davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

Is that not, after all, the nub of
the whole question? Suitability
must come first, whether it be in
terror or exterior, and, second,
there shall be subordination to the
dramatic theme We may believe
that no revolution in stagecraft is
worth while unless it observes those
mandates that overdress is bad,
whether it be translated into terms
of realism or fantasy. A revolution
that defeats involved detail and
offers plethora of distracting i'm
pressions defeats itself and errs as
far on one side as its arch rival
does on the other.
"The dominating principles in
putting a drama on the stage are
plain enough" says Mr.. Matthews
in pounding home this point. Every
play ought to be provided with the
specific background which will best
serve to bring out its own essential
quality. A brilliant comedy of mod
ern society like Clyde Fitch's Truth
will call for a scenic setting more
complex than would be appropriate
for feeting episode like Lady
Gregory's Rising of the Moon"
America has not been, perhaps,
as fertile a field for this revolution
as Europe.
There" says a writer in "The
Touchstone." 'soon after Gordon
Craig and Adolphe Appia flung
their challenges to the accepted the
atle, the revC' C'utiorary methods of
staging found refuge and advance
ment in :yYloa art theatres
These can De distinguished on the
one hand from the commercial
playhouses, ant on the other from
these state and iunicipal theatres
which are concerned chiefly with
preserving traditions of an era that
has passed of the Vic
torian or an earlier dramatic
period"
TN AMERICA there was no pros
4 pect Of the immediate estab-
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

are interiors, each having cts own
dread atmosphere, subtly indicated
Try significant Details"
Continuing, he says in "The I'm
popular Review:
"Why is there so bitter & dissatis
faction with the complex and realistic
set to which we have slowly become ac-
customed? 1t is because this set, suit
able for the staid interiors wherein
the action Of the prosaic problem play
is slowly unrolled before it, is less
suitable for the outdoor scenes of
avowedly poetic plays"
'E'HAT this is significant point all
will admit. In particularizing
between the accuracy of the interior
set and the needlessness Of it in the
exterior Mr. Matthews has come
pretty near finding the trouble, upon
which he expatiates as follows:
The realistic complexity which
elaborates a significant room for the
characters of a social drama rooted in
fact cannot attain an equal signifi-
cance when it seeks to reproduce the
haunting landscape of a romantic plav.
Towering out of fantasy. 1t is arpro-
pirate for the Ghosts of Ibscn; but
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

lishment Of art theatres and there
are no state playhouses or other
repertory theatres that might con-
celvably give voice to the revolu-
ton. The movement found its best
expression in the neighborhood
houses that have had interesting
experiences in New York, Chicago,
Detroit and nther American cities.
1t is a fact that almost every large
city in the United States has one.
or more groups of artists who ara
waving the flag Of revolution in
stagecraft.
Yet with it has come the neces-
sity of developing "artist directors"
These are described in The Touch
stone" as being "men who are de-
signers and sound craftsmen first,
and who are then sufficiently good
judges of plays and acting to pro-
duce play on the stage with un-
derstanding of every detail that
goes to make up the finished work
as seen by an audience" .-s.
In admitting that the movement
is not in full flower the writer adds:
80 far America has developed
phenomenal lot Of designers who
are intelligent in the new spirit.
The crying need is for men who COM
bine the designers talent with
genius for directing"
The writer is of a mind, however,
that fortunately Americas revolu-
tlonary success is going to be trace
able to the efforts of its own artists.
Some day." he says, 'thc full his
tory Of the new stagecraft in Amer
ica will doubtless be written. 1t
viii not begin with description of
the production of 'Sumurun' and
the coming Of the Russian ballet
landmarks that have been given
more prominence than is due them.
It will start rather with the indc-
pendent pioneering of few men
like Robert Edmond Jones and Sam
Hume in the 'insurgent' theatre
and Joseph Urban in the profess
sional."
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

