Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-06-17
Comus entertainment.

Comus Club gave its second entertainment
at the Court House on Wednesday evening
which was in every sense of the word q
most flattering and well-earned success
The cast of characters was filled with an
ease, acquaintance and possession which
would have reflected credit upon profess
SIGNALS. The stage was perfectl little model,
artistic in its proportions, chaste in its archi-
lecture. The stage properties were elaborate,
and complete and in perfect harmony and
taste with the spirit of the respective acts.
The scenic effect was decidedly fine and lent
an air of simplicity and refinement through
out the entire program, whilst the charm
ing music rendered by the orchestra pro-
duced an exhilarating influence over the
brilliant and crowded house.
The Chimney Corner" little domestic
drama, in two acts, and replete with pa
thetc interest, was the first of the evenings
program, and which occupied in its rendi-
ton an hour and a-half, eliciting the most
intense interest and repeated encOres from
its inception to the close. In this play the
characters were well taken. Mr.. A. j. AL
money, as Solomon Probity, the superanu-
ated man, was a most positive hit in very
difficult roll The old man broken down
with age, with reason returning now and
then to its throne like fitful CLEANS of sun
the long ago, give evidence of some wish
of the heart utter some words of precau-
ton, syllable rebuke OF want of distrust and
his bent trembling limbs almost refusing to
support him in his search for gold, was very
finely delineated.
Mr. Kiger, as Sitter, the detective in the
employ of Chiefly & Co., was fully up to his
part and his strategic anxiety TO sell his
"potash and soda" was well calculated to
deceive the plain and unsophisticated Mrs
Probity, as was evident his uneasiness when
his vilainy was exposed and he was await
ing her vengeance at the threshold of the
drawing-room.
Miss Mamie Carter, as charming Grace
Emery, and Mr.. Forest Prettyman, as the
manly, noble-hearted John Probity, ex
hibited very high appreciation of their
respective parts, and impaired degree of
interest throughout the play that was full Of
beauty and romance. Grace, gentle, con-
fiding and trusting In her nature, affection
ate in her disposition, easy and winning in
her manners as she was generous and mag
unanimous to her friends in the hour of their
adversely, was in beautiful contrast with
those sterling qualities of mind and heart of
honest John Probity, who, laboring under
the cloud OF suspicion, with hopes broken
and ambition stranded, had fled from the
spot where love had reared her first altar
and placed its little image there. But it is
in the second act where Grace Emery and
John Probity appear to the most striking adj
vantage. John Probity has returned home.
He, whose early life had been blghted and
the ruin of whose youthful hopes and affec-
tons had been as complete as the desoation
then around him, stood in the midst of the
heart broken family, serene and proud in
his innocence. The sunshine which gener-
ally comes to the young had been reserved
for him until now, and it was all the brighter
and warmer, and more cheering because it
came not altogether from without, but was
partly the emanatiOn of his own kind and
affectionate and unselfish heart And Grace
was happy too, quietly happy in the secure
possession of Il strong, deep love which her
trusting dependent nature had always need
ed but never before had found
Mr.. Richard X. Beal's Charles Chiefly,
was simply excellent, because it was 50 very
natural. Cold, calculating and methodical
in the execution Of his professional duties as
he was mercenary in his engagement with
| Grace Emery, he exhibited all that cOncen
1 trated Indifference that is SO characteristic
of that herd of attorneys whose hearts have
grown as hard and cold as stone. His man
ner was decidedly easy and impressive.
In Miss Mittie Hodges, as wife of Peter
Probity and mother of John Probity, we rec
/ ognized one of those beautiful characters in
domestic life whose greatest ambition is to
make her home and those around her happy
and contented. The wife of a chandler in
the absence of her husband she attends to
/ the duties Of the shop in connection with her
own. But it is not until misfortune dark
ems the hearthstone, when a sons dishonor
had brought shame and want upon Il trust
| ing and aged father, when woman-lke, re-
covering from the shock, she bears her bo-
som TO the storm and looks by prayer or
other means Ia the silver lining, that she
comes up beautifully and touchingly in her
roll TO portray the character Of wife and
mother in drama so full Of startling Incl
dents is by no means an easy task, but Miss
Hodges met the emergency with remarkable
complacency. Miss Hodges would make a
| charming little professional artistic
| Mr. Fletcher possesses very high order
of dramatic talent, and in giving US Peter
] Probity he came conspicuously up to the
/ literal meaning of the text. His return
| from the Stockholders attended by police
man, the importance attached to his position
as sole executor of his friend and his own
misfortune for dabbling in stocks were but
chapters from real life. In his reception of
Mr.. Chiefly and the interview which follow
cd, in which he for the first time learned of
the suspicion resting over his son, Mr.
Fletcher was most happy and tellingin effect
But perhaps his best effort was when he
made known To Grace Emery her financial
condition through his sons dishonor, and
his sons subsequent return and exonora-
tom in both of these parts his acting was
decidedly handsome. Throughout, the piece
was full Of interest and provoked extrava-
giant admiration from those present
The afterpicce, entitled "Sarahs Young
Man." was next placed upon the stage with
new properties and handsome scenery which
was most telling in its effect, and the per-
Torrance called forth perfect storm of APP
pause and peas of laughter
Miss Lucy Torney, as Sarah Tibbs, caught
the spirit of her part with remarkable ease
and grace, and with decided effect gave a
most beautiful rendition of the character
her walk and manner upon the stage was
striking and stranger might well suppose
that it was not her first appearance.
Mrs. Moggridge, a sympathetic mamma,
was well taken by Mrs Fletcher, and with
becoming grace and seeming pleasure she
worried, to her hearts delight, old Moggridge,
who had grown TO he the victim Of jealousy.
Those who sustained the other characters
in the piece lost none Of the laurels they
gathered in the first play.
In all it was a most delightful evening
and we sincerely hops that il may BE- the
pleasure of the Comus Club to give rs
often similar performances. The music, by
Daunch's band, was finished and appropri-
ate &C QUESTION 10 the evening" entertainment
VIZ rooraf that n nup,lar of f,araono Waro