THE NELSON WHEATCROFT. HE unexpected death of Nelson Wheatcroft has removed from theatrical circles a well-known and respected figure and has robbed one of the leading dramatic schools in this country of an able teacher and director. Mr. Wheatcroft's illness was scarcely of a week's duration. While rehearsing in Sardou's new play, "Spiritisme," which was being staged at the Knickerbocker Theatre, N. Y., he contracted a severe cold. This, however, did not deter him from appearing on the opening night, Feb. 22, when he created the role of Robert d'Aubenas, the deceived husband. He acted the second evening also, but his cold then developed into pneumoLia, of which he died Mar. 3. Nelson Wheatcroft was born in London, Eng., in 1852 and was the son of a dealer in metals. His father designed him for a metal worker and apprenticed him in his factory as soon as his school-career had ended. To one with Mr. Wheatcroft's inherent qualities such work proved decidedly uncongenial; besides, his stage-ambitions, which he had cherished long and secretly, began to assume definite form. At Birbeck Institute, London, an evening class in elocution had been formed. Young Wheatcroft eagerly joined this class, and so beneficial was the vocal training to him that he was enabled to overcome entirely a rather pronounced tendency to stutter. While studying at Birbeck, he became acquainted with Arthur W. Pinero and Catherine Lewis -fellow-students. It was in 1872 that Mr. Wheatcroft finally decided to cast his lot with the stage; so, in conjunction with Miss Lewis, he made his professional début in London. He scored so decided a hit that George Melville offered him a place in a company that was then forming for a provincial tour. After a short stay with Melville, Mr. Wheatcroft accepted an offer from the Bateman sisters to take a leading part in "Rob Roy," then running in London. Mr. Wheatcroft's next move was to join a company just setting out on a ten months' tour, embracing South America, Australia, and Africa. This trip was not particularly successful, and some of the company, including Mr. Wheatcroft, decided to return to England by way of the United States. When the party reached New York Mr. Wheatcroft liked the city so well that he concluded to make it his home. In His first appearance on the New York stage was at the old Park Theatre-now the Herald Square Theatre--in a society skit by J. A. Stevens. Then he played with Robert Mantell in "Tangled Lives." 1886 Daniel Frohman engaged him for the Lyceum Stock Company. His first appearance with that organization was in November, 1887, as Matthew Culver in "The Wife." Other roles that he essayed during his connection with the company were Dick Van Buren in "The Charity Ball," the hus In 1893 he retired from the stage to devote his whole time to teaching. A few months ago Mr. Wheatcroft appeared with Henry Miller's company as the villain in "Heartsease," which play he left to create the role of Robert d'Aubenas in "Spiritisme." Shen The Empire Theatre Dramatic School was founded in the fall of 1893, and at a bound took its place as one of the leading dramatic schools in America. Many of its graduates have taken prominent parts in such plays as "Sowing the Wind," andoah," "Charley's Aunt," "Lady Windemere's Fan," etc., and rank high in the profession. The Students' Exhibitions, which were given periodically, were looked forward to as one of the events of the dramatic season. Mr. Wheatcroft took a prominent part in all progressive movements in the elocutionary and the dramatic world. He was second vice president of the American Dramatists' Club, an officer of the Lambs' Club, and a charter member of the first convention of the National Association of Elocutionists, before which he read a paper on "Elocution and Stage Art." Those who attended the meeting, June, 1892, will not soon forget his refined, dignified bearing. In his teaching Mr. Wheatcroft's chief aim was to develop the pupil's originality and cultivate his naturalness. Hence, he maintained that the stage-aspirant gained little from studying "those fascinating pitfalls"-to use his own expression-elocution and Delsarte. With theatregoers Mr. Wheatcroft's name is inseparably associated with that difficult phase of stage-craft-the portrayal of the stage-villain, in which he was particularly successful. Robert d'Aubenas, the deceived husband in "Spiritisme," was a decided departure from his usual