Ones mind and habits are in
fluenced by the company he keeps,
as Professor Phelps goes on to say
cone absorbs a good style by famili-
arity with the best writer's, just as
one learns good manners by associ-
ating with gentlemen. ! think, then
that all of the courses as they are
now nged-freshman year being a
year devoted mainly to stimulating in
terest in the finest literature, sopho-
more year being devoted to an histor-
cal review of English literature with a
sufficient number of courses in great
writers in the upper two years, not
neglecting contemporary authors-is
about as good system as could be
devised. The reason why there should
be some contemporary courses in lit
erature is the same reason that COM
pels teachers of political economy and
of the natural and physical sciences to
keep their students abreast of the lat
est developments in these fields.
"The question of honors courses in
English is a difficult one, and is to be
thoroughly discussed by the English
department this autumn and a success
full solution arrived at.
Let me close this article with the
same thought with which | began it,
1t would be an impertinence for me
to suggest how the departments of
history, biology, chemistry, should ar
range their courses. Specialists in
those departments are better judges
than |. But, dealing broadly with the
aim of u college education, l have no
stronger conviction in life than the
conviction that n college course fhould
not be vocational, but should be gen
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

claim to superiority is directly related
to their detachment from useful teach
irgs and their attachment to time
wasting supervision and officious med
ding The underlying raison d'etre OF
the marking system derives from the
beaureaucratic desire to keep the pub
lie school system untainted by modern
ism. The marking system Gan essen
tally brutal and undemocratic DEVICE
permits official superiors to perpetuate
their own prejudices and preconcep-
tions, simultaneously aFording them
the opportunity to punish, and if nee
cssary to weed out, critical minded
teachers.
The young hberal-minded teacher
is paralyzed by the fear lest too
frank and sincere allegiance to honest
modern social thought result in a poor
rating, and either silent dismissal or
reprimand and the possible loss Of the
longedfo increase in salary The
maturer pedagogue, untried in the
ways of sincere self-expression. timid,
fearful, harassed, has so long delayed
his original true contribution to edu-
cational life as to be either too cynical
or too exhausted for effective effort
toward modernization of the system.
His deepest fear is economic. If
he perpetuates the folly of enunciating
a broad minded view in relation to the
social situation, he runs the risk Of
having his superior merit denied him;
which means a reduction in income
and humiliating loss of prestige
at is literally impossible to dis
cover a single incentive to the promo
ton among teachers Of self-respect or
Of enhanced intellectual efficiency or of
continuing interest in the profounder
affairs of life outside the stuffy class
room. So long as the vicious and de-
pressing relation of superior inferior
continues in our school system, pre-
cisely SO long will it be next to impos-
sible for the teacher to think of him
self as citizen endowed with unusual
opportunities for increasing the sum
total of human happiness and efficiency.
THE plight of the pedagogue lies in
this: be has not yet become sufficiently
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

1t is not appropriate for the 'Sightless
OF Maeterinck or for the AS You Like
1t OF Shakespeare. In word the real
lstic set may be exactly suited to plays
OF real life. but it does not necessarily
suit plays of unreal life illumined bv
the light that never was on sea or
land"
1t was fact that when "Twelfth
Night" and "Much Ado About Moth
ing" were sumptuously and pains
taklngly mounted by Sir Henry
Irving the result was mot com
mensurate with the effort" Shak-
spcare's imaginative art does not
lend itself to the copiously pictorial
reality of our modern theatre, and it
were waste of time to try to make
the two dovetail.
Certain of the sets which Mr..
Gordon Craig has designed for one
or another episode of Hamlet and
Of Macbeth indisputably beautiful
in themselves, truly imaginative, su-
perbly decorative-are not in keep
ing with the atmosphere of the
plays declares Mr.. Matthews.
"They arc not unobtrusive back
grounds; in fact, they cry aloud to
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

