Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1884 — The Beat h-Struck Fall Forward. [ARTICLE]

The Beat h-Struck Fall Forward.

i The critics do not seem to have noticed—at least they have not commented upon—the natural way in which Henry Irving counterfeits the death struggle upon the stage. The American actors invariably fall backwards when they come to the death scene in their tragedies; Mr. Irving falls forward fall upon his free, and this, we are told by physicians and sold:ers,,is the natural way with those suddenly overtaken by death. In a recent conversation, Capt. Lee, of tbe regular army, said that Irving’s death in “Louis XT was the most natural bit of acting he had ever seen. He had been a witness of numerous shooting affairs upon the border, and he had noticed that when a man was

shot his head fell forward upon his breast, and his body fell in the direction indicated by the head. Capt. Lee, visited the field of Gettysburg the day after the battle and he found the dead ninety-nine out of one hundred cases lying flat upon their faces. American painters invariably represent the dead upon the battle field as lying upon their backs. Perhaps they do this for the purpose of delineating death upon the countenances. The -French painters as invariably represent the dead with their faces downward, preferring to more subtly convey the idea of deatlyby an outstretched arm, a convulsively clutched hand, or some otfier small but hideously artistic deftail of the phenomenon of death. Irving is the only actor we know of who has defied every stage tradition and custom, and dies on the stage as people off the stage die. The innovation is a pleasing due, and should pass into custom.—Chicago News.