The morning call., 1891-12-15
THE THEATERS.
Mr.. E. s. Wizards First Appear
ance at the Baldwin.
Great Success Of "The Middleman "-sulli-
vans New Play-"Ten Nights"
"Billee Taylor"

Willard was warmly welcomed. The
audience was large. fashionable and ap-
precistve quite beyond the irst-night as
semblages at the Baldwin. This is not sur
prising, for the play "The Mddleman" is
quite beyond the style of the London
drama that has been submitted to
our people Of late. All points of interest
are fully brought out, its contrasts are
sharper, its antitheses more certainly and
clearly made. Jones, its author. is more
apt in the constructive faculty than Sims,
Conquest, Pettitt or any of his contem-
porsries, who have deluged the American
stage with their work for, say, the last ten
years. The play deals with the fortunes of
an inventor. In Cyrus Blenkarn, a potter.
whose whole being is absorbed in his
art Mr.. Willard personates type
of that generally unfortunate class,
and one who. in his absorption.
allows unscrupulous capital to prey upon
vitals of the man In the classic fable His
time comes finally, when great wrong has
been done his family by the son of
the capitalist. Then, by the discovery
of the lost art of making the
porcelain of the ancients, he beggsrs the man
who had oppressed him and his revenge is
that the latter is dependent on his bounty
for the bread he eats. Mr.. Willard made a
splendid success of the part of the long-suf-
fering inventor Good as the play il it may
be SAID to be only an adjunct to
his art, for he drew all the attention to him.
self by his mastery development of the
several phases in the potter's career. The
scene in Tetlow Hall, tho home of the cap
iialist, Chandler Royce Carleton), where,
in the midst of all the wealth his patient in-
genuity had created, he begs in vain for
ten pounds to carry on further experiments,
is striking one; but he grows greater as
the piece proceeds. In the second act he
learns OF his daughters ruin; and then the
worm turns. His appeal to heaven
for justice on his oHPresso9r and
of the most powerfully effective we
nave listened to in some time. The pot
terry furnace scene is realistic to degree,
and the logged obstinacy of the man IN re-
fusing all temptation to turn aside from he
darling object Of his ife-the discovery OF
lost art, and. at the same time, the graf
ificaton of his revenge-shows the
revulslon that had taken place in his
usually submissive nature. All through
the piece we have these changeful lights
and shades in this actor, and in each no is
true to the purpose that inspires the
situation. The play ought to be SOL
idly popular. 1t is a picture Of real
lie in the business world of to-
day; Of the strong destroying the
weak, and OF designing men taking sdvan
tage of the honest and true-hearted whose
misfortune is the simplicity and credulity
that usually accompany these quail
ties. MIR. Willard is supported by good
company. His daughter, Mary Blenkarn,
Mr.. Harry Cane makes a CAPITAL factotum
as Batty Todd, Chandler's managing man,
and Mrs. f. Fl. Tyler Jesse Pegg) who.
with Miss Zeffie Tllbury as Nancy Bien-
karin, contribute the comedy element re-
lieve the heavier and darker features of
this clever picture most agreeably. THE
Middleman" will be continued for a fort
night.