Modjeska

The play of Adrienne Leoouyreur has a peculiar history. It was written for the great Rachel by Scribe and Legouve, and was once rejected by her, she having formed a prejudice against it, but Legouve was not to be overeóme by trines. He asked permission to read the piece in Rachel's own parlor, before a few of her most intímate friends. This request was granted, and the outcome is told in Legouve's own words: "In the second act, Adrienne makes her first appcarance holding in her hand the part of Badaget, which she is studying. The Prince de Bouillion approaches her and observes, gaily: "You still appear to be looking for something; what is it, 'may I aak?' 'I am looking for the truth,' she replies. 'Bravo! Bravo!' exclaimed Jules Janin, the great critic and her friend who was present. 'Oh!' said I to myself, 'he must be my frieud, for surely the words do not merit a bravo.' Rachel, too, was a littlc startled, and gave Janin a look that seemed tosay: 'What! a traitor here! Fortunately a traitor's opinión soon becaine everybody else's opinión. Rachel, surprised and very much embarassed at not flnding herself filled with her former disdain, made but a feeble resistance against the general imprension, and at the end of the second act even chimed in with the general sentiment by saying, ' Well, I always thought there was something in that second act. This was her last semblance of defence. From the very beginning of the third act she ridded herself of her former prejudices as completely as politicians do of unpopular opinions. She applauded, she laughed, she shed tears, every now and then muttering, 'What a silly simpleton I have been !" At the end of the flf th act she actually threw hersolf on my neck, ezclaiming with streaming oyes: ■' ' How have you kept yourself off the stage?' " The reader had saved author. Modjeska at the Grand Tuesday eveniug March 15.