ACTORS OF THE NIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 616, 20 September 1909, Page 8

ACTORS OF THE NIGHT.

ON A OHOSTLY STACE. [By Gybo.] And it was all play. And nobody seemed , • -" • ,to know what it was all about. ■'..' A striving . . . and a striving , ... and an ending in nothing. ••••...• Mr. "Jock" Willie, of tlho Pollards, had just oomo off tihe stage. Wo walked along Manners Street and presently mounted tho hill. Potone lights hung liko a swarm of fireflies in the distance, lifted a little between the sea-rim and tho sky by the rcfnftdSJ>f ropowe'of the harbour.. The pale iighi of some steamer was creeping out towards Point Halswell, and above us tho reflection of ■ thousands of city lights was touching tho clouds. One thing led to another, as it usually does, and I began to think of lights generally, especially certain death lighta whicii, as I knew very well/had once shone over Mr. Willis. He replied, with some nrolevanco, that "the public" had encored tan five times for singing "Fou' the Noo," >a nd '> believed ho 'could make money' by imitating Harry Lauder. Now,. .the cure for an irrelevance is a blow, and I said: "Competent people, who know the stage,, say-that you are as much like Harry louder as. a draught horse is liko a thoroughtoed." After a few other pleasantries he told -the story. .... Was it a big play? It -was, m its way, one of the biggest of the century. Many in ™? oast [ A thousand principals,: a. thousand other actors, and a thousand "supers." Genius in its. construction? Yes, some of the best our. age. How many nights did it run? It .was limited to positively only one performance'. In- London? London was mot. too small for it. ■ : ; ' ■ • It was not only that • , ' tho play was bold , in ; _ •'■'[' : outline, but the con- '_. ■' ' tract provided that it _j_ Principals, .was also to .'bo tho-r- - ' ■'' ough kits details. The —— •' i world was ransacked ;— ' ... for its greatest. egotists," and actors.were assembled of that'pur- ■ - ■,'•/ ■': ,•:■ posefnl kind who would . , . ■'■.-,;■ close an equable fist j ■ , •• ■ of iron alike round Is. ,"' : . OJd. 0r.£10,000, and —- , never .. trade: '. with ~~ ■'.-.' ~ cither.. Men! who ■__ .--.. 'would never, never bet . :_ Other Actors ■-.-—except .on a eertain- ._ '][■ '.. . ' ty.. i Men . who mado i ■•■■• •• .■' every post in life a —. " . ■' . K .winning post. Whose ' :•-■ • •'. ■ . . thoroughness naturally '■','■' - .',... .'gave tSem a fixed idea .'. ' .'■'.' ' that they were only ['■ . ' , placed for a short ; . ." while on this little baf—r ..| fling earth in order r~~ ~ , that they might really '■ ' ■. . show that all Us Alps" "Supers" ' " wero mole-hills -before ■ ■'".■■ they ultimately iiiher- . ' '■' ■'■'■'. . • : itcd the Kingdom of, '- . , Heaven. In short, ' ■ .-.'■''. . .'every, man was a; ■Scotchman, and,no better type could have' been chosen, for it was a play that made heavy demands on the nerves'of the" cast. ■ , The denouement was.to. be an imposing ; transformation ; scene carried but in dim . lights—something : liko the ghostly "Wagram act" in only moro so. At the cue, tho massed strength of the company was; to come "down stage" open , -out from the compactness shown-in the first dia-' 'gram to'full stage'breadth, as gram 2.'.' Then a, man with a'Bull Voice.(sta-' .tioned at B) was to declaim!'four words, and some' bugles in' the orchestra were to givo out eight , notes , , in', rapid timo. • The lights were then to be turned : up, and the band was to.play. .>/■ ' ,'•-■■ ', ; Alas for humaii.foresight! .Even in tihoee momente where it is- minded to provido for everything it forgets essentials. .As every man in -Che 3000 had.a bull voice it was not thought necessary to tell off any, particular actor and station him at B. Also, it -was not foreseen that" certain disreputables, ■to wit, Gert Van der Mehve, the two Blezindenhout boys, CUC. Kronemaa,"ahd Jantie, Biet,- and Hans would buy' setts in the orchestral stalls and turn'up :the footlights' while the big transformation soenb was in progress. 'And so spoil all.. '. , . -, ,; .' '.-.. v. Come to think of it, these were fatoloversights. If the piece had been staged in London, or New York, or even at the Opera House, Manners; Street,. , ' it might not have mattered. At Magersfohtein,. however, , it was fatal.. And it was the Death Drama played at Magersfontein nine years ago; that Mr. Willis vu speaking of.. , : ' "lie brigade was in. quarter coluinn liko this," e&id Mr. Willis,' and ho sketched diagram 1 on'tho back of an envelope, under, a 'lamppost.'-;. , "1t was a.freezing,;cold.j,night,, full of moisture, for it had been rainingvand, this state of the &ir played fantastic: tricks.: The Kimberley searchlight, for instance, kept going—up and down—up and down—and. though the blur of the dark hill shut us off from that; yet its..reflection cann-ht us'™* and then, and sometimes you could see whole lines of helmets lit up,' white, like ghosts in a cemetery. Two red lights were burning on

