The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-17
1.-THE DANCING GIRL. !"
Mr. Jones' New Play Meets With
a Favorable Reception.
DUKES ARENOT HIS STRONG POINT.
Was the General Feeling of the Stalls-It
Will be Cut Down and Pulled
Together-The Plot.

Especial TO THE INSTRUMENTATION Cable1
LONDON, Jan. 16.-''The Dancing Grip
had crowded house and a remarkably
favorable reception at the Haymarket the
atre last night. 1t attracted exceptional
notice as being the first of Mr.. Jones' plays
attempting to deal with other than the
middle class of life. The general feeling of
the stalls was that dukes are not Mr.. jones'
strong point. He has given Mr. Beerbohm
Tree the part of young rake, out of which
that clever actor makes a good deal, but
which has no value whatever as a contem-
porary study of a class
The play itself has beautiful first act.
an interesting second, garish but power
tnlrd, weakly and scattering fourth. 1t
Will no doubt be cut down and pulled to-
gether good deal in the next few DAVIS.
and there Is so much admirable stuff that
probably people will go to see it for long
time TO come. But it will not rank as Mr..
Jones best play.
In The Dancing Girl" Valentine Dane
court, duke OF Guisebury, is genial. cvn-
1cal, easy-going man of the world, who
when about thirty years of age has made
the acquaintance of Druslla Ives. daugh-
ter OF David Ives, one of his Quaker ten
ants in the island of St. Endelliou. He
has her educated by the best masters; Law
lshes wealth untold on her carriages, until
In Diana Veltrose, the dancing girl, none
would recognize the demure Quaker maid
en-, Drusilla Ives. But while Guisebury
is wrapped in his life of ease and luxury
he is forgetful of the responsibilities that
entail upon him as owner of the St. Endel-
lion property. The waves of the Atlantic
have been playing havoc around the coast.
and unless harbOr is speedily constructed
tI,rx = -. ~ IL
away, land GuisebuTy makes a solemn prom
Use to them that he will commence
work without delay and so
save their husbands and brothers from
leaving the island and riskiug their lives
In an Arctic expedition then lifting out at
Plymouth, in which they have been offered
berths. But time goes on ana the promise
IS not kept. The money that would have
constructed safe harbor is spent to graf
1fy the caprices of his Bultinee until at last
the duke is ruined man. Robbed of his
self-reSpect and to crown all, the very
woman for whom he has sacrificed his all
disdains his offer to make her his wife and
deserts him in his direst extremity Only
Sybll, little cripple girl whom he once
rescued from certain death hovers around
him and strives TO lead him to better things
And now he makes one desperate resolve.
Society has ttouted him. He Will pay back
society in her own coin. Endellion and
Danecourt. have been sold to pay MS debts,
| but there is still sum saved out of the
wreck. He will give one magnificent re-
! ception before he bids adieu to his home
and then he will depart on an unknown
| journey. The guests arrive and the halls
re-echo with the strains OF music and the
laughter OF guests. Drusilla is going to
dance herself out of his existence and has
just charmed his guests by one of her raw
lsh1ng performances, when suddenly an
unlimited guest appears on the scene and
/ she is brought face TO face with her father,
who has but now learned the bitter secret
of Ter past life. Proud and defiant as ever.
| she repulses him, disowns him, and breath
ing bitter curse on her for her sin, he de-
parts from the scene of revelry. Soon the
! guests depart, the entertainments at an end,
and the time for the fatal deed has come
His hand is appraised, the deadly potion
has nearly touched his lips, when the pat
ter of SyOil's crutches is just audible in
| the corridor. as noiselessly but swiftly she
enters the room, just in time to save him
from the guilt of suicide and to prove to
him that there yet remains one way of
| winning back his self respect and carrying
| out the promise he mad so shamelessly bro
KEN Sybil is successful, but the strain
| has been too severe for his shattered sys-
TEN, and for weeks he hangs between life
and death. Then, changed, aged and al
in the lonely island of EndelIion. Year
after year he labors on, until his task is
at last completed, and tomorrow the last
stone of the breakwater will be laid. Dru-
silla has been seized by a fever at New
dreams, but before her death has sent a
message to her father begging his forgive
ness for the past; ana over her farewell
message David and Guisebury are recon
ciled. The thought of the women and
children whose husbands and fathers he
had sacrificed still weighs heavily upon
him. One day, however, the news is
| flashed through the island that they have
not persisted after all. Their ship was
broken up on the ice, but they managed tc
hold out on the Alaskan shores till they
were rescued when all hope had been aban
doned. Filled with gratitude for their un-
expected deliverance and the removal of the
brand of murder from his soul, he sinks
unconscious on the ground, and the cur.
tain falls on the restoration of the heroic
band to the bosoms of their exultant wives
and family.