Playhouses of the Past

1905

An interesting picture of the stage of our forefathers was drawn by Sir Henry Irving during an address delivered in Bath, England, at the unveiling of a memorial tablet to James Quin. After his retirement in 1751, Quin lived in Bath for fifteen years. He had been an actor for more than thirty-five years. For more than half that period he had held his own against all competitors until the advent of David Garrick, who reformed the stilted style of declamation then in vogue.

"Theatrical audiences in those days," said Mr. Irving, "must have been rather 'fearful wildfowl,' and often exacting more when they were pleased than when they were angry. There was always a danger that they would tear up the benches, or that some of them would rush upon the stage and deliver a general assault and battery. On one occasion, when Rich was attacked by a drunken nobleman, Quin saved his life by some vigorous swordplay.

"The actor's vocation then was full of stirring variety. Quin was a man of the readiest wit, and he is said to have employed it successfully in telling stories to an audience to keep them from rioting when the play was waiting for some royal personage, who had forgotten the time. Horace Walpole tells us that Quin, when pressed to play the part of the Ghost in 'Hamlet' — a part he considered beneath him — would make no answer but, 'I won't catch cold behind.' 'The Ghost,' says Walpole, 'is always ridiculously dressed, with a morsel of armor before and only a "block" waistcoat and breech behind.'

"The story how Quin befriended James Thomson, whom he found in prison for a debt of £70, is a worthy illustration of the actor's character. He ordered supper and claret — a good deal of claret — and when the bottle was going round he said with grim humor, 'It is time we should balance accounts.'

"The unfortunate poet, who was already alarmed at this burly visitor, took him for another creditor.

"'Mr. Thomson,' said Quin, 'the pleasure — I have had — in reading your — works — I cannot estimate — at less than £100 — and I insist on now — acquitting the debt.' And then he put down the money and walked out without another word."

Still in the Kindergarten

1905

Those Who Can Be Interested in Nothing That Is Not a "Game"

After an intelligent and watchful mother had sent her children to a famous kindergarten for several months she withdrew them because she found that they were being ruined by "getting the attitude of regarding everything as a game" — that is, instead of learning through games how to go about the serious business of life, they were learning to approach everything in the careless, make-believe spirit of play.

There is a hint in this for our colleges. There is a hint in it for all those who do puzzles, and play chess, and ride to hounds, and fool with rings and bars to develop their minds and bodies. The world is cursed with tens of thousands of human beings who have the best natural advantages, but can get up the steam of enthusiasm only for some "game" that is useless in its aim, and no more useful in its method, than its corresponding reality would be.

It is as certain as cause and effect that he who takes play seriously will take serious things playfully. — Saturday Evening Post.


Sour Expression Caused Divorce

Carrie Fields has been granted a divorce from Dr. L. S. Fields at Sanborn, Iowa, because the husband did not like her make of pancakes and ridiculed them. She testified that the expression upon the doctor's face when eating the cakes was such it might work permanent injury to her health.

The Playground Movement

1914

Up to a few years ago, it never occurred to the older people that Young America needs a place to play in. It was commonly supposed that a live boy would find plenty of amusement in selling newspapers, running errands, or hoeing the back yard garden. If he must have his game of ball once in a while, there was the street or someone's vacant lot.

As a matter of fact it often happened, even in the country town, that there was no place where a set of boys could play a game of ball without being ordered to quit.

Most American towns were laid out with no provision for the children. There was ample foresight for anything in which money could be made. Railroads and factories never lacked opportunities. Land was often given to attract them. But the cases where land was given where young people could play their games freely, and work off superfluous and threatening energy, were rarely seen.

In the larger cities the modern playground, with a tangle of yelling kidlets, is a sight to do a wholesome-hearted person good. The boy who is chasing a baseball is not robbing fruit nor standing on the street corner smoking cigarettes.

A playground entertaining a large crowd of children does not fully serve its mission unless carefully supervised by some competent person. The average boy gets altogether too much fun from tormenting some one under his size. Also the average crowd of 12-year-olds is very far from ready for self-government.

