Life — September 7, 1899 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

Another Season. TEP up! Walk up! Any way to got up! Hero we are again, ladies and gentlemen, with the finest shows on varth. You pays your money and you takes your choice, Wot'll you have? Serio- comic, comico-scrine, tragedy, comedy, melodrama—anything to catch the nimble little two dollars and a balf, and we're yours truly, the whole dramatic push.” . . . OOD times mean not necessarily good shows, but many of them, aud through the coming season we aro bound to seo many theatrical ven- tures, some of which promiso to be of artistic importance, Sir Henry will bring us * Robespicrro” with the seal of London approval, Mr. Zangwill dares tp give us the Jow as a serious proposition, Mr. Hearne is going to try to make the Long Island clam-digger dramatic, and there are many other theatrical enterprises on foot which will be interesting, whether they prove to bo artistic and successful or the roverse. . . . E never know how badly sh speak English until a second-rate London company arrives in New York and gives us its ideaot what we fondly claim for our mother tongue. Tho people playing at Wallack’s in a farco called “A Little Ray of Sunshine” are an excellent examploin point. Their wrongly pitched voices, their bad modulations, erroneous accents and wretched delivery are calculated to give Americans a peculiar impression of tho language that, since the entente cordiale, wo believed wo possessed in common with our good friend, Jack Bull, For the comfort of that small por- tion of the public which takes the stage for A montor, wo are glad to be able to say that such murder of tho English tongue as “The Little Ray of Sunshine” people givo us is not considered good English even in England, It is a dialect peculiar to some sections of English stage training, just as Mr. Chevalier's patter was to tho coster- monger circles of English society, Edu- cated and refined persons in England still speak in a way which would make them readily understandable in this country, iy bon f MM “TU hy "| avenge “MY DEAR HUSBAND, WHAT 18 THE MATTER? “MATTER ENOUGH! SPEAKING IRISH DIALECT.” the cheap actor to tho contrary notwith- standing. Our own Johnnies have accepted and given currency to the stago jargon which the people at Wallack’s use, but thero remain quite a number of cultivated English ladies and gentlemen, to say noth- ing of the graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, who speak an English which can be understood not only in Great Britain and in her colonies and dependencies, but in the United States as well. “A Little Ray of Sunshine,” which is practically the first offering of tho new dramatic season, is a more or less amusing farce, pretty badly acted. To those who have dined well and tucked various quan- tities of champagno under their waistcoats and bodices it will prove vastly amusing, although even to them there will como a sense of familiarity with its linesand situa- tions. It will hardly serve to divert the thoughts or cheer the melancholy of the sober gentleman who has just dropped several thousand dollars in Wall Street in- dustrials, The average theatre-goer will find it an unsuccessful imitation of “Char- ley’s Aunt.” - The company is an imported one. Its leading comedian is an actor who tries to make horse-play take tho place of unctuous- ness, and the rest of those who appear— even the young women who attempt to 1 FIND TOAT EVER SINCE THAT TOWER OF BABEL AFFAIR WE NAVE BEEN pose as English beauties—ure so obviously second-rate that it seems rather an offense to our American sense of discernment to put tho entertainment before us as an attraction, A better actor in the leading part might carry the piece. As it stands, both play and acting can appeal only to those who like their fun in very crude shape, “A Little Ray of Sunshine” could never set the world on fire, even with the aid of a burning-glass, Metcalfe. IFE is reliably informed that Wil- liam McKinley has not deciined the Republican nomination fora second term. It is also stated (on what seems to be good authority) that Colosel William J. . Bryan will accept the Democratic nomi- nation for President, if he can get it. These being the only two persons, out of some seventy odd millions supposed to reside in the United States, who could possibly fill the Presidential office with honor and safety to the country, all the rest of us might a3 well give up trying. Messrs. Dewey, Roosevelt e¢ al. will please take notic ARRIED men are more unselfish than single men; they have to be.