Life, 1890-01-30 · page 10 of 16
Life — January 30, 1890 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Life Magazine Page 66 This page critiques theatrical productions marketed to children. The main article, "The Prince and the Pauper," discusses Mark Twain's play staged by Mrs. Abby Sage Richardson, criticizing how child actors perform material with "mature language and sentiments" inappropriate for their age. The author argues such "kid dramas" are absurdities—children die before age ten in the plot, making the sweet innocence unbearable. The illustrations show theatrical scenes, including one labeled "Young Jones, in his professional career, is making giant strides." Below is a brief comedic exchange ("A Gross Misstatement") between Faust and Mephisto about belonging to "The Four Hundred"—a reference to New York's elite social class. The final caption "A Lion Huntress" appears unrelated to the main text.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. HE “kid” drama, to give it a ge- neric name, finds its latest exponent | in Mark Twain's “The Prince and the Pauper,” done over for the stage by Mrs. » Abby_ Sage Richardson. The main- Ni spring, of course, is the utter- ance, in childish treble, of ma- ture language and sentiments: Such children as Elsie Leslie makes of Little Lord Fauntle- royTom Cantyjand Edward, Prince of Wales, invariably die before they are ten years old, and hence the dramas of this school are absurdities. If they did live through chicken-pox, measles, scarlet fever, and the other ills to which childish flesh is heir, their intense —_ sweetness would become painful and insufferable. But the average child is not so sweet that he will suffer from seeing plays of this kind and acting like Elsie Leslie's. The obstreperous progeny of the ill-bred mother may learn from the stage some of the gentleness which it does not acquire at home, and to that extent, at least, these dramas are of profit. They vary so far from holding the mirror up to nature that, in the artistic sense, they are of little value. At the Broadway Theatre the piece is handsomely mounted and the acting fairly good, the interest centering in and the honors being carried off by Elsie Leslie. R. DALY'S Tuesday subscription nights have rendered him a public benefactor. They give theatregoers an opportunity of seeing what is practically a new play every week. This is a great boon to the resident New Yorker, especially as he knows that at Daly's Theatre he will wit- ness what is nearer the perfection of acting than he is likely to encounter elsewhere upon this particular continent. A GROSS MISSTATEMENT. paust: I say, Mephistopheles, do you belong to the Four Hundred? MEPHISTO: No, Fausty. to me. The Four Hundred belong YOUNG JONES, IN 1118 PROFESSIONAL CAREER, 1S MAKING GIANT STRIDES. A LION HUNTRESS. Mrs. H. Whittaker Haul: Mercy, CLaRisse! PUT THAT MALL VASE OUT WITH THE ASHES IN IT! Her Daughter: 1 TOLD HIM TO, MAMMA, I'VE OFTEN NOTICED THE HAUGHTY BEARING OF THAT RAG-PICKER, AND I KNOW THAT THE POOR FELLOW 18 A COUNT, OR SOMETHING, AND WILL AP PRECIATE THE DELICACY OF THE COMPLIMENT. ‘THE BOY HAS comicbooks.com