But even if a neighborhood or a village can merely open up a vacant lot and turn the youngsters loose, the results are worthwhile. In that case the parents will occasionally have to intervene to make Young America "salute the flag."

President Theodore Roosevelt's Many Wounds

1903

Has Received an Uncommon Number During His Strenuous Life

Such a collection of scars as that borne by President Roosevelt was never owned by an American chief executive before. He is the "most wounded" president of the United States. Fifteen injuries of a more or loss serious nature have been received by him since he reached manhood.

During his football days he received many bruises, and during his ranching career in the West he got three ribs broken. Later, in the Bad Lands, he had a bone broken in his shoulder from a fall from a vicious horse.

He was attacked by a grizzly bear while hunting in Idaho in 1889 and escaped by a narrow margin. Two years before that he was chased by an infuriated steer in the Big Horn country of Wyoming. He grabbed the steer by the horns, vaulted to its back and rode it for two miles.

On more recent hunting trips in Colorado he has had encounters with mountain lions in which his quickness of hand frequently saved his life.

He was slightly wounded in the hand during the Cuban campaign, and he barely escaped death in the trolley accident at Pittsfield. His leg was so injured that an operation for abscess had to be performed later.

President Roosevelt's last two injuries have been received at the hands of his intimate friend, Gen. Leonard Wood, in single stick and rapier play, which they used as exercise almost daily. A few weeks ago Gen. Wood thrust his rapier through the president's mask, bruising him severely on the forehead and narrowly missing his left eye. A week later the two friends were in a vigorous bout with the single sticks in an improvised gymnasium near the top of the white house. The play became rather heated, and in the rapid play the president caught a heavy cut on the wrist. He had to shake hands with his left hand at the recent white house reception. — Boston Post.

Burglar Was Refused Food, Breaks In

1920

Burglar Was Refused Food

Begged for "Bite" at Back Door and Upon Denial Breaks in Front

SEATTLE, Feb. 25. — Entering the front door of a residence after he had been refused assistance at the back, a daylight burglar obtained $160 Monday morning in the boldest robbery reported to the police for weeks. Mrs. J. B. Malone reported to the Ballard police station that after she and several of her neighbors had refused to aid a thirty-five-year-old man who was begging through the district she went from her residence, where she had been at work, into a front room and found that $160 had been taken from a bureau drawer. Children playing nearby told of seeing the beggar enter the front door.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 8.

Your Conscience Is Your Compass

1920

UNCOMMON SENSE
By John Blake

Your Conscience Is Your Compass

There are few men who do not know instinctively right from wrong. In their course through life their consciences are their compasses.

And those compasses are always in a convenient place, ready to be consulted. The thief knows he is a thief, although he may try to justify his thievery. The idler knows he is an idler, and is secretly ashamed of it, although he may find a hundred excuses for being idle. The man who succeeds is the man who uses the compass that nature has placed within him to direct his course and to warn him when he is going wrong.

He cultivates the habit of steering by compass. And he allows nothing to distract his attention.

Two lines that were greatly admired by Doctor Johnson are worth engraving on your mind. They are:

"Though pleased to see the dolphins play I mind my compass and my way."

Learn those two lines and their lesson, and you will be saved many idle and useless wanderings from your course as you navigate the difficult waters of life.

The love of pleasure is strong in man, and should of course be indulged to some extent. But to indulge it to the exclusion of the important business of making the port you are bound for is mere stupidity.

Be thankful for the "silent voice" that will give you your real position if you ask for it Be glad that the most useful information you can obtain is always at hand when you want it — the information as to where you ought to be bound.

Ships set forth through fog and storm, sure that while the compass holds true their course will be right, and they will reach the destination they desire to reach.

You too, by choosing your destination, can reach it, perhaps after delay due to storms or tides, but surely, if though you may occasionally watch the dolphins, your chief attention is upon your compass and your way.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 6.