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CHAPTER VII
IT was in 1878 that I went abroad for the first ne. We spent our first evening in Paris at the Dmedie Fran9aise. Many things in art and .ture, too great to be grasped at once, appear sappointing at first sight. I admit that " Her-,ni," with its fine cast of characters, including irah Bernhardt, Got, Worms, and Mounet Sully, d not come up to my expectations. Being used
the broad and bold effects of our early stage, e refinement and finesse of the French art meant tie or nothing to me. I longed for the artists
fling their restraint to the winds and give the iblic a good old-fashioned burst in the tragic enes, such as I had been accustomed to see and dulge in myself. When the curtain fell without I was unpleasantly surprised. Only bright and iring colors appealed to me in those days, and e delicate tints and touches with which these rench actors gained their greatest effects ap-sared to me weak and insipid. My disappoint-nd of it.