Scan 26
Musical Courier 1897-07-14: Vol 35 Iss 906, 1897
64 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE INARTISTIC RACE.
3AMERICA is possessed by a sort of delirium of mediocrity. Its boast is equality. Its aim seems to be inferiority. It has a sort of foolish and pitiful pride in its lack of learning, its scantness of aesthetic appreciations, its social uncouthness.
5Here, on the Eastern rim of the continent, there is an anxious pretense of good manners, an eager fumbling after the social decencies of the Old World. In the train of this pretense there comes the pretense of artistic appreciation. In a degree there is something admirable and even praiseworthy in this imitation of higher social forms. The millionaire who imports English domestic servants may in time acquire good table manners. The American stock jobber who buys pictures may in the end acquire a fugitive knowledge of painting.
7The mere endeavor to surround himself with trained servants and beautiful pictures should be accounted to him for a lower sort of righteousness.
9The main trouble is that he does not select beautiful things. He cannot recognize beauty. To the uneducated the beautiful always appears abominable.
11The taste of the uneducated person is for Church's pictures, Tosti's songs (or Sweet Marie), for Sardou's plays, green cigars, overdone ducks and women who wear diamonds at the breakfast table.
13It does not seem probable that the little leaven of pseudo culture discernable here will leaven the whole American lump. Indeed, the spreading of this pseudo culture would be disastrous. Far better the frank Philistinism of Chicago! Far better the social uncouthness of the West than the flunkyism of the make-believe "aristocracy" of Newport! one of two readings
14It does not seem probable that the little leaven of pseudo culture discernable here will leaven the whole American lump. Indeed, the spreading of this pseudo culture would be disastrous. Far better the fran' Philistinism of Chicago! Far better the social uncouthness of the West than the flunkyism of the make-believe "aristocracy" of Newport! one of two readings
16Even were there a high state of civilization here on the Eastern rim of the continent, how ineffectual it would be! Clean across to the other seaboard stretches a country over which caper 70,000,000 people—mostly peasants. They dwell in cities, but they are not urban. They read books, and they are illiterate. They go to plays and operas. They stare at painted canvases. They know no more of art than they do of the king of Tarellore. Servus et humilis—the blood of the toiler and the lowly peasant of old Europe creeps in their veins. What have they to do with art and letters? one of two readings
17Even were there a high state of civilization here on the Eastern rim of the continent, how ineffectual it would be! Clean across to the other seaboard stretches a country over which caper 70,000,000 people—mostly peasants. They dwell in cities, but they are not urban. They read books, and they are illiterate. They go to plays and operas. They stare at painted canvases. They know no more of art than they do of the king of Tarelore. Servus et humilis—the blood of the toiler and the lowly peasant of old Europe creeps in their veins. What have they to do with art and letters? one of two readings
19The thirst of study is an aristocratic thirst. In America there is no aristocracy.
21Ennui is an aristocratic sensation; naturally the American does not know how to be bored.
23Now, out of these two—the thirst for study and the capability of being bored—come forth learning, literature and all the arts. By his very race—his unaristocratic descent—the American is shut out from these aristocratic pleasures. He labors and moils, as his ancestors did in the mines and fields and almshouses of Europe. He even looks upon labor as something to be praised for its own sake. He is proud of calloused hands. He sneers at indolence. He can understand only the present condition; he has erected it into an ideal. In the country his activities are bodily and thoroughly appropriate to the constitution of a peasant race. On the Eastern rim of the Continent, and in some of the larger cities his activities show a tendency to become cerebral. This might be encouraging were it not for the fact that his mental faculties have been developed almost wholly along the line of political economy—the science of acquiring riches.
25It is all very well to talk about a social hierarchy, an intellectual hierarchy, an hierarchy of art, but they are hardly to be erected on the flat mud bottom of democracy. It is a lamentable truth that silk purses cannot be made out of sows' ears.
27On all sides there is talk of the "coming revolution," chatter of the "industrial revolt," and all that; but, pray, how are you going to overturn a government that already lies flat on its belly in the mud? You might kick it up, but it can't be kicked down.
29To the dispassionate observer it would seem that the glorious dream of the founders of the republic has not been wholly realized. There is to be sure a monstrous amount of equality, but not as much as there might be. Only slaves are really equal. Without a despotism there can be neither liberty nor equality; in a herd of well ruled helots there would be absolute equality. Perhaps something might yet be done in this way. There is good material here to work on.
31THE STAGE MASHER.
33THE Sunday World discusses the stage masher in these terms:
35Edward J. Ratcliffe's arrest for beating his wife has called attention to a curious phase of the actor's life. He is a handsome man—a "beauty man," as the stage slang goes. He was leading juvenile man at the Lyceum Theatre. Women used to write letters to him. At that time he received as many as forty letters a day from women whom he had never seen. The letters were soft, sentimental and coaxing.
