Life, 1892-03-03 · page 12 of 14
Life — March 3, 1892 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Ten Thousand a Year" - Life Magazine Drama Criticism This page reviews Miss Emma V. Sheridan's stage adaptation of Dr. Warren's novel "Ten Thousand a Year." The critic praises the play as competent but argues it wastes talent on mediocre source material. Better characters existed in the original novel—particularly *Tittlebat Titmouse* and *Oily Gammon*—that could have showcased the actors' abilities more effectively. The page also criticizes actor **Richard Mansfield**, suggesting he once showed promise as a leader of American theater but has become self-absorbed, prioritizing personal showmanship over serving the play itself. He demands the entire production (actors, audience, even scenery) accommodate his ego rather than advance the dramatic work. The cartoons are unrelated satirical humor: one depicts a domestic dispute; another jokes about dogs and social etiquette.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Seite PEAS “TEN THOUSAND A YEAR.” HEN Dr. Warren wrote “ Ten Thousand a Year" he inflicted on the public one of the dreariest novels ever written. But it called attention to evils which gave it fame with the British public, and it contained a plot and bits of character study, which have kept it alive with some students of literature. When Miss Emma V. Sheridan selected Dr. Warren's work for dramatization, she undertook a serious task; and while the result of her labors is a play better than the average, it should demonstrate to her that equal talent could be expended to greater advantage on better material. Of the excellently drawn characters in the novel, 7¢ttlebat Titmouse and Oily Gammon would seem to give dramatist and actor ample opportunity for the display of their respective powers. Miss Sheridan has reproduced them to a certain extent, but a closer study of her author would have enabled her to introduce some touches \ which she has missed entirely. She: EVEN THOUGH YOU DO NOT AD- Lire has always stood ready to accord to Mr. Richard Mansfield credit for MIRE Brow: , YOU MUST ADMIT HE — everything he was able and willing to accomplish. It had hopes that he was MAKES ONE TH Mr. CHarceion. perhaps the forerunner and possible leader of an American school of acting. He He: Ya-a-A-8; THAT'S PRECISELY WHY Seamed to possess earnestness, scholarliness and studiousness. But he seems to 1 opject To HIM, . - have fallen away from any ideals we have formed for him, He appears to have become a victim to an exagger- ation of his own personal importance. He makes the actors, the stage, the audience, even the drop curtain, wait for exhibitions of his own personalities. These exhibitions are remote from the part and the piece. They PRIVATE SERVICE. Party (who has succeeded after a desperate struggle in binding man found in apartment): 1 RANG FOR A POLICEMAN, NOT A MESSENGER WIT OF WAGS. nor ! “1 say, BEAUTY, THAT WAS A CLEVER BIT OF YOURS ON Oficial: VM THE ONLY POLICEMAN ON DUTY TO-NIGHT, ALL THE THE TRAMP WHO CALLED THE OTHER N REST 1S AT THE SUPER'NTEND'NT'S HOUSE, DRUNK, 11S BIRTHDAY ! “Yes; THERE W SOME SNAP TO IT.” comicbooks.com