Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

of, from which should come this great public benefit. Unfortunately, those millionaires who have shown this disposition are hounded to death and have slight patience to investigate the merits of new channels of beneficence. But there are other millionaires who could provide this endowment out of hand, and almost without feeling it. One would think that the certainty that by establishing such an institution he would send his name down to posterity as its founder, would appeal to some one of these. Because of early religious training in which the theatre was considered an influence for evil only, and because of a certain unsavoriness which has sometimes attached to the connection of rich men with the stage, and perhaps because the matter has never been properly presented to the right man, none of these has yet made his views heard in the matter.

The six million dollars which will endow this theatre, it should be remembered, are not to be expended for the purpose of running a theatre, thus to be scattered and disappear. The only part of the endowment which would be actually expended is that which would go into land and building, things which would be valuable and permanent in themselves. The remainder would be invested and kept intact, only its income being used for the deficiencies of the institution. This income would certainly be needed at first, and it should always be available in case the theatre should fall into periods of unwise or mistaken management. After the theatre's early years, when its repertory became large and its company a thoroughly trained one, there can be no doubt that what would be the best theatre in America would become self-sustaining and even profitable. At that time there could be no objection to returning the surplus and unneeded income to those who had provided the endowment, to their heirs, or to their assigns. A plan to secure an endowment of the National Theatre must disregard the Government and the individual millionaire. But it seems not impossible that there are in America enough persons of large means and enlightened patriotism to furnish by association the insurance fund necessary.

A rough plan has been made of a suitable theatre which shall contain, in part of its auditorium, fifty comfortable boxes arranged in two tiers, and an estrade containing one hundred especially roomy chairs, all possessing equally good views of the stage. These boxes and seats are reached immediately from a

large and impressive foyer reserved exclusively for their occupants.

These fifty boxes and one hundred estrade chairs, in a manner to be discussed further on, would form the basis for the endowment of the theatre. In addition to them, there would be from five hundred to a thousand orchestra chairs, more roomy and comfortable than those to be found in the commercial theatres; similar seats in the first gallery, immediately over the upper tier of boxes; and others in a second gallery. From this generous seating capacity, it might be thought that the plan calls for an extremely large, and therefore barnlike, theatre. On the contrary, a theatre built on this plan would bring the entire audience close to the stage, making the work of the actors easy, and would be admirably arranged, in seeing and hearing properties, for the audience in every part of the house. As an educational scheme, the National Theatre must furnish good seats at moderate prices for a large part of its constituency, and this would be very feasible under the plan proposed. The upper foyer, for boxholders, and the lower one, for the use of the audience from the other parts of the house, would be foyers in the European sense of the word, and with convenient access to the auditorium would attract the entire audience between the acts.

In making boxes and seats a basis for subscription to the endowment, it is with a thorough understanding that a box at the opera has uses which could never go with a box at any theatre. One can sit through frequent repetitions of a musical work, because the enjoyment of music is a more sensual pleasure and one which can be enjoyed over and over again. Bearing in mind that the necessities of a theatre call for runs of plays of some duration, and that a box-owner would not care to use it very often during the run of a play, it is proposed, in order to make the ownership of boxes and estrade chairs attractive, that they shall be held on the following basis:

1. That the owners shall be entitled to their boxes or chairs on the occasion of all first presentations;

2. That, at any other time when they shall wish to do so, they shall have the right to use them for themselves or friends;

3. That when owners shall not indicate that they wish to use their boxes or chairs, the same shall be placed on sale to the general public, the proceeds to be set apart and, when the theatre

shall have paid its running expenses, to be divided on an equitable basis among the subscribers to the endowment.

The crux of this plan to secure an endowment for a National Theatre lies in the possibility of securing fifty subscriptions of one hundred thousand dollars each and one hundred subscriptions of ten thousand dollars each, not an extravagant possibility in this country of many large fortunes. Each subscription would be represented by a certificate transferable by assignment or bequest, those for the larger amount representing the rights to a box, and for the smaller, to one of the estrade chairs. In addition, these certificates would represent the owner's right to a pecuniary resurn on the subscription when the endowed theatre should show an income exceeding its running expenses and the cost of its productions.

