The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-19

Get civic theatre for Birmlng- ham. That's what you need. You've got wealth enough to do it now and now is the time!''
 In a ringing voice, charged with earnestness and dramatic force, this was the big message that Donald Robertson gave to the membership of the Drama league yesterday after noon at the Jefferson theatre.
 Let this civic theatre be endowed by the citizenship, and one portion of it devoted to real art museum. Have great artists coming to it con tinuaily-every day of the week. and let each Saturdays programme be free one for school children"
 He made a stirring appeal for Bir- mingham boys and girls.
 Said he:
 'Give vision to your youth of this city. Let them know what real art is. Present-day dramatics are de- voted too much to vice, violence and vulgarity. Children should have--as well as the public-the very finest plays always to see. What does 1t matter about us here? We are older. It is youth that must be served. By giving them really wonderful things to see, childrens ideals are devel oped. their vision broadened-their whole life inspired.
 "It Is the most wonderful way to teach. and the kind of art that 8 child Is taught to love has a direct bearing on the man he will be.
 First Night
 "A child may forget many things, but never that first night at. the atre. Its full glory never can fade from his eyes nor his mind. Put beautiful, real, natural things for him to see upon your stage-and watch his life broaden, his vision enlarge, his mind become a store house of beauty. Beauty will receive sympathetic recognition from hirn, and when he is older he will rise up to call you--and his own city blessed"
 The occasion yesterday was bril- liant one, marking the formal open ing of the. Drama leagues season of entertainment, and in hearing MT. Robertson, league members were hearing Birmingham's man of the hour" He is the artist who will pro- duce the city's beautiful pageant at Birmingham's semi-centennial..
 How quiet, how self-possessed, how earnest was MT. Robertson's speech and how natural, <ince it even in- cluded tones that We're almost whis- pers. Back of everything he said there was fire. soul speaking. His audience felt 1t and sat still. When he grew sad his audience sighed, and Ixyha ha Ia, h, These things were spontaneous. Such attention as the crowd gave was dls- turbed even by the slightest move ment of a foot.
 Gifted For Art
 It Is said of Mir. Robertson that when he takes students to learn dra- matics he always asks them:
 Are you gifted by God for art, or are you trying to acquire it?"
 MT. Robertson declared that words were the greatest achievement of the human mind, because in creating them man created means of ex- pressing thought.
 He averred: "A theatre manager should be very much concerned about what he places before his patrons. The theatre If these days, if man aged right, could be the greatest force for development and inspira- tion possible. Commercialism Is the thing that should be deplored."
 In dramatics, MT. Robertson empha- sized, the mirror should be held up to nature-"to her smiles, to her tears, and to her agonies." Only when an author wrote so that his theatre hearers murmured at different mo- ments in the unfolding of the play; That thing have I suffered; that too, have l done; that too. have I felt and experienced" had he achieved real art--done divine bit of work.
 Virtue of Pageantry
 That's the virtue of pageantry,