Actors By Nature

"Thé ability to express, in vnice and ace and motion, the idoal which tlio raind conceivea is the sctor's talisman of snccess, " said uwell known iustiuutor in ona of the dramatic schools Wheii asked to deflue the ssential qnaljLflcaiou of an aspirant for dramatic honors. 'Not to represent a charactër, but to be t, is what wins the audience. Great earnestnesa pounts, of course, and delicacy of conception, carefnl training, experience, nd all that, but complete abandon to tlio emotious of tho moment s what sways mon's minda. ïhat is genius! "Every child is a born actor," he went on, "and to prove that we have only to ■watch the expression and inoveroentfl of a little child when it is iu a room by itself and is uuaware of spectators. It will be imitating in pantomimo aiternately the persons and animáis it cnows or has seen. Enter the room and ask the little one to do that over for auutiu or unclo, or whoever it may be, and immediately there is achange. Self consciousuciis has come in with the ooker on, aud tho child is constrained and'shy Tho grace of movement, the Drigüt, animated gesture and inimitable exprossion are gone. As the child grows older this constiaiut, thisrepression, inoreases, particularly iu America, where, from babyhood, she is taught to disguise tier real feeliugs. 'You mnst not langh aloud, it isn't veíkied; yon mast walk quietly and sedately and not attract attention. ' "Tliis is a sample of the lasson of self represaion, inculcated line tipon line, precept upon preoept, day after duy, nuïil the real nature becomes walled iu withiu tlm artificial one. When that girl gets to ba 20 or more, she has a yearriing tor the stage. She feels that she eau portray some of the characters whioh so iuterest and appeal to her. She enters a dramatio school; but, alas, it is too late. The desire to act is there, and the accurate conception, but the artificial routine so instilled by precept and practico has booonie inextricably interwoyen with the natural instinct, and it caunot be eradieated. She is in the shackles of self consciousness. "My greatest find 'in the last year or two, " continned the speaker, "is a youug Pennsylvania girl who canie to me with her inother last season. 'My daughter has been edneated in Paris, and she is most anxious to go on the stage. She feels that she can do soinething in that lino and will not be contented uutil she tries,' said the mothor. l looked at the girl, who sat quietly by, with rather an indifferent expression on her face, and was not prepared to find in lier anything very promising. She was about 17, very dark and quite good looking. I asked her to reoite something. She stood np and began to repeat a poem about an Indian uursa The nurse was foster mother to a king's son, had nursed hiiu at her breast along with her owu child of the same age. In a revolution the mob canie to kill the king's son, and the nurse, in loyalty to her sovereigu, substituted her baby for the heir to the throne. Before the girl was halt through with tho story 1 had to stop her. The tears were running down her cheeks, and Irealized that my ow'ii eyes were moist. That girl is going to make a name for herself. She seemed to auquire by iiituition what other pupils would take months to learn. I attribute her extraordinary power of expressiou to her having been brought up in Paris, free and nnconstraiued in an atmosphere where every one is enthusiastic and is not ashamed of it, and where emotion is exprëssed uaturally. "Af tor a briwf interval of instruction I placed her on the road whore she would come directlyin oontaetvrith the technicalities of the business and have the advautage of beiug with a good oompany. Itwill not be long before the public hears ïrom her. "It bas beeu my experience that the French, [tallan, Spauish, Mexican, Hebrew - any of thesouthürn races - pessess this uaineless abandonmeut, this personal maguetisui, as it were, in excess oí any other nation, " continued the speaker. "And whure it is found in au eminent dogree iu Americans they generally have some straiu of foreign blood. Americans make unsurpassed character actors - that is, wheu we wish to personate miners, westeniers, New Englanders, farmers, darkies, any of the various phases of ty pical American life, we fiud ampio material right at hand. If, however, we wish to depict a drawing room scène with setting completa and to the life, we must cali on a foreign country for the aotors. It is a lamentable fact that, so fat as the stSge is concerned, we must go to England for our gentlemen. For soine reason the leisure class in America, the men of breeding and culture, when choosing a profession, do not select the stage. It inay be that the calliug of au actor is not looked upou, on tbis side of the water, as sufficiently dignified; but, be that as it muy, of all the applicants for hi.strionio lionors in this country only a few of them are recruited from the vanks of recognized gentleman '8 sons. Iu Eugland it is different. There are numbers of younger sons thero who have no mouey, who are debarred from going into trade on account of the family escutcheon, who have not the mental ability to becomo doctors and lawyers, and to whom the stage offers i practical and interesting solutiou of the dilemma. They make first class actors for the parts we need, because they possess the one indispensable qualih'cation of having come straight from the drawiiisr room, bringing their faultles ners with thera. "-