The evening world., 1889-07-02
THE BURGLAR"

Tho third act of THE Burglar" the
" comedy-drama " produced at the Madison
Square Theatre last night, is tho dainty little
sketch known AS "Editha's Burglar the first.
second and fourth acts are the padding used to
make II into n play. The result of the effort il
encouraging, and The Burglar" is not to be
dcspised, in spite Of some ~glarinR improbable
ties that would glare even worse than they did
last night, IL people wero not too busily engaged
i'll keeping cool Just now to notice them very
particularly.
William Lewis is q sort of Captain Swift and
Jim the Penman in the first act. lie "burGlesn
AS Editha would say-for a living at night, and
is a " gentleman" during tire day. He il then
missed for five years and his doleful, but Worth
clad wife marries again. He enters her house
in his role of burglar and meets Editha, whom
he finally re ognizes, His wife has heard that
he is alive and believes herself to be a bigamist,
But a young lawyer has secured her a divorce
and all ends happily, the burglar dying, Of
course.
The melancholy wife, however, might have
been spared q great deal of tedious anguish had
the divorce been male known by the young
lawyer before the end of the fourth act. Why
he kept the information to himself nobody
knows but the author of the play. In the first
act the burglar is q gentleman and speaks the
best drawing-room English. In the second act
he INDUCES in the iargin which burglars are
popularity supposed to love. How lie could have
suddenly lost his educational veneer il never ex.
planned. There are many remarkable little in
constituencies in "The Burglar" But as
| said before, take it all in oil, -
the play is not to he despised. When a
man sets out to make q four-act comedy drama
of a sketch he naturally encounters difficulties.
Imagine a four-act comedy drama made ont of
"Unclc's Will f" or =" Ny Milliner's Bill " or "A
Game of Cards. We may get them all during
the Summer season, when people arc hard up
for ideas. Then, if one-act plays getlengthened,
why shouldn't tive-act plays be shortened, and
Hamlet" used n a Ierer DE ridedu, or
"Othello" as a little Venetian sketch 2"
Maurice Barrymore was picturesque and in
t~elligent as William Lewis. the burglar. He
was better in his evening dress than in his bur
glars "neglige." He went a trihe more than
we care to believe that housebreakers are wont
to weep, though of course few OF them recog-
nize long-lost daughters in the houses OF their
victims. Mrs. Emma V. Sheridan as Mrs. Lewis
was in a lachrymose agony from beginning to
end. You felt she was going in for tragedy the
instant you saw her. Miss Sheridan's misery
was irritatingly incessant. She made Of the role
that kind Of woman who would drive a man to
get missed. Yet she was carefully attired in the
most gorgeous robes, ana Tor one 30 moist and
fearful managed to keep her silks and laces in
pretty good condition, If Miss Sheridan's per-
formance was unsatisfactory her role was
worse. In the first act she was deeply
in love with her first husband. and was
wrotched. In the last act she was in love with
her second husband and was also wretched,
Exactly why she married Paul Benton it is diff
cult to understand. John T. Sullivan, Miss
Minnie Dupree and Geo. Thomas were agreeable,
and little Gertie Homan quite as well trained as
Elsie Leslie. Sidney Drew, as an irrepressible
young lawyer, excelled himself. ALAN DALE.