The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-04-27
Vancouver Independent
The Moon In Won at Last.

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a genuine, not Delsartian, picture of
utter despair. When 1 asked him what
had happened he exclaimed, in sepul-
chral tones: THE man who promised
to make my moon has gone back on me
at the last moment"
I may say here, parenthetically, that
the moon was very important part OF
Won at Last. In fact, the play was in
five acts and the moon in four.
have always strongly suspected that
injustice has been done Mr.. Mackaye In
this matter, inasmuch as the critics have
failed to see that his real purpose in
writing the play was not so much to
describe the viclssitudes of newly mar
ried couple as rather the creation and
development of Delsartian moon.
The plot of the moon was as follows:
In Act 1. it appeared in crescent shape,
rising above the horizon, changing in
color as it mounted, till when it
reached the upper borders it was OBJ
secured by q cloud, which observation so
affected the spirits of the heroine that
she tainted, and the curtain was rung
down. In the second act the moon did
not put in An appearance, but frequent
reference was made to it. and it was gen.
orally supposed to be inclined to get
"full." In Act Ill. it clearly showed
that it could make up for lost time, and
grew perceptably in sight of the audi.
ence. In Act Nv. it was decidedly full
and illuminated the ripping water in
order to give the hero a good chance to
explore the cavcrnous depths into which
he was about to cast himself in his efforts
to commit suicide.
It will be seen that Mr.. Mackaye's
horror was perfectly justified, as to play
the play without the moon would have
been leaving Hamlet out In fact,
without the moon Won at Last would
have been "Lost from the First"
In this terrible dilemma sympatheti-
cally offered my services, and promised
to get one of my artist friends to con-
struct moon which should develop on
true Delsartian principles, and have for
the fourth act q water scene whose rip
pies should reflect its light.
After considerable trouble managed
to induce Charles Kendrick-who will
best be remembered by his clever car
ICONS in Chic-to undertake the work
which he promised should be done with
a week.
Mackaye's grief was thus partly as
suaged, but not wholly so, inasmuch as
he had to open his season two days after
in Worcester without the moon.
I attended the opening at Worcester,
and nearly assisted at a catastrophe, as
Macksye had made q frantic attemps to
create moon out of such chaotic ma
terial as he could get in that aesthetic
town.
As the gentlemen who had the work
ing of it were not exactly au fait with
lunar mechanics, an explosion resulted
which came near blowing the roof of
the theater.
About week or so afterwards, having
personally superintendent the maIufac-
ture of the moon in New York, shipped
it to Holyoke, Mass, where it was to
reach the company in time to be included
in the cast. In order that there should
be no failure in this respect, l accom-
panied it to see it safely through, and
assist at its debut. The whole company
met me at the depot, and I was received
with enthusiastic cheers when l told
them the moon was on board.
The moon was borne to the theater In
triumphal professional. A rehearsal at
once was decided upon. Our hearts beat
high with hope. But alas! we were
doomed to disappointment. All went
well enough for some time till, just asits
substitute had done at Worcester, it ex-
ploded. Walter Lennox vowed that he
would leave the company if it was not
instantly removed.
Old Couldock asked for leave of alb
sence to go to New York to find out
from the insurance company in
which he had invested, whether they
included Moon among their travelling
risks.
From this it will be seen that John
Mccullough was right when, on being
asked to take the play TO San Francisco, he
said it would require "a carefully re.
hearsed company and moro carefully re-
hearsed Moon"
The misconduct OF the Moon almost
broke Mackay's heart, but he had suffi-
cient strength left to plead for it so earn.
estly that in Difference TO his feelings, it
vas generally resolved to give it one
more show.
When the curtain went mp for the first
act, and when the heroine appeared, /
noticed that she seemed very nevous, and
while keeping one eye on the audience,
distinctly kept one on the Moon.
At the end of this act she had to say
words something like these, while point
ing TO the Moon, 20, mother, that is
nv HONEYMOON. Alasl it is overcloud-