The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-01-04

cluded. The statue is of bronze, on
granite pedestal and is of heroic pro-
portions. 1t is the work of Mr.. Lount
Thompson, of Philadelphia, by whom
also the pedestal was designed. 1t oc
cupies one of the most commanding
points in the city of Washington, and
the Circle is named for the distinguished
naval officer whom the statue repre-
sents.
Lawrence Barrett has produced Rob-
ert Browning's tragedy The Blot on the
'Scutcheon. 1t was the first time the
piece has been attempted in this country,
first brought before the public by Mac
ready and proved failure. Later it
was attempted by Phillips, when it
again failed, and is now produced
by Lawrence Barrett, with some
material and some iimmaterial altera-
tons from the original draft of the play
A fine audience gathered at Albaugh's
opera house on Friday night, to witness
the presentation there being, in addition
to civic and army officials, many Con-
gressmen and members of the htterdti
William Winter the noted Shakesperean
critic, represented the New York Tri-
bune. The play was originally three
act piece, but Barrett has made it into
four. 1t is magnificent poetical pro-
duction; splendid reading tragedy, but
never had in it those elements essential
to successful acting play. More than
in any piece have ever seen in my life
is there lofty sentiment.whic without
forcing the attention or so riveting
thought as TO render it Objectionable,
ever appeals to and enforces the idea of
the eternal justice of the Creators senti-
ment that pervades and permeates the
whole, and yet is almost insensible.
The story is of the unwise
love of couple, highly born, at a time
when they were little more than chill
dren. The love ripens as they grow
older. The girlhas no father nor mother,
buta brother, wise, kind, generous, graci
Gus, learned and brave, who loves his
sister more like sutton than one
of kin. The acquaintance of the young
couple is unknown to the brother, and
the guilty lover calls on the brother and
asks for the hand of the girl. He is
graciously received and promised the
young lady if she gives consent. The
visits of the lover to the chamber of his
sweetheart have been marked at night
by an old retainer, who, with much an
discovery. The girl is called, and with
as much delicacy as the character O. the
inquiry renders possible. the brother
asks his sister of the truth of the tale.
Her soul, panied at the time almost to
distraction by the knowledge of her
guilt, has revolted at the effort of her
lover to hide their unnatural sin by
marriage, and she confesses to her
brother. This is the blot on the escut-
cheon. He deals with her kindly. She
refuses to disclose the name of her clan
destine lover. He asks her what an
swer she shall make to the young earl
who has sued for her hand She says
she will receive him. This so enrages
the brother-the bare idea that she
would attempt to hide her shame by an
alliance with an honorable house-that
he disowns, curses her and departs. The
name of the lover is adroitly secured by
Gwendolen, cousin of the girl, who re-
fuses to abandon her, and while in hys-
terical Joy at the discovery that Mil
and the same the brother enters, again
takes his sister to his heart and the cur
tain falls on the second act.
The third act discovers the brother be-
meath his sisters window. The hour is
midnight and he observes some one
approaching. AS the young earl stops
under his lovers window, before enter
ing for the nightly meeting, the brother
seizes him and forces the young earl
to disclose himself. He then insists
that the youth shall draw He does
so and the brother kills him, the lover
not attempting a defense. The brother
bewails his hasty temper, and listens to
the story of the youth The last act
discovers Mildred waiting for her lover.
The brother enters, asks her forgiveness
for his violent speech to her before, and
tells of the death of her lover. She
blesses her brother and dies with her
arms about his neck, while he, too,
breathes his last, having taken poison
because of his remorse at the death OF
the lover. There is but one really good
act ID it. The second act is suburb.
Barrett never appeared to better advan-
tage. The whole act gave opportunity
for the display of variety of emotion,
magnifcence of passion, and calm
ness of Judgment seldom to be seen in
a whole play. much less in single act
The suspicion aroused by the old re-
tainer'S hint at story, and the inn
patience to hear 1t, the confused and
! stunned sensation after listening to its
! detail, the effort to be calm, the deli
cacy, the gentleneSs with which he asks
her for disclosure that Will satisfy
him, the agony of the revelation that
his worst fears are but too true, the gen.
tie yielding to the love of her that
moulds him in spite of his madness. the
supremacy of madness in the curse
when he believes she would wrong an
other to hide her own shame by mar
riage, and the magnifcence of the min
gled scorn and contempt and anger with
which he leaves the poor girl stunned
and stupefied, were marvellous, and
natural and gave to Mr.. Barrett ample
opportunity for the highest exercise of
his faculties, his training and his ac-
knowledged dramatic genius. Nor is
this all. The womanly developments
of Gwendolin when her husband too
asks her to leave the girl and go with
him; her splendid scorn of the human
Fifty that deserts in the hour of trial and
| need, the manly and ennobling instincts
she causes Terminate her husband, the
tenderness with which she calls to life
and to reality the wandering thoughts
of the stupefed and heart-broken
maiden, the pleading, the almost ma
ternal manifestation of affection, the
discovery that the lover and the sutton
are the same and the hysterical JOY
which succeeded the revelation were