Lrading Articles in the Reviews. 



595 



MISS ELLEN TERRY ON DRESS. 



Si'Ar.E decoration is the subject of the paper which 

 lillen Terry contributes to the Christmas number of 

 the U'itidsor. She objects to the " kind of prettiness " 

 that passes for beauty. • " The direct and fireHke 

 expression of Ufe can in no circumstances be ugly, 

 must always be beautiful. It is sincerity in a produc- 

 tion which is the most valuable quality." From Mr. 

 Godwin, whom she met at Bristol, she dates her 

 interest in colour, texture, efTects of light on colour, 

 the meaning of dress, and a certain taste for beauty. 

 She re( alls that in " The Corsican Brothers " Henry 

 Irving had a very natural death-scene, but it didn't 

 look natural, though he said it came natural to him to 

 fall like that. From the audience he was fore- 

 shortened. .'\nd so she reflects, what is really natural 

 should not in nine cases out of ten be done on the 

 stage. It is through theatrical means, not natural 

 means, that a play is made to hold the mirror up to 

 nature. She believes in Mr. Godwin's principle, 

 " entirely accurate or entirely fanciful." 



WF.tl. l;ir CHEAPLY DRESSED. 



" Both form and colour of all stage dresses must be 

 governed by the individual actor's appearance, by the 

 general scheme of colour in each scene, and by the 

 relative importance of colours." The writer pro- 

 ceeds : — 



To carry out such a scheme it is not always necessary to spend 

 ^real (leal of moiit y. I ihink I may say, without boasting, 

 that I have always l)een well dressed 011 the stage, but I doubt 

 if there has ever been a more cheaply-dressed actress. Off the 

 stage, /<'«.' nil coiilraitel After tryin;; garments of every size 

 and sliape in private life, I have ended by adopting the Japanese 

 style one day and the Greek the next. A cupbo.-ud full of 

 unworn corsets bears witness to the number of presentations 

 and representations I have received (and disregarded) from 

 stay-makers and slay rccomnienders, begging me to improve 

 my figure. But on the sLage I have submitted even to the iron 

 body -casings of the Tudor period. As Queen Katharine I paid 

 my tribute to arch.x >logy in those awful slays, and added thick 

 brocade dresses with fur sleeves of tremendous weight. But 

 my preference is for a loose, diaphanous dress — I am always 

 linppy in il. 



WHAT II KR DAUGHTER DID. 



Of her ilaughier ICdy, when at school, she relates 

 this incident : — 



^he wrote to me and asked me to send her some money, as 

 . wanleil to go to a fancy-dress ball. Times were improving 

 with me then, but I still had to Ijc very careful, and I answered 

 that I was soiry, but luxuries were not for the likesof us— ihat 

 this w.as one of ihc things she could do wilhoul, must in wilh- 

 out. liul I enclos<d a postal onkr for two shillings and six- 

 pence, telling her lhat if she could make a " fancy dress " for 

 thai, she might go to the dance. She spent sixpence on the 

 dress, and squandered the rest of lhat Large sum on chocolate 1 

 My young l.idy went to the ball, and her dress was ihc success 

 of Ihc c\ciiiirg. With burnt coik on her face, neck, arms, .and 

 ankles, brass cnrlainrinqs in her ears, and old red slippers on 

 her toes, she look the Turkish towels from her ballirooni and 

 draped her little bo<ly with them, twisting one around her head 

 into a fine turban. \Vilh these and her own clever skill, she 

 presented an .\rab boy of immaculate appearance — ami all for 

 . sixpence I .\gain, Ihc c.ihcr day we hastily arranged to do the 

 sleep walking scene from " Mncbclh " at an entertainment in 

 out village town-hall. I li.id my dress for Lady Macbeth ; the 



doctor's was hired from London, but Edy, as the genllewonian, 

 appeared to the greatest advantage. She looked splendid. 



" What a fine dress, Edy ! " I said, when I first saw her in it 

 on the little platform, where she was busy arranging the lights 

 before the curtain went up. "Where did you get it ? " I knew 

 she had none of her stage dresses in the country, and lhat she 

 had not h.id time to write to London for one. 



"I made it this afternoon," said Edy, and there was 

 laughter in her eyes. " The underneath part is an old dressing- 

 gown of yours turned back to front. The overdress is a tartan 

 rug belonging to the dog, the head-dress is a motor-veil, and 

 the ornaments nre bunches of buttons ! " 



IS FRANCE PAGAN? 



In the Sunday at Home Mr. \V. Griiiton Berry 

 raises this question. He answers, " Yes. The 

 governing authorities and the Government of France 

 are positively and deliberately and actively hostile 

 to the Christian religion." He notes three stages in 

 the development of the anti-Christian tendency in the 

 schools. In the first stage the name of God is found 

 in the school books, no sectarian instruction is per- 

 mitted to have a place, but duty towards God might 

 be taught as comprised in natural and ijhilosophical 

 religion. The second stage recasts multitudes of 

 passages in order to get the offensive word, the name 

 of God, out of tlie way : — 



Last stage of all, and the present one : the faith of a 

 Christian is denounced and derided, the standard of unbelief 

 is unfurlcil, God and Jesus Christ and religion are banished 

 from the schools of France, and the vacant thrones are tilled 

 by abstractions called Reason, Science, Self-interest. 



A chapter on the final object of science — natnely. 

 to know and love perfection or God — is replaced by 

 one entitled " The Age of Electricity." The love 

 of God becomes the love of humanity. God and 

 religion and the soul are expelled from the school. It 

 is a conspiracy of silence. The Crusades are 

 described without the name of God or Peter the 

 Hermit. The religious side of the character of Joan 

 of Arc is ignored. ;\11 reference to the great figures 

 of religious history and the great ecclesiastical build- 

 ings are deleted. The school books are inimical to 

 the Christian faith. Mr. Berry gives certain quota- 

 tions from the school books : — 



No belief concerning God, the origin of the world, the origin 

 and destiny of man can be accepted by thinking people ; all that 

 we can do in these matters is to make suppositions. 



The Gospels contain moral conceptions which shock the 

 modern conscience. 



Religion is founded u|ion fear and upon unverifiable hypo- 

 theses. 



Pagan is hardly the word for this sort of thing. 

 The pagans knew butter. 



SL'nsiDisiCD journalism in India, which is now- 

 developing under the present Governmtnf, is, Mr. 

 Hayavadana Rao points out in the Hiuduslan Rniei(.\ 

 no new feature in Indian life. The very first news- 

 paper printed in Bengal, the Beiii^al Gazelle, 1816, 

 edited by a Bengalee Pandit, was under Goveminent 

 patronage, and Government [latronage has been 

 extended to Ihe Press very fici|uently ever since. 



