Life — November 8, 1883 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘LIFE: Mr. Irving isan artist. Despite the “mannerisms” for which he is so much berated, and which are as offensive to me as to anybody, he is undeniably great. No feeble trickster, no automa- ton obedient to springs and wires, could throw about the weird, unreal Mathias such a glamour to hold an audience bound with the spell; and no creature of the stage manager's rattling co; and creaking pulleys could invest the character of Charles the First with such an exquisite, loveable grace. Mr. Irving can move his audience to tears, and tears are never the result of dynamism. There is a poetry and charm in his acting which captures one quite, though often it baffles analysis. It is sup- ported by a cunning and a masterly knowledge of mechanical effects; but these are the setting and not the jewel. I praise him for the setting. It is often exquisite. A costume, a pose, a garish burst of lime-light from the wings, a picturesque group- ing of subsiding characters about—these may and‘do add to the directness with which the effect is produced, but they are not the sole cause of it, There is a something behind these tangible weapons of the actor—a something which strikes more surely and shrewdly. Some call it magnetism; some, genius, Mr. Irving has great blemishes, but greater and more singular virtues. To a dreary exhibition of his halting lameness of gait and oratory will succeed a flash of power which iselectric. Like a rose in a bramble, his touch of nature will glow amid his stilted defects and make you forget them. Speaking of roses, I wish I had space for mention of Miss Ellen Terry. She has already more than merited the warm wel- come she received, and it is with lively impatience I look forward to a review of her Portia, her Beatrice and Fulict. Henry Guy Carteton. Tose who think our trans-Atlantic brethren send us nothing more than the cholera should visit the collection of foreign paint- ings now on exhibition in Boston. 33 RENDER: VNTO SCISSORS THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE 5CIS$ORS - Shh, TO THE POMANS IV, 44. HERE seems to be an exorbitant value attached to small boys in Brooklyn. At least such will be the universal opinion if the Brooklyn man who has sued a school teacher for spanking his small-boy, and laid his damages at $3,000, should be successful. Few persons will believe that the man has been damaged to the extent of $3,000 by the spanking of his small-boy. No matter how highly he may estimate the boy's services, it is unreasonable to suppose that he was deprived of them for a period sufficiently long to make his loss equivalent to $3,000. Let it be conceded, for the sake of Cad ment, that the boy could not sit down for six consecutive months. He could still have rendered to his father all the services which a small- boy is ordinarily capable of rendering, and the parent’s loss would not have amounted to any appreciable sum—much less to $3,000. If the suit proves successful, there is not a boy ina Brooklyn school who will not clamor to be spanked. At the utmost, the process of spanking can not be stretched beyond five minutes, ‘at least by any female teacher. If a boy can make $3,000 in five minutes, he can support his family in affluence by two yearly spankings. As’ for the boy who should secure a daily spanking—as almost any boy of avei ability and conscientious devotion to duty could do—he would make his father a millionaire. It is hardly probable, however, that the plaintiff in the suit now pending will recover his ‘$3,000. When our courts estimate a man’s life to be worth only $5,000 they can hardly with consistency value the spanking of a small-boy at $3,000.—W. L. Alden in N.Y. Times. ‘Tue editor of the London Lancet has purchased a brewery. At least we judge so, for his paper recommends good beer to literary men, and argues that 1 will improve the quality of their thoughts. "If the thoughts contained in these paragraphs should show an improvement hereafter, it must not be attributed to beer.—Norr. Herald. NEW PUBLICATIONS. HENRY HOLT & CO.) PUBLISH Symonis's Hatian Byways. By JouN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, author of vivdridyshall “ Dowels, «rar impurities of Blood and) ineral Waters, TRcnow, congestion, disrases to femal Seed of ell Chemtale and Dealers tm at Renaissance in Italy, 12m0. $1.75. Freeman's Some Impres-| WALL PAPER. Established 1853. stons of America. 12mo. $1.50. Mrs. Alexander's The Executor. 16mo. “ Leisure Hour Series,” $1.00. “Leisure Moment Series,” 35 cts. Turgenieff’s Novels. Decorate and Beautify your l1omes, Offices, &c. | Quaint, RARE AND Curious PAPERS BY EMINENT DECORATIVE ARTISTS. 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