Evening star., 1946-03-03
Fifty Years Ago
Eleanora Duse made her Washington
debut at tha Lafayette Square Opera

lfiumpn or Monday eve
Greet ltolion Actress ming, Febru-
ary II. 1896,
and The Star Of the following day paid
her the highest tribute it could offer
when it afirmed She commanded the
interest and sympathy of her audience
ny the ardor of her nature rather than
by polished defamation and studied
poses. 1t is the fierce white fame Of
unrestrained emotion which makes the
spectator pliable to her moods. -" She
has the natural fervor which compels
attention and has little or nothing to
do with her method. She gives herself
unstintedly to the role that she assumes,
regardless of the penalty which nature
must one day claim for so lavish an
expenditure of vitality" Duses first
role locally was Camille. She was SO
at the moment and had been on the
stage since infancy. The span OF life
remaining to her was % years She
died at Pittsburgh, April 81. ls24-in-
dubitably the greatest actress Italy ever
produced and as certainly one of the
greatest women, regardless of nation
atty, that the modern world ever has
known.
An editorial in The Star for February
%. 1896, said; People who are easily
disturbed by astro-
Celestial Visitor nomical phenomena
Nsa, are in a state OF
men learned In the star-sazins science
are discussing the Perrine comet and
the earth, The comet is = = )" only 40
100000 miles away and is proceeding
hitherward at the rate OF 1900 900 miles
a day. - Prof. Pickering of Harvard
says that a collision is certainly possible.
"" Other authorities were not so sure.
The Star expressed the thought that,
If = it is to be the fate of this globe
to be annihilated in the near future by
cometary force, it might be just as well
to have the affair come OF before any
OF the political conventions meet and
before the republic has begun to suffer
the discomforts OF q presidential cam
paign."
4 y
George Alfred Townsend, better known
as Gath, was the sponsor of monu-
ment to his fellow war
War Writers correspondents extern
Meme,;sI sively publicized in The
Star OF February 20.
1895. The memorial. it was explained,
would be raised at Gapland or Cramp-
tons Gap, South Mountain, Nd, and
would consist Of an arch and tower OF
"undressed, hard sandstone" A tablet,
bearing the names Of writer's who ac-
companied armies into battle between
1851 and 1865, was to be set in the lower
portion OF the structure. Subscriptions
in amount OF $4,000 had been received
from friends of the project. The plan
was carried through as expected, and
the monument was dedicated on Octo-
ber is, 1896. Gath survived the fulfill
ment Of his dream until 1914. His home
at Gapland now is grotesque ruin, but
the war correspondents memorial
stands.
The Star for February "a, 1896, con-
tanned notice Of the funeral OF Edgar
Wilson (BilD Nye, famous
Bill Nye humorist, who had died at
Denorts his home at Arden, N. c..
two days earlier An
Episcopal cemetery at Fletchers, the ac-
count of the rites reported, was to be the
last resting place of all that was mortal
of the man whose whole life had been
made miserable by chronic illness but
who nevertheless had managed to enter
tain millions with his writings and by
personal appearances on the lecture
platform. The income of Mr.. Nye had
reached $4,000 year during the sunset
period OF his career, but money had not
brought health. At IS. Bill took his
fnal bow, still smiling through his
pain"
Sir John Everett Millais, The Star Of
February 81, 1896, announced, had been
elected president Of
New Academy the British Royal
n...;d.,x Academy in success.
sion to Lord Leighton.
This signified his fellow artists recogni-
| ton of the talents of one of the truly
great craftsmen and colorists of the
Victorian era. Born at Southampton in
1929, he began to exhibit at II, collabo-
rated with Holman Hunt in founding
the pre-Raphaelite movement in ls4s,