Plays and the Players

Lloyd Osbourne is home again in San Francisco, after the trials and triumphs attending his (and Austin Strong's) production of "The Exile" in London. The play was produced there on May 9th, by Mr. Martin Harvey and a strong company, and ran its term at the Royalty Theater with more than fair success. A considerable part of the London press received it with hostility, for a play that turned on the persecution of Napoleon by his jailers at St. Helena had inevitably to pass through a severe. ordeal with English critics. The public, however, was more magnanimous, especially the pit and gallery part of it, and it was from these last that Mr. Harvey won his most enthusiastic applause. "The Exile" will open at Liverpool on August 12th, inaugurating a four months' provincial tour. In December he will bring it to this country, where it will probably be seen in the Manhattan Theater, New York. After six weeks in Gotham, where he will probably present two other new plays, Mr. Harvey is booked for a three months' American tour.

Whether in her own social circle, on the
concert stage or in grand opera, she
shows the training that goes to make up
an artist. Her voice is a true soprano,
and she handles it with a rare sense of
vocal values. Madame Roma, as she is
called since her London engagement, is
also a fine pianist, and there are few wo-
men who have her talent for successful
composition. Her song, "Violets," is sung
wherever chamber music is given, and
she has a number of other compositions
to her credit, for the stage, the concert
room and for church singing. She
has no less than twelve songs
now being printed, and a
cycle of songs, just pub-
lished, bear the names
of "The
"The Wandering
One," "Absence,"
"Lament," "Doubt
Not," "The Let-
ter," and "The
Return." A num-
ber of her sacred
songs, with orches-
tral accompani-
ment, have been
sung in the lead-
ing churches.

Anna Wilson is

a young California singer, who is well known in San Francisco, having appeared in grand opera at the Tivoli, and lately filled an Orpheum engagement to the satisfaction of the musical part of the audiences. Her voice is a beautiful mezzo-soprano, showing excellent schooling. Miss Wilson has lately removed to New York, where she will engage in light opera.

MADAME CARO ROMA

The reappearance of Camille d'Arville in San Francisco was one of the events of the month in theatrical circles and the Tivoli Opera House has been crowded by those anxious to see her in the soprano part of Lady Constance Sinclair in "The Highwayman."

Caro Roma, who used to be Miss Carrie Northey of Oakland, California (in private life is Mrs. Douglass), has gained recognition from all sorts of people, and in all sorts of environments.

The present month will bring to a close the fifteen weeks' engagement of White Whittlesey at the Alcazar, San Francisco. For distinction of manner this actor is to be commended. It is regrettable by San Franciscans that his stay here is shortened by reason of a con

Devoted to Facts of Material Progress in the West

Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past;

A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Times's noblest offspring is the last.
-Bishop Berkeley's Prophecy.

The big cable ship Anglia arrived at Honolulu July 3, and on July 4-one hundred and twenty-seventh anniversary of the independence of the American colonies-the Pacific cable was completed and messages under the greatest oceans were made possible by reason of the vigor and energy of American enterprise. For to the Pacific Cable Company, of which Clarence Mackay is president, is due all credit for the speedy completion of this work, which is going to make double-quick history. The whole work, laying the cable from San Francisco to Manila, 8300 nautical miles, was completed within eighteen months from date of signing the contract. The first message sent over the cable was from President Roosevelt, at Oyster Bay, L. I., to Governor Taft at Manila, and within a half hour Governor Taft's reply was received in Washington.

In all that has been said and written about the new Pacific cable and the benefits that it will bring to the Pacific coast, one fact has been almost forgotten. According to the highest authorities of the Associated Press, it is going to make San Francisco one of the two or three news centers of the world. To the lay mind this needs some explanation. In the first place, the great and influential newspapers of the world are morning dailies. That little pause between the time of night when the world stops making news and the time when the paper comes to the breakfast table enables the morning newspaper to put a certain finish on its work which must be lacking in the journal got out in the midst of the "newsiest" time of day. Now it happens that, owing to the movement of the solar day and the difference in time, western newspapers can copy exclusive news of the same date from eastern publications. At three o'clock in the morning, when the New York newspapers are out on the street, it is midnight in San Francisco. So it happens that the New York correspondents of the local morning dailies go over the World and the Sun and the Journal, rewrite their "exclusive" news items, local and foreign, and send them on to San Francisco. This explains the phrase, so often seen in the telegraph columns of the local morning dailies: "The Sun will say tomorrow-" The same process is going on between New York and London, the New York papers using the phrase, “The Times will say tomorrow

All this is mightily irritating to the great news agencies, chief among which is at present the Associated Press. It means for one thing that the Oriental news, which is now

sent with the course of the sun from China to London and from London to New York, cannot be kept exclusive to their subscribers, who insist on the earliest possible delivery of

news.

But send the news the other way, opposite to the course of the sun and the hours, and the situation changes. Now, news items which arrive in San Francisco within two or three hours before the time of going to press in this city cannot appear in New York and London newspapers of the same date, since those newspapers will have been off the press for several hours before the Chronicle and Examiner and Call appear. New York and London will steal from San Francisco and will keep their correspondents here for that purpose; but since the items will not then appear until the following day, and since there will then be an interval of several hours during which the competing agencies can get the exclusive news for themselves, this form of news gathering will be lessened materially.

Because of this, and because the Pacific cable furnishes a nearer and less expensive telegraph line to the Caucasian world than the tortuous Suez route, San Francisco will leap at once into great importance as a news center and its importance will grow with the development of the Orient. A high authority of the Associated Press has registered the opinion that before this generation is old San Francisco and London will be the two news centers of the world.

Of course, this is only a minor benefit of the Pacific cable. It is mentioned because it has hardly been noticed on the Pacific coast. The great benefit is the spur to trade. The big international transactions of the world, the big commercial orders, are handled by cable. It has, of course, been possible to cable from San Francisco to Hongkong or Manila, but only at a heavy rate, a great loss of time and considerable risk that the message would not arrive in its original state. Before the Pacific coast could hope to do a really big business with the Orient, it had to have cable communication; and now the cable is here. Its influence will be felt in increased import and export returns within the year.

The new passenger depot to be built by the Southern Pacific at San Bernardino, California, will be a distinct departure from the character of architecture heretofore employed in station building. This building will be fifty-eight by eighty feet, one story in height, with an arcade on two sides, having the general waiting room, ladies' retiring room,