line, and, although he played the part but twice in public, in that short time he made a distinct hit. was a master of his art, as was clearly demonstrated by his finished, refined, authoritative work, abounding in magnetism and in intellectuality. He Mr. Wheatcroft leaves a widow and a five-year-old son. Mrs. Wheatcroft, formerly Miss Adeline Stanhope, an experienced actress, will continue her husband's work at the school, except that the School of Opera opened this fall will be discontinued. The duties, arduous though they are, have not fallen upon inexperienced shoulders. For the last four years Mrs. Wheatcroft has been actively identified 44 with the Empire School, and knows its mechanism perfectly. The next pupils' exhibition is even now well under way and will take place Apr. 8, when "By Hook or by Crook,' a farce by Alice Yates Grant, Sir Peter's Paradise" by A. E. Lancaster, and possibly a Western sketch, will be presented. Mrs. Wheatcroft is just in the prime of life, and altogether a most charming, conscientious, unselfish woman. Her ideals are high, and where energy, ambition, and sincerity are combined success is bound to follow. being over sixty years old. His father was Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin, a noted Georgia jurist, while one of his sons is Judge J. H. Lumpkin, of the Atlanta circuit. He served some years as principal of the Athens High School, then became assistant professor of English literature in the University of Georgia, which position he resigned to become a resident of Atlanta in 1882. Another of his sons is Col. E. K. Lumpkin, a prominent member of the Georgia Bar. Besides his two sons he leaves a wife. He was deeply interested in oratory and was an eloquent speaker. He kept abreast of the times in elocutionary matters, reading everything and also attending summer schools. WERNER'S MAGAZINE, to which he long was a subscriber, will miss him, and extends its sympathies to his family in their bereave ment. THE ** FOREIGN. HE proper weight of a man, according to Prof. Huxley, is 154 pounds. The secret of Liszt's success as a pianist was his incessant industry. For many years he was wont to practice ten hours daily. Dr. Fridthiof Nansen, the explorer, will deliver a course of fifty lectures in America, beginning in October. He is at present under contract for forty-seven lectures in England. Mme. Nansen expects soon to make her début in London as a singer. She studied under Grieg. Two companies of English players will present Wilson Barrett's "The Sign of the Cross in America in the fall. The advance booking in London of Mr. Barrett's new play, "Daughters of Babylon," is said to be considerably in excess of $60,000. Two young Americans that are making rapid strides in their vocal studies in Paris are Miss Alice Mandelick, contralto, and Miss Sarah Anderson, daughter of Mrs. Sarah Baron Anderson, the oratorio singer. Miss Mandelick is studying repertoire under M. Trabadello and has already mastered "La Favorita," "Samson et Delilah," Aida," and "Carmen." Miss Anderson, who has a rich mezzo-soprano voice, is a pupil of Bonbry. 66 ** * Since the beginning of the 19th century the number of English-speaking persons has grown from 25,000,000, to 125,000,000. **The new theatre that Beerbohm Tree is building in Haymarket promises to exceed in beauty and in stateliness any like structure in London. ** Emma Eames has signed a contract with Maurice Grau for the season of opera beginning at Covent Garden in May. She will sing Elizabeth to the Tannhäuser of Van Dyck. ** Mme. Marchesi is described as tall, straight, and distinguished, with a kind, interesting, sympathetic face. She dresses in excellent taste and speaks fluently German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. She has been teaching singing for forty-three years. For twenty years she was professor at the Vienna Conservatoire; for three years she was at Cologne; and for the last twenty years she has been in Paris. Her vocal recitals at St. James's Hall, London, took place March 23 and 30. For the first time in ten years a choral work by a British composer will be given in Germany, April 20, when Prof. C. Villiers Stanford's "Revenge" will be performed by the Berlin Philharmonic choir under Siegfried Ochs. *As the result of investigations as to the number of words that constitute the vocabularies of different classes, it was learned that a laborer uses about 400 words; a business man 1,000; an ordinary writer from 2,500 to 3,000; Milton used 8,000 words; Shakespeare 15,000, of which 500 were used but once. The Grand Duke Constantin Constantinovitch, of Russia, has just translated "Hamlet" into Russian. The Grand Duke intends to stage the play and will himself act the title role. 