The record-union., 1891-05-08
ADJUSTMENTS.

One OF the most successful Of modern
comedies is Neil Burgess County Fair"
1t has now been played in San Francisco
for two months, and could be run there
to full houses for three months did not
other engaged companies demand the
stage it occupies. After a great deal of
negotiating and much trouble, Manager
Hall has secured the company for one
night i'll Sacramento on its way back to
the East. He found it impossible, how
ever, to secure the company for longer
season, though confident that it would
fill the Metropolitan Theater for several
nights. The play viii be presented Sun
day evening at the Metropolitan, with the
same cast, scenery and fine mechanical
effects as in the San Francisco engage
ment. The comedy's popularity may be
better understood when it is stated that it
ran for three consecutive years in New
y York and then was taken to the largest
theaters in other cities and filled them
night after night for long seasons. The
Cincinnati Enquirer has more fitly than
any other journal named the play ''the
apotbeosis of the horse" Barnard,
the author, struck sympathetic chord
in the peoples hearts when he hinged
his play upon the affection we develop
for mans best friend. The comedy in
PRODUCES a race scene at a country fair
with three running horses in a stake
race. The mechanism of the stage is so
contrived that the horses run at utmost
speed for a considerable time, arousing
a great deal of enthusiasm among the
spectators. The picture the comedy pre-
sents is that of homely New England
country life, with characteristic types of
people peculiar to New England rural
sections. "The play" said the New York
Herald when it was first brought out, sis
sweet as the fragrance of fresh hay and
flowers, and the laughter of village maids
in midsummer"
Another critic speaks of it as ''the
climax of realism and rusticity. pict-
ure of homely New England country
life, it reveals types of character easily
recognizable, while threaded through the
story are strongly-contrasted elements of
comedy and pathos. Its story is simple
and direct, and its situations dramatic and
forcefuI. The central figure is a spinster.
prim, prudish and practical-A bigail
Prue by name-whose humor is the re-
suit of guileleSSneSs, and whose anxiety
for the welfare of the characters of her
environment is laughable in the extreme.
She adopts two waits, Tim and Taggs.
who are thrown on her hands by circum-
stances, and eventually discovers that
they are two relatives, long supposed to
be lost or dead. The boy has been a
horse jockey, and recognizes that Miss
Prue's colt, Cold Molasses, is a 'speeder,' ,
and trains him for the race at the county
fair. Miss Prue is threatened with the
loss of her farm by the foreclosure of a
mortgage, but Tim wins the race and all
ends happily"
The San Francisco NeUs Letter pro-
nounces it a phenomenal success, and
says: Abigail Prue and Otis Tucker are
delightful portraits, and he is unfortunate
who has never seen the originals. The
quaint homeliness OF diction and bashful
awkwardness of manner, with the un-
dercurreut, always apparent, of innate
refinement, kindlinesS and principle, are
presented by Marie Bates and Thomas
McGrath with quiet naturalness which
makes one lose sight of the fact that it is
acting" The box office opens tomorrow
morning.