and remem-
bered by nobody, but which neverthe.
less must be set down.
Survived rs Years of Retirement.
What a personality must she not
possess that it has survived twenty
five years of retirement! What hold
she has had upon the imagination of
her time that it passes so powerfully
into the next generation! What use
did the Catholic body make of that
personality when it was in their pos
session from 1875 to 1890? None
whatever. The stage of that day was
still under the religious ban, and pious
people did not rejoice in Mary Ander-
SON. Did not Cardinal Manning say
to her that she was dangerous influ-
ence, jokingly, because Catholic girls
found the stage safe because she was
on it? The phrase expresses the pre-
else attitude of that time. Prejudice
indeed was breaking, clergy and peo-
pie had begun to see the drama as a
social institution, which could not be
neglected without serious conse-
quences; but no one dared to break
in upon the dreams of the pious that
Cad would some day destroy the
wicked institution with the fires Of
sodom and Gomorrha. Try to imagine
what might have been had not preju-
dice blinded the good and weakened
the courageous. Mary Anderson
would not have been able to leave
the people upon whom her acting and
her personality shed such honor and
delight; they would not have per-
mitted it; all these years would have
been devoted partly to her art, and
partly to such work as England has
just witnessed on behalf of the war
charities; and Mary Anderson would,
have been to the Catholics of this
country patron saint, boundless in
influence, fountain of inspiration,
good works, heroic enterprise. And
the Catholic body let all that rich in
heritance go by the board, without a
protest, in complete ignorance of their
folly like "the base Indian who threw
away pearl richer than all his tribe"
The pious fools must have felt a re-
lief that so noble an influence was for
ever removed from a bad institution.
Had Mary Anderson herself recognized
her power for good she would not,
could not have Withdrawn her gra.
cious influence. Being a conscien-
tiOuS woman che would howe host