conscious of his potentialities as a
creative reformerH
Citing what he calls 'tthe recent
campaign Of persecution conducted
with much success against teachers
by the adroit manipulation Of pa
triotic hysteria," the writer declares
that the teacher has no genuine
tenure of position. Upon the finn
sy basis of mere gossip, whim,
prejudice, malice, any liberal mind
ed teacher might be suspended with
out pay at the instigated say-so of
a superior officer ..,...
The writer thinks he knows the
remedy for the teachers ills and
he expatiates upon it after this
fashion:
Nothing less pervasive than an edu-
cational revolution Will avail to stir to
its depths the too long abused patience
Of the pedagogue. Unless he learns
to emulate the soul-stirring conduct of
his comrade strivers in fields Of indus
try, he Will lack the dynamic i'm
pulse without which he will yearn
in vain for educational betterment
Great and redeeming visions imply
heroic and radical action. The question
of moment is: Are there enough lib
eral-minded teachers in our public
schools TO guarantee the fulfilment of
these idealistic doctrines which year
IN and year out they more or less per-
functorily and little unconsciously
preach to one another and to their
little students? How soon will the
teacher take a courageous stand on
world questions, those vital, soul
piercing questions which are the verv
dynamic materials of an evolving deu-
ocratic faith?
"For the inspiration OF meek peds-
gogues, Woodrow Wilson, teacher.
enunciates this liberating doctrine:
The select classes of mankind are no
longer the governor of mankind. The
fortunes of mankind are now in the
hands of the plain people of the whols
world" *%
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15
he Effort to eliminate Rocco Our School and Col.
aeee Curiculums and Prepare the Student
for Ills Real Iustles

become familiar with the history of
various nations, and included in that
history should be the literature and
art of those nations.
"Above all, stimulus, and then more
stimulus, is what is needed If we give
up our traditional Yale college educa-
ton, which prepared men for life-and
the history Of our alumni shows that
1T prepared them well-if we give this
up, | say, for bread and butter educa-
ton, for vocational courses, with eff
ciency. in view, we shall have sold our
birthright for a mess of pottage, and
the money changers will once more
nave taken possession Of the temple.
with particular relation to the Eng
Nsh courses-our whole system Of Eng
llsh courses at Yale, which is not in
the least haphazard but is the result
Of careful thought on the part of the
members Of the department, and the
result also of the best experience of
the past-it will be seen that we en-
Phaslze mainly an acquaintance with
literature and a love for it, We believe
that If it is desired that students
should eventually be able to speak and
write we'll the English language, the
surest road to that is through the love
OF literature and an acquaintance with
1t, rather than through constant prac-
tice In writing compositions. We be-
lieve earnestly in special courses in
higher fields of composition, such as
the daily theme, the history and the
drama, to fit the needs of men who have
particular aptitude. But we do not be-
llevc that the average freshman will
write nearly 30 we'll merely by prac-
ticc IN writing. as he will by becoming
acquainted with literature"
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

the editorial writer all possess q sense,
perhaps an exaggerated sense, of their
social Importance. Only the peda-
gogue, especially in the b-collegiate
departments of education, is possessed
of a strange and desiccating sense Of
remoteness from the sources of social
power and inspiration. The average
teacher behaves as though by premedi-
tated intent he had resigned himself
to being a praiseworthy nonentity. 1t
is familiar fact that teachers, once
severed, even though it be for short
period of vacation, from the school
situation. make desperate and gro
tesque attempts to hide their peda-
gogic identity. They are ashamed of
their 'calling' Those of US who have
had the high privilege of mingling
for years among pedagogues of high
and low degree feel certain almost
Of reflection, we put to ourselves GER
tain half unanswerable questions about
the plight of the pedagogue
"'Ihe educational situation is in an
incredible mess. The uninformed pub
lie, distracted by hundred momen-
tous situations, can spare but scant at
tention to the most vital of all prob
lens. the problem of democratic edu-
cation. From the viewpoint OF liberal
minded teachers, the fundamental root
evil of the public school system. as at
present conducted, is imbedded in what
may tersely be called The Supe-
rior-lnferior Relation. What will the
intelligent layman think when he
learns that the fate of the teacher de-
ponds throughout his whole career
upon rntings assigned him annually by
so-called superior officers whose chief
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

