Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-02
ADJUSTMENTS.

The greatest success that Bronson How
ard, the dramatist, has yet achieved is in
the production of the military drama,
Shenandoah" which will be played at the
Metropolitan Theater tonight, tomorrow
night and at special matinee tomorrow
afternoon. The drama has had phenomenal
success wherever presented, which is due
not more to the nicely of the art of the
very fine company which plays it, than to
the freedom with which the playwright
has dealt with events of the war of the re-
bellion without wounding the sensibilities
OF the defeated in that struggle, or drawing
the adverse criticism of Union sentiment.
1t is drama that is simple in construction;
1t has not a line of labored dialogue in it:
there is no philosophizing, preaching or
grumbllng in any scene. There is, indeed, no
apparent effort to be sensational or to appeal
to the sympathIes. 1t is short, crisp,
love story, drawn upon comedy lines, with
just enough of the realism of war in it, and
enough OF historic accuracy to give the
essential standings SO requisite in a strong
picture. 1t opens with early morning after
ball in Charleston, and with the efforts of
gallant young army officer to press his
suit for the hand of a warm-hearteu but
rebellious Southern girl, whose heart is his,
but whose intense love for the cause of the
South leads her to sacrifice her affections in
its behalf. The shot fred against Fort
Sumter, that opened the four years
fratricidal war, separates the bali party and
sharply draws the line among the men and
women of it upon the issues of the rebellion.
The scene changes with the sweep of time
to the valley of the Shenandoah, near
Cedar Creek, where the Union army is
driven to such close quarters that but for
Sheridans famous ride and relief it must
have fallen into the hands of the enemy.
During this historic period the fate of war
brings the officer and his love again face to
face, she as prisoner held for conveying
messages to the rebel forces; he as a
wounded man suspected of treachery
toward his best friend, because of a peculiar
chain of circumstantial evidence rejecting
upon the honor of that friend, the COM
manding Generals wife. In the
midst of this complication, a charm
ing comedy love scene is worked out,
OF minor importance, between a
Union Generals daughter and rebel off,
Ger, as also the tragedy of gallant young
life in the person of the son of Federal
commander, who expiates the folly of
youth by undertaking periIous enterprise,
involving the interception of kew to the
rebel signal code that was being secretly
conveyed to the Southern commanders.
The play closes with the end of the war,
and the bringing of the characters together
in Washington, where hearts are united
and the animosities of the war buried in
the grave of forgiveness. The company
presenting the story in dramatic form is
the same, with perhaps couple of excep-
tons, that made up the cast in New York
when the piece had run of 300 nights,
and is the same that will this summer take
it to Europe. 1t is strong and finished
throughout. The company will be assisted
here in the military phases of the play by
Company A of the First Artillery Regi-
ment, which has been once rehearsed for
the purpose and is to be given another re-
hearsal this afternoon. The same scenery
that was used in the piece in San Francisco
will be set upon the stage here. 1t is
noticeable for one scene, that Of the valley
at the foot of Three Top Mountain, -
which is triumph of the scenic painters
art. The success with which Mr. Howard
has treated the matter of his play, and the
esteem in which the drama is held at the
East, may be judged from the fact that w.
ID. Howells, in the Editors Study of Harp
er's Magazine for June, makes the play of
Shenandoah" the text of a complimentary
essay-a distinction that is exceptional in
so severe critic as that magazine.
c. E. Bottoms third illustrated lecture
this evening at the Congregational Church
will be of special interest. Vienna, capital
OF Austria, is the gateway to Constantinople,
capital of Turkey. at Vienna the occident
meets the orient. Vienna is second only
to Paris in splendor Of architecture, beauty
OF boulevards, and art. Her men and
women are the han0som est and hest dressed