Year: 1879

A new departure IN DEamaLlc Cr1Jz


For two evenings of this week, says
Peck''s San, the people of Milwaukee
were favored with first-class acting by
Mary Anderson, who has become great
favorite within two wears. The San
blonde was on hand pretty regular those
two nights, as he always is when beau
tiful woman is being pursued by Villains
on the stage. The first evening the play
of the " Hunchback' - was given, and
even deaf and dumb and blind person
could not help but be impressed with
the talent and beauty of Mary Ander-
son. She is a marvel, andes take on
more emotions and dresses In a single
evening than any of them. She is about
six feet in height, when in repose,
but when her frame is charged with
emotion, and she gets mad or excited,
she seems to raise right out of the stage
and telescope until she is eighteeneor
nineteen 1eet. high, and others on the
stage look like .dwarfs How she does
it the Lord only knows. She is the most
versatile actress we ever sat in front of.
At times she would put on a sweet,
lovely look, and you would have to be
held by two persons to keep you from
rushing on the stage and telling her that
you loved her. like a steam engine, and
then she would put so4l q dying look :.
and wild, scared, desperate expression
so you would want to rush out after a
doctor. At times we would give mil
lion dollars lin notes) to be in the place
of Clifford who didn't seem to know that
she wanted him to hug her, and then
again, when she got sassy at him, and
began to roll her eyes, and her breast
began to heave, and She began to swsl-
low something, and look as though she
was dying for a drink, we wouldn't have
been within reach of her for eight hun
dred dollars. 1t was a singular study
when her breast got to heaying. She
must have suit of lungs like a black
smiths bellows, and when, in her ex-
-citement, she would exhaust them, she
would look so thin that you could trace
her wishbOne with the naked eve, but
when, in her passion, her lungs became
inflated, her bust rounded out, and her
dress fitted her like the paper on the
wall, and then all she lacked was her
own natural Mary Anderson smile to
make the average man give a Pacific
Railroad if she was his sister. D, she
beats them all. Mary Anderson does
not rant. Some actresses chew soap to
make them foam at the mouth, and they
tear around the stage as though they
had bees in their clothes. Mary does
not do so. If she has any thing to say
very loud, and it is necessary to become
excited, she does not rant, but Just talks
it right off as though she meant it, and
yOuscan tell by the expression of her
face that she means business, just as
well as if soapsuds was flying out of her
mouth, and, she was kicking over chairs.
Another thing, in the matter of falling
upon the stage, in tableaux, and in faint
ing, she does it so soft and. gentle that
YOU do not shudder for fear she has
broken some bones.


Nov, there was MOdieska. When she
was here she had to faint away and fall
into an armchair. Not being entirely
familiar with the English language, she
sat down hard on one of the arms, and
had to roll off into the chair Every
body knew by the expression of pain on
her face that she had broken a bone, and
they were not surprised to hear that she
had also broken an engagement to play
somewhere else. 4 great many actresses
who are compelled to fallupon the stage
use liver-pads in different places on the
person, to sort of break the fall. By
practice they know before going upon
INC SlstS6 = otDOub ANIlttt JOIlIOu VI LllG
human frame will be most vulnerable
when they fall, and by strapping silver
pad on to the proper vicinity they can
fall with impunity. Occasionally, how
ever, the pad used by. an actress whose
weight is over 2OOsis liable to be busted
in the fracas, and then there is trouble
again. Miss Anderson does not find it
necessary to use any pads. Fhe natural
buoyancy of youth andT strict attention
to business has made her. perfect in the
art of falling, without any of the adj
juncts of the costumer. Again, in the
matter of weeping, Miss Anderson
holds over all of them. Many
actresses in those emotional plays
ARE compelled to wear an onion in
their bOsOms in order to bring even
semblance of tears to those unaccus-
toned to weeping. The onion scheme


has its advantages, but 1t is mighty
tough on the stage-lOver, who is given
benefit Oftener than his contract calls
for And then another disadvantage is
the constant liability of the onion to roll
out upon the stage when the actress falls
prone upon the floor, which would en-
.barrass any but most hardened actress,


and. cause the actress to look for a peck


of potatoes or a mess of tuTnips to fol-
| low. But Miss Anderson does not need


any onion to assist her to weep. By a
simple turn of the wrist she can cause


natural tears to flow from her beautiful


eyes, most copiously, and sufficient for


any ordinary emergency. 1t is said that


Mary has never been in love, and knows


nothing of that holy passion except what


she has been told. If such is the case


she has had the best teacher in the


world, for her love making is the most


perfect ever seen upon the stage. If we


have said enough to show that we con-


slider Mary Anderson the best on the
stage, in our awkward way, then that


is all right. That is what we started