A Search for Tears--I Am Punished in "Saratoga" for the Success of "Man
and Wife"--I Win Mr. Daly's Confidence--We Become Friends.
The people who have known happiness without the alloying _if_ or _but_
are few and far between. "Yes, of course we are happy--but," "I should be
perfectly and completely happy--_if_," you hear people saying every day;
and so in my case, having been admitted into fellowship with the men and
women of the company, who were a gracious and charming crowd, and
receiving hearty approval each night from the great Public, by whose
favor I and mine existed, I was grateful and would have been quite
happy--_but_ for a brand-new difficulty that suddenly loomed up, large,
and wide, and solid before me.
Never in my life had I been in a play of a longer run than one week.
Imagine, then, my misery when I found this play, that was already old to
me at the end of the first week, was likely to go on for a long time to
come. It was not mere _ennui_ over the repetition of the same lines,
night after night, that troubled me, it was something far more serious. I
had made my hit with the public by moving the people's feelings to the
point of tears; but to do that I had first to move my own heart, for, try
as I would, no amount of careful acting had the desired effect. _I_ had
to shed tears or _they_ would not. Now that is not an easy thing to do to
order, in cold blood. While the play is new one's nerves are strained
almost to the breaking point--one is over-sensitive and the feelings are
easily moved; then the pathetic words I am speaking touch my heart, tears
rush to my eyes, tears are heard in my voice, and other hearts respond
swiftly; _but_ when you have calmed down, when you have repeated the
lines so often that they no longer mean anything to you, what are you to
do then?
Really and truly there were days when I was nearly out of my mind with
terror lest I should not be able to cry that night; for those tears of
mine had a commercial value as well as an artistic, and Mr. Daly was
swift to reproach me if the handkerchief display in front was not as
great as usual. This sounds absurd perhaps to a reader, but heaven knows
it was tragic enough to me. I used to agonize all day over the question
of tears for the night, and I have seen the time when even my own
imaginary tomb failed to move me.
One night, when my eyes were dry as bones, and my voice as hard as stone,
and Mr. Daly was glaring whitely at me from the entrance, I had suddenly
a sort of vision of that dethroned actress whom, back in Cleveland, I had
seen uncrowned. I saw her quivering face, her stricken eyes, and a sudden
rush of tears blinded me. Later, Mr. Daly said: "What a tricky little
wretch you are. I thought you were going to throw that scene away,
without a single tear to-night. I suppose you were doing it to aggravate
me, though?"
Goodness knows I was grateful enough myself for the tears when they did
come, and I got an idea from that experience that has served me all the
years since. Everything else--love, hate, dignity, passion, vulgarity,
delicacy, duplicity, all, everything can be assumed to order; but, for
myself, tears are not mechanical, they will not come at will. The heart
must be moved, and if the part has lost its power then I must turn to
some outside incident that _has_ power. It may be from a book, it may be
from real life--no matter, if only its recalling starts tears to weary
eyes.
Thus in "Alixe" it was not for my lost lover I oftenest wept such racing
tears, but for poor old _Tennessee's partner_ as he buried his worthless
dead, with his honest old heart breaking before your eyes. While in
"Camille" many and many a night her tears fell fast over the memory of a
certain mother's face as she told me of the moment when, returning from
the burial of her only child, the first snowflakes began to whirl through
the still, cold air, and she went mad with the anguish of leaving the
little tender body there in the cold and dark, and flung herself from the
moving carriage and ran, screaming, back to the small rough pile of earth
to shelter it with her own living body.
So there is my receipt for sudden tears. I being--thank heaven--a
cheerful body, and given to frequent laughter, may laugh in peace up to
the last moment, if I have only stowed away some heart-breaking incident
that I can recall at the proper moment. It seems like taking a mean
advantage of a tender heart, I know--what Bret Harte would call "playing
it low down" on it; but what else could I do? I leave it to you. What
could _you_ do to make yourself cry seven times a week, for nine or ten
months a year?
