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Show Old Friends of Maude Adams I Extend Her Royal Welcome I I I; ...AMUSEMEWTS.r LAST night a great play culminated as "The Little Mlnlrter" began. Its story was of the life of a girl. It opened when the heroine was a mere babe in arms. It reached its climax in the thirty-first year thereafter, there-after, when the one who was that babe came back a queen. And the first scene and tho last were on the self-same r.pot. No! It had something earlier still. There was a prologue. And the theme of the prologue was heredity. Shall we think of the climax first the climax of the play that was real Thero stands the girlish, graceful figure of thc- queen. In all the outward forms which the world chooses to call regal she Is wanting. She neither huge nor haughty is. She wears no costume lit to ornament a scene at court There are no gems brought from the treasure stores of the world to Hash a royal luster. She bears no golden crown. But upon her brow Is the invisible in-visible laurel. Her queenshlp is one of hearta and minds, and It rests secure upon the sublime right of a rare and exquisite quality of feeling and a surpassing sur-passing art of action. She holds us all ns subjects because going among the people of her land with the power of a gentle genius she has convinced the world of her right to rule, and because we see for ourselves that the world was rightly swayed. She stands there, halted in her capricious skipping, halted by the tumult. tu-mult. She bows. She bows, not in stately form, but with tho impulsive nodding of some saucy witch. She bows again, for still there is the swelling greeting of the beating hands. And still she stands there, for the waves of welcome are roaring In upon her, and she cannot move. The applauding hands are tho hands of Utah, and they speak to her of Utah's pride. Shall we try to imagine the force and kind of feeling that now elates and thrills, now sways and overcomes the soul of one who comes back victor and stands there listening to the sweet plaudits of the multitude at home? There is no such other multitude on earth for her. Greater ones there are. More brilliant, maybe. Before applauding applaud-ing hundreds has she stood so many limes that she may not count them all. Genius has paid its tribute to her, "Weulth has lowered Its head to her. Often has she looked out over tiers of people garbed and jeweled to a state of splendor. All these displays may have touched her heart and perhaps stirred the vanity that, being a woman, she must somewhere have. But none of all of them could cast upon her the moving influence peculiar to an audience audi-ence gathered to see her play upon her native ground. , For In this house were neighbors of her grandparents. Hero were those who knew her father longer than his daughter daugh-ter did. Here were friends of her mother of the days when Maude was not. Here were those who saw her when she was a bab there were many, many, of this growing class. Here were the playmates of her childhood. Here many of the younger ones who had grown up to hear the fascinating story of what Maude Adams did. And here were those who had come In later days who knew her not. except through fame, but who had been wont to say In local pride that in this city was Maude Adams born. No, nowhere else could such a gathering be for her. "Whore else could she have more desired to please? And under all these eyes of Zlon may she not have felt a greater strain than If she played where only strangers sat? Not that these were over critical, but because they friendly were. For she knew that ln that great audience of her homo-coming were many who thought not merely of Maude Adams, nor yet of Lady Babble, but of the lassie of Klskudden. And how may Ave fathom the feelings of the mother who wait thero? The mother, proud by right. The mother who had had ambitions of her own. but hud kept a lower place and Joined with maternal fervor in the glorifying of her daughter. The mother who for years had heard the praises of her Maude from the lips of strangers was now hearing the sweeter music of her old friends' tribute and applause. Thcr? unon tho boards where the mother had SILVER LOVING CUP, Presented Maude Adams by Her Salt Lake Friends. won favor yes, where thc mother and the child had been, the child now was. triumphant. No one may tell all that mother thought in her proper pride last night. From the day of birth to the day of this new triumph there had been a long, long stretch of years, and there had been many things between. And here may we not say of the mother that she herself deserves high praise. Her share in last night's glory was earned well. Maude was born to tho stage. Maude's mother had no such start she had to gain a footing there. Maude had the guidance of an artist from her earliest days. Her mother made her way alone. The daughter had the way made smooth, or if her path was rough, she had the helping hand of Mrs. Adams there. So we may praise tho mother, not only for what she has accomplished on the stage, but for the work she has done so well behind be-hind the scenes. And then there was the grandam ln her double pride the woman who was the mother of the mother! Going back to the prologue of the real life play, and the suggestion of heredi-tarv heredi-tarv it bears, we see the value of the dramatic training of the early days. But for what was done for the drama here and tho drawing of the first Miss Adams to the stage, the later one would not have been endowed with so rich an Inheritance of dramatic power. But there was the cultivation. And in this place that once was desert there grew for the drama one of the most exquisite of flowers. Now the audience Is calm and thc play of the night proceeds. Released from the power of manifestations of good will the actress bounds and frolics frol-ics on her artistic way. The eyes of hundreds are eager to note the expressions expres-sions of her face, to listen to the voicing voic-ing of her lines. Do they find her changed'.' Perhaps some detect slight alterations of feature that with maturity matu-rity appear. Others may mark a greater great-er mastery of her art. But most are seeing much the same sweet young Maude, the same gifted girl, the same animated creature, richly endowed with tho elusive quality called charm the true embodiment of thc roguish Babble. All see a young woman of the stage who. though superbly successful, is not spoiled a young woman who is not only great, but modest in her great.-ness, great.-ness, who has shown that one may be an actress and above reproach. Throughout "The Little Minister" she captivates. With glance and tone and movement, coquettishncss and mock demureness, and a touch or two of woe, she holds us nil. Her company? Oh, yes. A e had forgotten. for-gotten. Mr. Ainley cannot be called a little minister. He is of fine figure and has a good, strong face. The others are well-fitted for the play. And the characters that i&mo assume are wonderfully won-derfully done, and furnish convulsing scones. And now for all those pleasures-of pleasures-of tho play, for all Its humor. Its fascinating story and its charming cantrarietv, we glvo to thc whimsical Barrle, thc most delightsome writer in all tho world our most fervent praise. |