THESE are days impregnate
with new ideas, no few of
which are pivoting upon
our educational systems as
they are applied in public schools,
colleges and universities. What to
TX in the mind of youth and how to
TX it there are questions thai in
volve the wellbeing, if not the verv
lie, Of the nation itself.
1t is well known that the school
boy Of Germany-and the school
glrl az well-has been for many
years trained in the spirit of polity.
The boy is taught that he has come
INTO the world to play his part in
defence Of the Fatherland; the girl
mat her primary function is to be
Inc mother Of sons who will fight
Tor the Fatherland. Germany can
lay no claim to originality. The
Spartans long ago DEVELOPED this
idea.
without rearing up a system as
goddess as that Of the Teutons some
critics are asking if it is not time
that the Anglo-saxon educational
pohcies are 20 shaped that they will
eliminate the rococo from our
~nool and college curriculuns and
oet'er prepare the youthful mind
'or It's logical relation to the state
ihe war has proved that the citi-
"sn VIII cheerfully die for his coun-
'ry; II the end of the war is to
Dfing peace, internal az well az cx-
Hrnal, the citizen must learn an
sssn harder lesson: how to dedicate
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15
Setting designed by Rollo Peter
for "Aglavaine and Selysette"

"HIS is notably the day of
the rebellious mind in many
walks and byways of life
other than political. An ex-
cursion into the domain Of the the
atre discloses that not only is there
d lively insurrecto movement afoot
over the subject matter for the
stage, but over the business of
stagecraft as well.
1t is the plant of the dissatisfied
intellectual that generally the mat
ter Of reality has been done to
crisp until professionally we have
IAN up-to-date autocratic theatre,
catering to the middle classes, and
thoroughly representative of our
abnormal commercial life hus-
tling, garish, up-to-the-minute,
competing with the movies" as a
writer observes in The Touch
stone"
An inventory of the play hits on
Broadway for the season Of 191S-19
and a study Of the settings that
have been provided for theu,-in
the great majority as alike as a
row Of green peas-are the best in
dictments against the modern man
ner of stagecraft, the insarrec-
tionists believe.
Where will the new stagecraft
come from? Jacques Copeau is but
one who believes that some time,
somehow the modern dramatist
will find a way to present plays in
q manner that will be as repre-
sentative of his period as the pro-
dlctions of Sophocles were of the
Greek and Shakespeare of the Eng
lsh. Or, as the writer in The
Touchstone' asserts, I'VE have, by
way Of promise, the immature little
theatre or experimental theatre
development. This is doubtless the
hope Of the new stagecraft for the
immediate future; because the little
theatre more readily attracts art
lists and people of cultural back
ground, and it offers a laboratory
for experiment."
In this cry for the impressioniatic
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

the reformer will concede no whit
that the realistic and detailed stage
craft that accompanies the average
professional production is entirely
preventative Of the times and
points to the work Of such moderlf
American stage artists as Joseph.
Urban, Robert Edmond Jones an i
Sam Hume to prove that there are
possibly steps very much worth
while taking.
Brander Matthews, dean of Arie
lean critics, agrees somewhat with
these young reformers, and yet the
movement sometimes makes him
think Of the remark that E. l. God
kin once made concerning "the
common illusion of young neen that
facility in composition indicates the
existence of thought" There is
something Of that mayhalp in this
phrenetic effort at reform.
Mr.. Matthews believes that there
are playwrights whose dramatic out
put is dressed at it's best in the cur
rent styles Of stagecraft. Ibsen is
one. This, as Mr.. Matthews points
out, is because most of Ibsen's sets
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

DISPUTING those who would
strive for German efflciency,"
Professor William Lyon Phelps, of
the college department Of English,
Yale, makes an appeal through "The
Yale News" for non-utilitarian
courses, asserting that the business
of college education is to Improve
and enlarge minds" that the student
may possess greater efficiency in
whatever line he may finally take up
in the world"
Continuing:
u support the paradox maintained
by James Russell Lowell, "A college
teaches nothing useful During the
four years Of college life men should
have the opportunity to improve and
enlarge their minds by an acquaintance
with literature, history, philosophy, art
and science. Not only is such a gen
eral course better for the future hap
piness OF the average individual, but in
my opinion it actually produces ulti-
matcly greater efficiency in Whatever
line the student NAV finally take up in
the world.
1T seems TO me particularly strange,
after German efficiency has been de-
featcd by liberal education, that now so
many would-bc rcformers and recon-
structors are insisting that we should
abandon our traditi"nSl education and
follow the very thing Chat has not only
brought Germany into disreputc, but
has destroyed her soul. Courses in
college should stimulate mems thoughts
should make them rcnd more and think
more, should give them an ineradicable
love for the highest thought tha. the
world has known. Students should
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15
iii