This return to their subscribers, or their heirs or assigns, would eventually be a handsome one, but the appeal for subscriptions to the endowment must be based on a higher motive than this expectation. With the endowment rigidly safeguarded, as it would have to be, subscribers could be sure that their generosity would insure to the American people, for all time, an educational institution of the highest value and that it would be an enduring monument to the public spirit and patriotism of its founders.

According to the census, in one year of the last decade three hundred million dollars were expended upon schools, colleges and other educational institutions. One-fiftieth of that amount would endow a National Theatre. Its education, its influence in purifying our speech and in refining our manners, would be felt the country over and for all time, without distirion of creed or cult. Is that not good education? Is it not betion needed. in a country given over to absorption in the pursuit of material things? Is it not a practical idea? And, above all, is it not a patriotic idea, which should appeal to those a, 'WI have found in this country the opportunity to accumulate large rtunes and the privilege to enjoy them?

JAMES S. METCALFE.

VOL. CLXXX.-No. 579.

14

SOME RESULTS OF
OF THE
THE SOUTH POLAR

CAMPAIGN.

BY J. SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., SECRETARY OF THE ROYAL
GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

[ocr errors]

In March of last year, in an article in this REVIEW, I gave a sketch of the actual state of the various forces that were then besieging the still uncaptured fastnesses entrenched within the thick-ribbed ice of the North and South Polar areas. During the short period that has since elapsed, much has happened, at least in connection with the international forces that have been laying siege to the Antarctic. Preliminary reports of the results of the German and Swedish expeditions have been published, while the British and Scottish national expeditions under Captain R. F. Scott and Mr. Bruce, respectively, have returned. From these latter, reports are also available which enable us to form a very fair estimate of the results which have been achieved in the various departments of science in which investigations were carried out. In a general way, to continue the metaphor with which we st it may be said that positions of the first importance haar captured, and the way has been opened to science to securele mastery over the last remaining outpost of ignorance on the face of the globe. We can now form a fair idea of the configur of the vast area of land which surrounds the South Pole ip hile in geology, meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, oceanography and biology, the spoils have been immense.

[ocr errors]

The geographical results are probably those which will appeal most to the general reader. A map of the Antarctic, as it was in 1904 before these expeditions sailed, will show in the region to the south of New Zealand, between 71 degrees and 78 degrees south latitude, and between 160 degrees and 170 degrees east longitude, a block of mountainous land, apparently isolated,

terminating in the south in Mounts Erebus and Terror. This was, practically, as Sir James Ross left it sixty years ago. Extending eastwards from the two mountains for some 450 miles, an icebarrier is shown, rising to a height of about 200 feet and barring all access to the interior. At the eastern extremity of the barrier, Ross's chart indicated an "appearance of high land." That was all we knew of this region, until Captain Scott and his companions gave reality to the "appearance of high land," circumvented the great ice-barrier and revealed to us the mysteries that lie beyond. The generally accepted idea was that Ross's ice-barrier was really the steep termination of a great icesheet, covering, to a depth of hundreds if not thousands of feet, a land rising southwards towards the Pole; and that flat-topped Antarctic icebergs were fragments broken off the barrier. The various sledge expeditions organized by Captain Scott have proved this conception of the so-called ice-barrier to be erroneous.

[ocr errors]

When the "Discovery," in January, 1902, reached Cape Adare, on the northeast of South Victoria Land, it skirted southwards along a coast-line rising steeply from the ocean, and already partly known from previous exploration, until it reached the neighborhood of Mount Erebus. Thence it continued its course eastwards along the great Ice-Barrier of Ross, which, it was found, if Ross's observations were correct, had receded southwards about forty miles in sixty years. This barrier extended for about four hundred miles, beyond which the expedition found that Ross's appearance of high land" resolved itself into an extensive mountainous region, rising to thousands of feet and now named "King Edward VII Land." One of the problems left to solve is, how far this land extends southwards towards the Pole, and whether it continues, coastwards, in an unbroken line till it merges into what is known as Graham Land, where the Swedish Antarctic expedition was at work. Appearances of land have been reported by previous expeditions between King Edward VII Land and Graham Land-or rather Alexander Land, which lies immediately south of Graham Land and may be continuous with it.

From the position taken up by the "Discovery" under Mount Erebus, where she remained until the beginning of 1904, expedition after expedition was sent out, south and west and southeast, for the purpose of exploring what was regarded as the interior of the Antarctic continent. No doubt, the most important

« PředchozíPokračovat »