Then there was another great change in the new life. I was used to
rehearsing every day, and, lo! when once a play was on here, there
followed weeks, perhaps months, when there were no rehearsals. Mercy! I
could never afford to waste all that time; but what could I do? "One
_and_ two _and_ three _and_," I could not afford; but, oh, _if_ I could
take some French lessons, _what_ a help they would be to me in the proper
pronunciation of names upon the stage. But I did not want lessons from
some ignorant person, or someone who had a strange dialect. I have all my
life had such a horror of _unlearning_ things. I knew a real French
teacher would charge me a real "for-true" price, and my heart was
doubtful--but see how fate was good to me. There was in Tenth Street a
little daughter of a well-known French professor--he taught in a certain
college. The daughter was eager to teach. The father said: "Who will
trust so young a girl to instruct them? If you only had a first and
second pupil, you would be self-supporting. French teachers are in great
demand, but where shall you find that first pupil--tell me that, _ma
fille_. No matter how small your charge, the question will be, where have
you taught? No one will wish to be the first pupil."
But, fine old French gentleman as he was, he was mistaken nevertheless,
for I was willing, nay, eager, to be that first pupil, and she found my
name of so much value to her in obtaining a full class that she became
absolutely savage in her fell determination to make me speak her beloved
language correctly. In spite of her eighteen years she looked full
fourteen, and her dignity was a fearful thing to contemplate, until she
had a chocolate-cream in one cheek and a dimple in the other, then
somehow the dignity broke in the middle and the lesson progressed through
much laughter.
She was not beautiful, but pretty and charming to such an extent that,
within the year, she became Madame, carried her own chocolates, and was
absolutely vicious over irregular verbs. Dear little woman--I remember
her gratefully, and also remember that, later on, I paid just six times
as much per lesson to an elaborate person, well-rouged, who taught me
nothing, lest she might offend me in the act. I know this to be true,
because one day I deliberately mispronounced and let tenses run wild, to
see if she would have the honesty or courage to correct me; but she
looked a trifle surprised, rearranged her bangles, and let it all pass. I
then resigned my position as pupil, that she might give her very
questionable assistance as teacher to some other scholar, shorter of
temper, and more sensitive to rebuke or correction than I was.
At the theatre I think everyone liked me well enough, save Mr. Daly. He
disliked me because I simply could not learn to treat him with reverence.
I had the greatest admiration for him, I showed him respect by obeying
him implicitly, but if he was funny I laughed, if he gave me an
opportunity to twist his words absurdly I accepted it as gleefully as if
he had been the gas-man.
But two things happened, and lo! my manager's attitude toward me changed
completely. Mr. Daly was convinced that no man or woman could bear
decently a sudden success. He was positive that no head could stand it.
When I made no demand for my promised increase of salary, but went
pinching along as best I could, he only said to himself: "She will be all
the worse when her head does begin to turn."
One day a certain newspaper man looked in at his office, and said: "Oh, I
have something here about the play, and I've given a few pretty good
lines to your _find_ (Clara Morris): do you want to look at them?"
"I want them cut out!" sharply ordered Mr. Daly.
"Cut out?" repeated the surprised man. "Why, she's the play--or mighty
near it. I thought you'd want her spoken of most particularly?"
And then Mr. Daly made his famous speech: "I don't want individual
successes, sir, in my theatre! I want my company kept at a level. I put
them all in a line, and then I watch, and if one head begins to bob up
above the others, I give it a crack and send it down again!"
I had heard that story in several forms, when one day I spoke of it to
Mr. Daly, and he calmly acknowledged the speech, as I have given it
above, adding the words: "And next week I'm going to give Mr. Crisp's
head a crack, he's bobbing up, I see!"
The play of "Saratoga," by Mr. Bronson Howard, had been read to the
company, and, after the custom of actors the world over, they began to
cast the characters themselves--such a part for Lewis, such a one for
Miss Davenport. The splendid Irish part for Amy Ames (of course, with her
wonderful brogue), etc.; almost everyone remarking that there was nothing
for me. Lewis said: "Well, Clara, you're out of this play, sure. Will you
study Greek or the Rogue's Vocabulary? for I'll wager a hat to a hair-pin
you'll be turning a good head of hair gray over some nonsense of the
kind--good Lord!"
For M. Benot was holding toward me a thin little part, saying: "For you,
Miss Morris."
Mr. Daly stood at the far end of the room; he was watching me. The part
was a walking lady of second quality. It was an indignity to give it to
me. Like lightning I recalled the terms of my contract--I realized my
helplessness.
I rolled up the small part, calmly rose, and smiling a comprehending
smile into Mr. Daly's disappointed eyes, for which he could have choked
me, I sauntered out of the room. At home I wept bitterly. It was
undeserved! I had borne so much from gratitude, and here I was being
treated just as a fractious, brain-turned, presuming person might have
been treated for a punishment. However, my tears were only seen at home.