黃黃 Strauss's new opera "The Goddess of Reason," presented at Vienna, March 13, met with great success, although its libretto is of inferior quality. Sir Henry Irving is waging war against a syndicate headed by Henry Hamilton and Ivan Caryll for the stage-rights of "Mme. Sans Gêne," which this syndicate has turned into a comic opera. Sir Henry has served them with several injunctions, claiming that he is the sole owner of the English stage-rights of the play. The defence is that the opera is an independent piece of work, but based on the same historical facts. The opera is already under rehearsal, with Miss Florence St. John in the title role. In speaking of Robert Browning's omnivorous passion for reading, Dean Farrar says: "I believe that when he was writing Sordello' he exhausted every book in the British Museum that touched on the little-known story of the Italian poet. The accuracy with which he mastered even the most recondite illusions to his subjects before he fused them together was most remarkable. His memory, too, was very retentive. In Florence it is possible to identify the very spot on which he was standing when he bought for a few pence the old paper copy of the trial of Count Guido which suggested to him "The Ring and the Book.' The prejudice against high hats in theatres has reached Paris and many leading theatrical men are agitating the matter. The managers of the Théâtre des Variétés, and the Vaudeville, and M. Coquelin, Sarah Bernhardt, and Maurice Lefevre are strongly in favor of the movement to pass some sort of ordinance regulating ladies' headgear. The mayor of Marseilles has forbidden hats of any kind to be worn in orchestra stalls. *** Just now, when the rumors of war are being bruited about, a famous song known as is heard over all Greece. The author of this nymn was Constantine Rhigas, who was born in 1753 and grew up a most patriotic Hellene. The yoke of Turkey had long lain heavy upon the land, and Rhigas and others wished to shake it off forever. He founded an association of patriots, drawn from all orders of society, and traveled through the country urging the people to join the good cause and firing them with patriotic hymns which he composed from time to time. Meanwhile, the French revolution had broken out and Rouget de Lisle's "Marseillaise" had wrought Frenchmen to fever heat. Rhigas heard de Lisle's piece and conceived the idea of writing one similar for his own countrymen. This he did, and he became as endeared to the hearts of the Hellenes as de Lisle had to Frenchmen. Thinking to secure the support of Napoleon, who was then in Italy, Rhigas started to meet him, but at Trieste he was betrayed by a fellow-conspirator and incarcerated at Vienna. Here he attempted suicide but was foiled. In 1798 the Austrian government delivered him to the Turks, and then he mysteriously disappeared. That he was promptly executed there is no doubt. His fellow-patriots did not forget him, however, and to-day there is no name more honored in Greece than Constantine Rhigas. Subjoined is a rough translation of Rhigas's hymn: The Marseillaise of the Greeks" "Children of heroic Greece, Liberty flames in our eyes. If you would pay heed to its magic voice Dared to crush us beneath its law. "Sons of Greece, to arms; May our tyrants, overwhelmed, "Give new life to your illustrious ashes, And, when I summon, go forth and conquer! Come, come, by brave fatherland, Break the chains which have blighted you! "Yonder, yonder at Thermopylæ In vain nimble troops of Persians With the utmost daring he defies them. Backed by the Three Hundred, he charges them, And, like a maddened lion, He scatters death through their ranks! "Sons of Greece, to arms! May our tyrants, overwhelmed, ** * Although the old-school Quakers, as a sect, do not favor music, regarding it as a profitless amusement indulged in by the world's people, there are occasionally stories told which show that the love of music semetimes steals its way into a Quaker household in spite of discipline. George Thompson, the English abolitionist, while lecturing on slavery, stopped one night with a Quaker family. He