Mr. Walker Whiteside

It has been a common idea that all stage work is mimicry. If this were so acting would soon degenerate into the narrow limits of tradition, without life and without the expansión of progressive development. There is no art in imitation; art implies soul, genius. A copyist has no genius, mimic no soul - no dramatic soul at least. The effect of mimicry is the same as that of buffoonery. The misson of the mimic actor is to play the fooi, though he may persuade himself that he is engaged in a line of legitímate stage work. He is wholly oblivious to the fact; for example, that his lago is a fac-similie, in physical outline, to that of Booth's; and that his Richard is an exact reproduction of the Richard of Mr. Thomas Keene. The mimie's memory is superb, and he recalls all of the points of the energetic rendition of Mr. Keene, and deals them out to his provincial audiences with the pride of original discovery. Of course he never witnessed Mr. Keene's Richard, and probably if closely questioned, would deny that he ever heard him in it. He adopts the Richelieu of the late Mr. Barrett, possibly because the musical tones of the great actor's voice were so easy of imitation, his own voice being strikingly similar, as he has been told by some of his admiring friends. With a thorough knowledge of these shortcomings ia his profession, Mr. Walker Whiteside. the tragediari, who will appear at the Grand Opera House, Nov. 3, has swept them aside, as belonging to the army of incompetents, and has devoted his abilities to. a natural and original rendition of the following characters, which he will Ilústrate during his engagement: Hamlet, Richelieu, the Merchant of Venice, Othello and Richard III.