The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-02


fore Mr.. Frohman put her into the new
play called Squire Kate" and gave her a
role in which she had to be unnatural, I'M
reasonable, vituperative and even vulgar,
she signally failed.
Nobody appeared to have looked deep
enough into the matter to see that Mr..
Frohman's loss was her gain, and that for
the actress to fail was for the woman to
triumph.
The play is an anomalous combination
of exquisite rustic scenery and dramatic
fustian. The most ridiculous things are
done with sentimental seriousness and the
absurdest actions take place amid the
most delightful surroundings
We are introduced to Squire Kate in her
own kitchen, one of those old English
kitchens which Mr.. Frohman delights to
reproduce to it's ninutest detail She
moves about among her yokeis the kindly
but dignified young mistress, who has had
the responsibility of the farm suddenly
put upon her and who has been accus-
toned to take her share of the work un-
complainingly.
You can picture the bright group for
yourself-the men at the deal table under
the smoky rafters drinking their home
brewed ale and chatting the maids; tho
overseer, who is in love with Kate, leaning
against the great chimneypiece, moody
| and reticent as his eye follows the mistress
| in her bustling duties, and now and then
| whiting his buckthorn stick; the younger
sister, who comes in like a moth, very
| sweet and innocent, as Miss Effie Shannon
always makes younger sisters, and eats
/ the plums while the squire makes the pud-
| ding. You can see the hedgerows through
the broad, open easement and almost hear
/ the lark singing 1t is delicious picture
of English rustic life in its best estate. 1t
might have been tinted by Jane Austin or
sketched by Charles Reade.
| But what is the story that evolves itself
on this serene and sunny canvas?
Let me tell you as briefly as | can.
SquiFe Kate is heavily in debt. The farm
is encumbered and there is misery old
screw in the neighborhood who holds her
in his relentless grip, and is determined to
ruin her. He has a son, rather manly
young fellow, who is deeply in love with
the younger sister, and who is disguised
with his fathers sordid spirit. Squire
! Kate is not aware of this attachment. She
not only loves her sister tenderly but she
! also consciously loves the young man. All
at once another old miser somewhere dies
and leaves all his wealth to Kate. She
pays off the indebtedness on the farm and
is herself a wealthy woman. We are now
at the end of the first act, and the lark
sings with redoubled energy
We then proceed to the English bayfield,,
where Squire Kate in French dress su-
perintends the hayraking and is beset
| by an opera bouffe quartet of suitors.
Among them is the Old Screw, who, now
that she is wealthy, is anxious to have her
marry his son and tells her that the son
| loves her. to her souls delight. But pres
emily she discovers that it is false and that
the young man loves her sister And at
that point the play goes all to pieces in the
atric Mysteries and jnconceiyable mumbo-
jumbo.
| In an instant the squire is converted
from a wholesome, levelheaded housewife
and prudent woman into an irresponsible
and vituperative stage hussy. As soon as
she gets the facts into her mind she hates
her innocent sister, declares herself an
! enemy of the world and rants and raves
unrestrainedly about her unreciprocated
affection. and PUSHES off in the night to an
old Polonius shepherd in a lonely wood to
! get love philter or some mandragora TO
fix things up TO her liking
The most romantic of maiden observers
of this catastrophe feels at once that the
bottom has fallen out of the English pic
mic and that the spilled contents are
cheap melodrama- One feels little sorry
! that the wholesome Squire Kate should so
quickly resolve herself into a superstitious
! lovelorn maiden of the Middle Ages
There is a strong desire in the human
breast that she shall go on making pud-
ding and raking the hay and behave her
self But no. she not only insists that the
world is soap bubble and her doll is
stuffed with sawdusu. but she proposes to
declaim it in spite OF decency and at the
slightest provocatiOn.
Mr.. Buchanan, the author Of this play,
appears TO think that the average heroine
of the century doesn't draw much of a line
between serenely loving and severely
hating She either wears ashes of roses or
oil of vitriol as the mood seizes her, and
if she can't have her own sweet way with
her emotions, she becomes in the twin
king of an eye confirmed nihilist. Her
creed is devotion or dynamite. Beware, and
love me,
Then Mr.. Buchanan having got himself
into'this constituencies human muddle, in
which decorum resolves itself into drugs
and character drops to inconsistency, sets
himself to work TO show that all this in
conceivable nonsense on the part Of Kate
is a purely feminine spasm that is TO be
cured by 4 counter shock.
The counter shock is this. and mark how
narrow and theatre it is;
The old miser, who is so anxious to have
| his son marry Hates farm. perceives that
| he never will so long - the pretty sister Is
| in the way, 50 be goes 10 the same old Pc
ionius in thss dusky wood and gets some
poisonous diSsiilment. gathered in the full
Of the moon His plea is that be wants
| 10 kill a tToU 5lesome dog and the shep
herd, who keeps these poiSous handy in his
hut, furnishes the venom with many sage
Shakespearean reflections and no compUnc-
lions, and the ruthless Old bird CT prey
goes Immediately and give, :; 70 the pretty
sister. with proper Macbe,A accompaai
ments.
As sooa Is the innocent Is brought
70 DEATHS door Squire Kate considers
'Hullo." she says. Il love my sister now
that she IS going TO die. I've made
nst<;aks the hest s..iaC - TO Is 20 re-