The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-02-08
MISS susfl Iohnston as Ia.

cut here given. He makes a sketch of her,
and this is an excuse for frequest visits, and
for advances of money out of his limited in
come to the Countess Dombrowski Miss
Jennie Reitfarth) her mother, whose only de-
penden'e for living is the pawn-shop, and
such victims as Pierre Clemenceau proves
himself to be, when his first infatuation
leads up to the climax of marriage. Miss
Retfarth's personation of the Countess may
be called a character sketch, but it was of a
character so coarse as to be repulsive. Be-
tween the fumes of tobacco that she emiss
from a cigarette, when stretched at length,
on lounge, her only talk is of money, and,
to liza, of the necessity of making a good
marriage so that her mother may be sup
ported in idleness and luxury.
THE STUDIO SCENE.
The play really begins with the third act,
"the studio scene." as it is called. When
the curtain rose there was hush in the vast
crowd that filed the theater. And what did
they see? There was sort of alcoye, with
black panels in which stood LA, the sculp-
tors wife. dressed in close-titting pink tights
standing on her tiptoes, her head and arms
thrown backward. There was not motion
in her body as she stood posed there. for
say about the space of five seconds, and
then her sculptor-hnsband advanced
and shrOuded the proportions of the model
from view by throwing over her person a
loose, flowing robe. AT first the audience
might have imagined that LA was in puris
naturalbus; then they saw she wore pink
tights without trunks or trimmings of any
kind. Furthermore, the figure of Miss
Johnston is not that of perfect woman,
and if the sculptor, Pierre Clemen-
ceau, was deceived in this respect he was
not wise in the statesque art. The audience
held breath for these five seconds. and then
there was 4 slight mGrmur of disappoint-
ment on every side.
AS THE PLAY PROCEEDS
The true character of both LA and her
mother develop into broader and more re-
pellant colors. Before her marriage with
Pierre Clemenceau, a Russian millionaire,
Count Serge Vienhof (lr. Lewis Mann had
made advances to LA, who bears herself
like a kttenish wanton, and after her
daughters marriage the old harrdan her
mother, finding Clemenceau's income insult
fcient, persuades LA to accept the embraces
of Count Serge, and also mis- money-taking
the man for lover, as Constantine Ritz
Charles Kent expresses it when charging
her with wifely malfeasance, whom she
would not have as husband. Ritz upbraids
her with this. uand Nine. Clemenceau,
Miss Marion EarD overhearing the tale OF
infamy, dies from the weight of disgrace
imposed on her son. But La effectively
hoodwinks her infatuated husband. She Is
siren in the last act. She sends an anon
ymous note to Pierre telling him to watch
her-his wife. She studies carefully ali the
symptoms, laughing demurely in her sleeve.
He follows her. She made him believe she
was going to meet her lover. and then she
went and planted flowers Oh her mothers
grave.
Outside the characters named, there are
none of any Importance in working out this
baselyi inspired farrago of nonsense. As
drama, 1t appeals only to the meaDest in
stinets and the lowest passions Of human
nature,