was a great lover of music and a good singer. During the evening he sang "Oft in the Stilly Night," which was listened to closely. In the morning his hostess appeared somewhat uneasy. She wished to hear the song again, but it would hardly do, she thought, for her to request its repetition. At last her desire overcame her scruples. "George," she said, will thee repeat the words of last evening in thy usual manner?" ** * Impersonation of the Czar on the Russian stage is strictly forbidden. ** The musical clientele at Vienna are much interested in an infant phenomena, Paula Szalit, aged ten. When she was scarcely out of long clothes, she would pick out on the piano, with one finger, the notes of a tune that she had heard sung, and long before she had any idea of printed notes she would play melodies of her own composition-songs, dances, etc. Her musical adroitness was not cultivated until she was seven years old, when she was given lessons, first by her brother, and later by Prof. Fischoff and by Eugen d'Albert. It is said that little Paula's playing is charming, not only because of her clear technique and vigorous tone, astonishing from hands so small that they can scarcely stretch an octave, but also because of the artistic feeling she displays. Little Paula has very sensible parents who see that she does not overtax her strength. She has never toured in concert but has appeared in public in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. A theatre for Christians is to be established in Paris. It will be known as the Théâtre Corneille, this name being chosen because Corneille was not only a great dramatist but also a devout Christian. The theatre, which will be directed by Mme. Nancy-Vernet, will open with Rostron's "Saint Genest," which will be followed by several plays of a strictly moral and religious tendency. * AMERICAN. ** The first music school in the United States, built at Salem, Conn., in 1839, was destroyed by fire a few weeks ago. It was called Music Vale Seminary and was established by Oramel Whittlesey, a piano manufacturer. Mr. Whittlesey had such musical ability that his reputation. drew pupils from over all the country, many of whom became boarders at his farm. This necessitated constant additions to the old farmhouse, which soon became known as a musical institution. Its educational character kept pace with the architectural extensions. Competent teachers were employed, the German method of instruction was followed and the course in music was comprehensive and thorough. The school was authorized to confer the degree of a normal academy, and the teachers it turned out located everywhere. There were as many as sixty pupils at a time, before the war, many coming from the South. Dr. Lowell Mason and Dr. George F. Root received their early training there. In the small theatre and music hall which Prof. Whittlesey had built frequent musical and dramatic performances were given. The old seminary buildings were burned shortly after the war, and a large frame building was erected on the ruins. The war seriously depleted the roll of pupils, while the starting of conservatories in the cities was too great competition for Music Vale; so during the seventies it was finally closed. The place passed into other hands, and fell rapidly to decay. Prof. Whittlesey died in 1876. A grandchild of his is Miss Charlotte Maconda, the soprano. ** * The following speakers have been chosen to compete in the Ten Eyck oratorical contest to be held at Yale in April: Robert W. Archbald, Pa., subject " English Admirals of the 18th Century;" Arthur D. Baldwin, Hawaii, "The Opening Up of Africa;" Samuel E. Bassett, Conn., "Sectionalism in American Politics;" Louis S. Levy, Mo., same subject; Robert K. Richardson, Conn., "Joan of Arc;" George M. Ripley, Mo., same subject; Edward C. Street, Ill., Heinrich Heine; " Henry B. Armenia." Wright, Conn., The series of Saturday morning conferences upon comparative literature that Prof. Charles Sprague-Smith has been conducting for the past two months in New York is one of the most interesting and instructive courses that have been given in this city in many a day. "Hamlet" was the subject at one of the conferences, with supplementary papers on "The Elizabethan Theatre and Its Place in English Life," by Mrs. Abby Sage Richardson, and a comparison between Hamlet and Orestes by Thomas Davidson. Prof. Sprague Smith said that to him 'Hamlet" expressed