MR. AND MRS. KENDAL IN NEW YORK--JOSEPH JEFFERSON--JULIAN
HAWTHORNE--MISS ADA REHAN--"AS YOU LIKE IT" AT DALY'S THEATER.
_New York, March 28._
The New York papers this morning announce that the "Society of Young
Girls of Pure Character on the Stage" give a lunch to Mrs. Kendal
to-morrow.
Mr. and Mrs. Kendal have conquered America. Their tour is a triumphal
march through the United States, a huge success artistically,
financially, and socially.
I am not surprised at it. I went to see them a few days ago in "The
Ironmaster," and they delighted me. As _Claire_ Mrs. Kendal was
admirable. She almost succeeded in making me forget Madame Jane Hading,
who created the part at the Gymnase, in Paris, six years ago.
* * * * *
This morning Mr. Joseph Jefferson called on me at the Everett House. The
veteran actor, who looks more like a man of fifty than like one of over
sixty, is now playing with Mr. William J. Florence in "The Rivals." I
had never seen him off the stage. I immediately saw that the
characteristics of the actor were the characteristics of the
man--kindness, naturalness, simplicity, _bonhomie_, and _finesse_. An
admirable actor, a great artist, and a lovable man.
At the Down-Town Club, I lunched with the son of Nathaniel
Hawthorne--the greatest novelist that America has yet produced--Mr.
Julian Hawthorne, himself a novelist of repute. Lately he has written a
series of sensational novels in collaboration with the famous New York
detective, Inspector Byrnes. Mr. Julian Hawthorne is a man of about
forty-five, tall, well-proportioned, with an artistic-looking head
crowned with grayish hair, that reminds a Frenchman of Alexandre Dumas,
_fils_, and an American of Nathaniel Hawthorne. A charming, unaffected
man, and a delightful _causeur_.
* * * * *
In the evening I went to Daly's Theater and saw "As You Like It." That
bewitching queen of actresses, Miss Ada Rehan, played _Rosalind_. Miss
Rehan is so original that it would be perfectly impossible to compare
her to any of the other great actresses of France and England. She is
like nobody else. She is herself. The coaxing drawl of her musical
voice, the vivacity of her movements, the whimsical spontaneity that
seems to direct her acting, her tall, handsome figure, her beautiful,
intellectual face, all tend to make her a unique actress. She fascinates
you, and so gets hold of you, that when she is on the stage she entirely
fills it. Mr. John Drew as _Orlando_ and Mr. James Drew as _Touchstone_
were admirable.
It matters little what the play-bill announces at Daly's Theater. If I
have not seen the play, I am sure to enjoy it; if I have seen it
already, I am sure to enjoy it again.