At the theatre I rehearsed faithfully and good-temperedly, and writhed
smilingly at the expressions of surprise over the cast, and for one
hundred nights I was thus made to do penance for having made a success in
"Man and Wife." Truly I had got a good "crack" for bobbing up; still my
patient, uncomplaining acceptance of the part had made an impression on
Mr. Daly, and he often expressed his regret, later on, for the error he
made as to the possible turning of my head.
Then came the second happening. To Mr. Daly a confidant was an absolute
necessity of existence. If they had tastes in common, so much the happier
for Mr. Daly, but such tastes were not imperatively demanded, neither was
sex of importance--male or female would answer; but the one great,
indispensable, and essential quality was the ability to respect a
confidence, the power to hold a tongue.
In the early weeks of the season he had been drifting into a friendship
with a man in the company, and had told him, in strictest confidence, of
a certain plan he was forming, and twenty-four hours later he heard that
plan being discussed in one of the dressing-rooms. It had traveled by way
of husband to wife, wife to friend, friend to her husband, and husband
No. 2 was busy in explaining it to all and sundry.
That ended the career of one gentleman as friend and confidant to Mr.
Daly. One day after rehearsal I was detained on the stage to discuss a
fashion-plate he was tearing from a magazine. A short poem caught his
eye. He glanced at it carelessly, then looked more closely at the lines,
and began to mumble the words:
"She of the silver foot--fair goddess--"
His brows were knit, his eyes looked away, dreamily. Again he repeated
the words, adding, impatiently: "I can't place that silver foot--the bow,
the lyre, yes; but the foot? Oh, probably it's a mere figure of speech,"
and he turned to the plate again, when I said: "Perhaps it means
_Thetis_, you know, silver-footed queen--daughter of old sea-god."
His whole face lit up with pleasure. "That's it," he said, "that's whom
it means; but are you sure the word 'queen' belongs right there?"
"No," I laughed, "I have grave doubts about my 'queen,' but I'm solid as
a rock on the rest of the line."
Then he repeated, with lingering enjoyment: "'Thetis, silver-footed,
_silver-footed_, daughter of old sea-god.' Do you know I often wonder why
someone does not make a play of mythological characters--a play after the
modern method I mean."
"Oh," I broke in, "then I shall have a rest, for I am not beautiful
enough for even a walking-lady divinity."
"Ah," he said, kindly, "you are not going to do any more walking
ladies--divine or human. I have already in my possession a play with a
great part for you. Boucicault wrote it, and----"
He stopped suddenly, all the brightness went out of his face. He played
nervously with his watch-guard. He started out with: "Miss Morris, I
wish--" stopped, frowned; then impatiently took up the picture-plate,
pointed out which dress he wanted me to wear, and curtly dismissed me.
I understood him perfectly. In a genial moment he had unintentionally
given me some information which he now regretted, though he would not
stoop to ask my silence; and he felt sure that I would at once boast of
the great part that was to be mine; and I went home, one broad smile of
malicious satisfaction, for in spite of my seemingly-careless speech, I
had, by long and careful training, acquired the fine art of holding my
tongue about other people's affairs, even though I ascended to the roof
to babble to the city of my own; and Mr. Daly would be again
disappointed, as he had been the day I accepted, without protest, the
walking-lady part.
That night he barely nodded in silent recognition of my "Good-evening,
sir." Next morning he kept his eyes averted from me when he gave me any
stage directions; but whenever or wherever we women formed a little group
to chat, there Mr. Daly, like a jack-in-the-box, suddenly sprang into
evidence. It was very funny--he was simply waiting for me to repeat my
interesting information.
Two, three days passed, then a certain kindness began to show in his
manner toward me. Quite suddenly, and of course unasked, he gave me a
dressing-room to myself. I was delighted! Hesitatingly, I tapped at the
door of his office. I had never stood there before, save by order. I
said: "I will not come in, Mr. Daly, I only wished to thank you for the
room you have given me. It will be a great comfort, for we are terribly
crowded in the other one."
But he rose, took my hand, and said: "You deserve anything and everything
this theatre can provide for you." Drawing me to a chair, he placed me in
it, while still speaking: "And I am proud of you. You are a girl in ten
thousand! For you can respect a confidence."
I was very much embarrassed by such unexpected warmth, and laughing
nervously I said: "Even when the confidence was unintentional and deeply
regretted?"