the inner life of Shakespeare himself, put forth at the moment which comes to us all when we seem to perceive that this world is a realm not of good, but of evil; that period which precedes the perception that behind the evil there is a mastering good. During the rest of his life, as is indicated by his plays, the dramatist was growing to see the good principle, and he set his experience forth in Prospero. Mrs. Richardson traced the growth of stage-plays from the Miracles and the Interludes. She pointed out that the Puritanical prejudice against stageplays deprived the world, especially America, for many years of valuable literature. She herself could remember a discussion, in a country town, whether it was proper to read Shakespeare. Of course, seeing one of his plays was out of the question. Mr. Davidson's remarks were somewhat sensational. "Hamlet," he said, "is an immoral character, and the play is an immoral play. No discredit to Shakespeare; he wished merely to show what harm a man without principles and decisions can do in this world." At a later conference Hamilton W. Mabie drew a most interesting comparison between Goethe and Shakespeare. Their chief difference lay in the essentially dramatic nature of the one and the essentially philosophical nature of the other. Goethe," he said, "was only by intention a dramatist. He was a greater direct teacher than Shakespeare, but had not the sense of mechanical effect that goes with the dramatist's nature, and he lacked intuitive insight into human nature. This insight Shakespeare possessed. Goethe was not forced to the dramatic form of expression. It was evident that Iphigenie was inevitable, as Leah certainly was. Goethe's characters sometimes developed for the action. In the works of Shakespeare, endowed with intuitive knowledge of human character, the characters and the action develop together, as in a drama they ought." The April discussions promise to be productive of equal interest. "I wish that the whole of the Grau company," says William J. Henderson, in his criticism of the Damrosch season of German opera, "could sit in the auditorium of the Metropolitan and study the manner in which the artists help to preserve the dramatic illusion by addressing their declamation to one another and not to the audience. This is one of the secrets of that 'rare German spirit' of which we hear so much. The Germans are incontestably right, and not a note of the music is lost, Even Jean and Edouard de Reszké could learn something in this matter, for they follow too closely the traditions of their school in facing the audience. How absurd it used to be to hear Maurel telling Emma Eames what a lithe fellow he used to be, when she was six feet behind him and he had his back turned upon her. They do not do that sort of thing in German opera. The person addressed stands near the front of the stage generally and the speaker further back. Otherwise, they turn their profiles to the audience. No one ever sings 'Ich liebe dich' to the gallery." ** A grand historical tableaux festival will be held in Boston, Apr. 19-27, in aid of the Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association. The principal tableaux to be presented are (1) Boston, Eng. St. Botolph's Church, where John Cotton preached. English Villages and their Merrymakings. John Cotton; (2) The Wharves of Southampton, Eng. Departure of the Puritans; (3) Indian Home-life. Blaxton Welcoming Winthrop to Shawmut; (4) An Early Townmeeting, 1633; (5) The First Commencement Exercises at Harvard; (6) Puritan Home-life. The Welcome to John Eliot; (7) A Social Gathering in Colonial Times. Old time Dances; (8) In Front of Old State House. The Boston Massacre; (9) Council Chamber. The Removal of the Troops; (10) Interior of Green Dragon Inn. Meeting of the Sons of Liberty; (11) The Old South Church. The Tea Meeting." On Board the Dartmouth. The Boston TeaParty; (12) On the Road to Roxbury. The Eve of the Battle. Paul Revere's Ride; (13) Lexington. The Call to Arms; (14) Washington's Entrance into Boston; (15) The Lafayette Ball; (16) Civil War; (17) A Peep into the Future. There will also be four children's scenes: A Village School and a Dancing School of ye Olden Time; A Quilting Party; and a Miniature Navy. ** * ... The largest musical library in the world is owned by Arthur W. Tams, of New York. It is valued at $250,000 and has taken Mr. Tams nearly twenty-five years to collect it. |