A DMITTEDLY the teachers them
~ selves will be most vitality con-
cerned in any system purposing
changes. The position of the
teacher to-day is not enviable.
Enumerating some of the reasons,
S. Daniel House writes in THE
Public":
"No profession reveals so dishearten-
ingly the conflict between professional
pretence and actual status as does that
of teaching The doctor, the lawyer.
the engineer, the settlement worker.
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

IN SUM the stagecraft attending
any dramatic work should work
in obedience to "the unchanging law
which declares that it is the perfec-
ton Of woman's dress to make its
wearer look her best without dis
tracing or even attracting atten-
ton to ITSELF"
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

be noticed for their own sake. So it
is also with the striking set which
Mr.. Craig devised for the 'Elektra,'
bold and massive, but foreign to the
spirit Of Sophocles, hopelessly un-
Greek, and likely to distract the at
tentlon Of the spectators from the
dramatist to the decorator"
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15
Revolt Against Classicisrn and Gingerbread

not death, but life, to the service of
the state" writes J. A. R. Marriott
in ''The Hilbert Journal" "To in
culcate and to enforce that lesson
must be the primary function of a
reconstructed educational system"
New-York tribune., 1919-06-15

TN AMERICA there was no pros
a. pect Of the immediate estab-
The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1919-01-17
MAKING GOOD.

Those who attended the exercises
of the postgraduate class of the
Minneapolis Talmud Torah last
Sunday evening, are unanimous in
the verdict that the Talmud Torah
has very definitely made good. 1t
is just eight years since the new
method, the "Ivrith b'Ivrith,' - or the
natural method" as it is called, was
introduced under the supervision of
Mr.. E. Alvin, the present principal.
and the class that graduated Sunday
evening is the first product of the
new Ta1mud Torah. The five young
women who received their diplomas
had not only graduated from the
regular classes but had also COM
pleted a postgraduate course, and
judging by the graduation essay
each presented, the facility with
which they wrote, spoke and under
stood Hebrew, showed how we'll
they had been taught.
But that the Talmud Torah has
made good was evinced as much by
the audience as by the graduates.
1t was very clear that the large as
sembly that filled the auditorium
The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1919-01-17
Jan. II, 1919
EDl TORGAL
PETTY SOULS.

The Jew-hater in this country
finds the field for the disporting of
his petty soul and his mean little
heart considerably narrowed. He
cannot start any pogroms or boy
colts on the Jews, for the majority
iof our citizenry, who are honor
able people, will not stand for it.
And the Jews here have acquired
the manly art of self-defense in
every way. They can retaliate, and
hit back. And so the Jew-hater in
dulges in the innocent little pas
time of having fling at the Jew
in print, Of spewing out his venom
in the newspapers. He will malici
ously make an offensive statement
about the Jews even if he has to
pay for that privilege.
In last Sundays Tribune there ap-
peared an advertisement by the E.
G. Walton agency offering tract
of land for sale with the following
restrictions:
"The party of the second part
hereby agrees that the premises
hereby conveyed shall not at any
time be conveyed, mortgaged or
The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1919-01-17
ANTICIPATION AND RECON-
STRUCTION.

The period of reconstruction is up
on us. The great war is ended. We
are determined to reap its fruit.
There should now be a different
world, a different order. Things
cannot continue as they were be-
fore and during the war.
In our plans and work of recon-
struction we anticipate the thoughts
and wishes of those who have made
the great sacrifice for better world
order, the boys who suffered the
hardships and the privations, the
boys who have come out of it
MANNED and crippled, with shattered
nerves and broken health. And we
anticipate the thoughts and wishes
of their fathers and mothers who
have suffered as much as their boys,
nay, who have suffered more when
Providence decreed that theirs
should be the supreme sacrifice,
son killed in action, or dead of
wounds or disease contracted in
camp.
The boys who return will look for
that greater freedom and more
genuinel democracy for which we
sent them to fight in the world war.
They will want more of that security