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Mr. Willis added' that even .then—in that moment when every man's Lair was stand-ing-bolt upright with apprehension—it only needed some man with a bull voice to .roar four magic' words—',' The Line will Advance"—and the thing ,was done. But, as las been said, tie need for bavin" a man with a Bull Voice had been overlooked.

And so, 0 poor , Wolseloy, did it.all come to that?.. ' You who, .for thirty years, had schemed to measure out,human nature, and the. tears and mutabilities of things with a rule, and set-square, and ' military scales stampedat Whitehall ;you who were to .defeat • a fire-zone made .terrible, and every year.more, terrible,.by-the calculated and nicely-adjusted 'night.march; you for whom only the inflexible' Scotch were good enough ■to figure as pawns on.'the board, did it all end so? Had you not your Bed Book, with its , directions as to "compasses prepared with luminous paint," and left guides on the flank carrying' ,, a knotted .rope,. and all tihat sort of thing? And you had even pressed into your', service ; the philosophy 'of the ancient , Greeks,' to whom ;tJho circle was the symbol of perfection, and other mathematical figures had their symbolic properties.' You had seen that your pawns, , your factors of the-night, , must bo assembled in the form suitable for movement, which is tho column, and that, at the proper time, your rectangles, of men must bo resolved into . tho death-dealing shape—which is the line.- Yes, you had. done all this, but you had forgotten just that one little detail—the[man with, the Bull Voice. And eo, when Death waved his blue, mesmoric hands over your calculated geometry there was none to say him nay I I asked Mr. f Wilhs ono thing about 'Magbrsfontc&n'irhicJi has never vot been published—what like was the drill ? And it must bo admitted that this wus important, for there are many ways of bringing a brigade from column into lino, and when two red lights are burning on a lull, and 4iable to bo extinguished any minute, no doubt the swiftest way ie the best. .- Hβ said_ that eacli company in the Black Wat<ili apdan the Soaforths first formed single rankj and then, in perfect silence,'each opened , to twelve paces from the centre. This increased tho front of the brigade from 50 yards to 1200 yards ae if by magic. Then- each alternate eom.^eiiystepped theioterTato- mafoby

the company in front of it, and'tho captains, lifting their arms like semaphores, scarce discernible in tho'dark, signalled' a further extension, which again increased tlio front of the brigade to 2400 paces. It was intended to extend it ultimately to 6000 paces, but before that could be done the end came. Could anything havq been moro mathematical, more diabolically exact? . • . A little dizziness oroeps over the brain as one thinks of this ghastly completeness of preparation ending in such ghastly failure. It is a moro. and more curious tale the more one looks at itptho attempt of a mighty intellect to abolish Mischance by industry and forethought and preparation. And it lias a significance which is not at all pleasant. As Thales saw 'in a drop of water the sum total of fcho transactions of tho universe, so this march, which failed, after all precautions, may havo its meaning wMi respect to the wider affairs of tihat moro extensive and infinitely more momentous march in tho dark which men call Life. , But we arrive notfhero by thinking about it. . Or if wo do arrive anywhere it mav not bo much past tho passage which Olive Schreiner oaico penned in. that self-same land where the Highlanders marched, and extended, and died—"And it was all play. And nobody seemed- to ■ know, exactly what it,was all about... . ... ; : A'striving . . \ . and a striving . .... and an ending in nothing?, . . ,' . ,

_ But Ultimate Truth is too vast and manysided for any one mortal, even Olive Scbreiner, to grasp entirely, and call to one's fellows: "Ha! Ha! I have it." Besido the. complete incompleteness of the nigh-Vmarch, and the chilling words of Olive Schreiner, and tho failure of tie magnum opus of Lord Wolseley's life (the attempt to abolish firezones on battlefields) we may also lay out one little bit of gold borrowed from J.QX's "Fugitive Light" in. last Monday'sDominion. ' It is not the ultimate, event which gives life its charm to us poor battlers of tlhe night, but the quist.' And always flhe quest. ■' . . .! i