"Ah!" he answered, "you saw that, did you? Well, I've been listening and
waiting to hear about the 'new play' ever since, but not a word have you
dropped, and I did not ask for silence either. You are a woman worth
talking to, and I shall never be afraid to tell you things I am going to
do, and----"
And straightway he told me all about the new play--its good points, its
bad ones, and where he feared for it; and to show you how true was his
judgment, the play, which later on gave me a great personal success, was
itself a failure from the very causes he then indicated.
And so it came about that Mr. Daly, putting aside his dislike for
me--coming to enjoy my sense of the ridiculous, instead of resenting
it--confided many, many plans and dreams, likes and dislikes, hates and
loves to me. We quarreled spitefully over politics, fought furiously over
religion, wickedly bowed down and worshipped before odds and ends of
lovely carvings or precious _cloisonne_, to whose beauty I first
introduced him, and hung in mutual rapture over rare old engravings.
Thus I came to know him fairly well. A man with unbounded ambition, a man
of fine and delicate tastes, with a passionate love of beauty--in form,
color, sound. I have known him to turn a sentence, exquisitely, word by
word, slowly repeating the line, as though he were tasting its beauty, as
well as hearing it. Interested in the occult and the inscrutable--a man
of many tastes, but of one _single purpose_--every power and acquirement
were brought to the service of the stage.
In love he was mutability personified. In friendship, always exigent. Now
sullenly silent, now rapidly talkative, whimsical, changeable, he was
ever lavishly generous and warm-hearted. And it is a comfort to know that
in one respect at least I proved satisfactory during the friendship that
lasted as long as I remained in the theatre, since I never, even by
chance, betrayed his confidence.
When we had finally parted, a man one day mentioned me to Mr. Daly,
expecting to bring forth some disparaging remark. There was a pause while
my former manager gazed out at the heavily falling rain, then he said,
quietly: "When you drop a thing in a well, it can go no further. Clara
Morris is a sort of human well, what you confide to her goes no further.
Some people call that 'discretion,' I call it loyalty. I--I guess you'll
get a wetting on the way home." And acting on that hint the surprised
gentleman withdrew. He told me himself of the occurrence, and I confess
that Mr. Daly's words gave me a thrill of pleasure.
After those two occurrences I found my theatrical life pleasanter, for I
love my kind and wish to live at peace with them--and Mr. Daly's dislike
had disturbed and distressed me; therefore, when that had been conquered,
great was my contentment. A sympathetic word, a comprehending glance, a
friendly smile, proving ample indemnification for former injuries.
Nor could I be made to accept at full value the cruel gibes, the bitter
sarcasms reported to me as coming from Miss Agnes Ethel. For some reason
there was a distinct effort made to arouse in me an enmity against that
lady. Unpleasant stories had been repeated to me during the run of "Man
and Wife"; some of them had wounded me, but I had only listened silently.
Then one night I met her--a slender, auburn-haired, appealing creature,
with clinging fingers, sympathetic voice, and honest eyes--a woman whose
charming and cordial manner not only won my admiration, but convinced me
she was incapable of the brutalities charged to her.
So when "Jezebel" was announced, and it was known that Mr. Daly desired
Miss Ethel and me both to appear in it, great interest was aroused, only
to be crushed by Miss Ethel's refusal to play the part allotted to her. I
think she was in error, for the two parts were perfectly balanced. Mine
was the wicked, even murderous adventuress; hers the gentle, sweet, and
triumphant wife. I had the first act; she was not in that, but Mr.
Daly's idea was that her victory in the last act--where I was simply
pulverized for my sins--evened things up. But Miss Ethel listened to the
advice of outside friends. Her relations with Mr. Daly were already
strained, and her second refusal of a part was the beginning of the end.
Mr. Daly himself informed me that she said her part was secondary, but
that the real difficulty sprang from an earlier wrangle between them,
with which I had nothing to do. Yet there were persons who, with great
indignation, informed me that Miss Ethel had positively "refused to
appear upon the stage in any play with me--a mere vulgar outsider!"
But "vulgar outsider" was just a touch too strong; "malice had o'erleaped
self" and fallen on the other side. The silly story even reached some of
the papers, but that did not increase my belief in its truth.
Mr. Daly and Miss Ethel parted company before, or at, the end of the
season, and while I never worked with her, later on I privately received
such gracious courtesies from her kindly hands that the name of Agnes
Ethel must ever ring pleasantly in my ears.