37When Ratcliffe left the Lyceum Theatre he joined Charles Frohman's company. He was a success in The Fatal Card. More unknown women wrote to him. One letter came from the daughter of Peter De Lacy the bookmaker and racing man. The girl who wrote that letter became Ratcliffe's wife. It was not a happy marriage. They quarreled many times. He was arrested for beating her. They made it up. Now he is under arrest charged with a serious assault upon her.
39Girls used to sit in the orchestra chairs when Ratcliffe played in The Sporting Duchess and in the Two Little Vagrants and sob with tender and piteous emotion. He was such a hero—this handsome Ratcliffe! To the young girls he represented all that was noble and gentle in man's love. But at home—away from the glitter of the footlights—he was not quite the same character. His wife knew that, and often thought of it as she stood in front of the mirror and counted her blue bruises and studied her black eyes.
41What is the power men like Ratcliffe have over women?
43Why is it that young girls, widows and old maids flock to the matinees where these men appear?
45Almost from the beginning of stage history you will find that men of this handsome type have been able to dominate women. Shakespeare's grand-nephew, Hart, was an actor of this kind. In a number of Sir Richard Steele's paper, The Tatler, you will find an account of Hart's destructive way with women. Hypnotism was not invented in those days, but Steele hints that some such power was used. Pepys, in his Diary, also discusses Hart's strange power over women. Pepys says that in no other way can he explain why Lady Castlemaine should have given her jewels to Hart in order that he might sell them to pay Nell Gwynn's debts. He adds that, although this grand-nephew of Shakespeare earned only £3 a week as a player, yet he lived at the rate of £20 a week.
47This power which certain strong, handsome, bull-like men have over women has been called by many names. It has been known as magnetism, as mesmerism and as hypnotism. Some scientists will tell you that it is merely the dominance which a strong personality has over a weaker one. But whatever this power is it unquestionably exists, and the men who possess it have almost always become stage-players or physicians. This power of attracting women—as a magnet draws steel chips—is one that has nothing to do with "art," although some actors who have possessed it have been also great artists.
49Theophilus Cibber was one of these men. He was a son of Colley Cibber, who is best known because he rewrote Shakespeare's Richard III. and put into it the often quoted line, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse." Theophilus Cibber was a big, handsome, cruel, bull-like man. In the records of the Drury Lane Theatre, of London, there is this statement: "Cibber, an ugly ruffian, paid him £2 a week extra on account of the fair sex."
51In this eighteenth century phrase there is a veiled intimation of what the "matinee man" has become to-day. Cibber was paid $10 a week extra simply because he could "mash" the women, and the honest manager of the theatre could not resist the temptation of saying that Cibber was "an ugly ruffian."
53The quality that made Hart and Cibber valuable to theatrical managers is quite as much in demand to-day. Only prices have gone up. The leading dramatic agent of New York says that it is worth $50 a week to an actor to be known as a "matinee masher." This is above and beyond his regular salary.
55In the books of the scientists who have studied this question of hypnotism and the stage there is a curious account of an actor whose name was Goodman, but who was popularly known as "Scum" Goodman. He was the most popular leading man of his time in London. The Lord Hay of that period once found him with three matinee girls and cudgeled him. The affair was so scandalous that "Scum" Goodman left the stage and turned highwayman. He was arrested, tried and condemned to death. King James reprieved him at the request of the Duchess of Cleveland. This woman was a mere puppet in "Scum's" hands. He tried to poison her two children, and when the crime was discovered she stood once again between him and the hangman.
57From the beginning of stage history down to July 4, 1897, you will find these conspicuous men who, by some strange, occult power, have been able to attract women. At times laws have been made to restrain them and cripple their power over women. In 1542, in England, Bishop Bonner discovered that certain of his priests were exhibiting themselves in stage plays and despoiling the young women of his bishopric. He issued a decree forbidding any ecclesiastic to take part in a stage performance. The Catholic Church has the same rule at this time. Indeed the authorities have always tried to check the "masher" actor.
59In New York to-day there are no laws regulating the matter.
61The hypnotic actor has his own way. Nobody bothers him. So far from being interfered with he is coddled and petted by the public, and is paid a double salary by the shrewd theatrical manager. It would be absurd to accuse the hypnotic actor of being better or worse than his fellows. He has a strange power, and he uses it. Forrest was a "masher." He boasted of it. "Billy" Florence had his primrose path. Harry Montague is remembered merely because he was an actor of that sort. A decade or so ago the society women of New York used to erect shrines in their boudoirs, which they capped with photographs of Montague.
63The successors of these men of the old days have the same power—and greater opportunity.
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