Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-11
.HOMESTEADIN A PLAY.
An Amusing If Not Ludicrous Por.
trayal of the Labor Troubles
PUT ON IN NEW YORK LAST WEEK
Hugh O'Donnell Represented as Too Bash
full to Pop the Question.
RED-HoT WIRES AND JETS VI STEAM
rconRrspoNpnNcr OF THE p1srArcH. ,

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPArcH.1
NEW YORK, Sept Electromagnetic,
or Homestead in 49," now current at the
Columbus Theater, is billed as startling
melodrama in four acts and II scenes" II
Is In fact, series of tableaux, not play,
in which ludicrous effort 10 made to de.
pict the recent troubles at the Carnegie
mills As q panoramic display the produc-
tion 10 interesting, but to anyone who has
ever been within sight of an iron mill, OF
within speaking distance of . heater OF
roller. the melodrama has more the appear.
ance of farce in which realism has been
abandoned to save the cost of costumes and
the salaries of actors who can act
The play was written by Frank Norcross,
who might have been on the other side Of
the ocean at the time he was composing II,
and, If so, he probably secured his knowl-
edge Of events at Homestead, as well - the
geography of the Monongahela Valley, from
the usually unauthentic columns Of the
London Tines He starts off by blowing q
6cent tin whistle for the mill men to 60 to
work and follows that by series Of rattles
that the usher says are intended TO repre-.
sent the noise in an iron mill. but which
sound more like the activity In black.
smith shop on dull day. &.
A Joke on Monongaheia Water.
The iron mill, too, looks more like q
horse shoeing establishment in Fayette
county than anything else Pittsburg man
can think Of The programme asserts that
Scene L is good representation of the
Homestead steelworks, but then the pro-
gramme isn't the only feature Of the show
given to Misrepresentation.
When the man who blows the tin whistle
gets out of breath the entire town of Home
stead comes out in front of Q grocery store
and listens to an Irishman trying to talk
back to his wife. The dialogue is supposed
to reach the climax when Mrs Irishman
tells her husband he Is a. fresh as the water
in the Monongahels, at which point every
one laughs except those who have tasted
Southside water and know how far 1t is
from being fresh.
Next comes fnisher named Jack Craw-
ford and Jacks sister, whose name isn't
Gill, but less poetical Ellen. It happens
that Ellen and Hugh O'Donnell are in
love and on account of Hugh's not having
courage enough to pop the question Jack
does it for him. Ellen, who looks more
like q prisoner in a 10-story tenement
house than bright Homestead girl, makes
some reply to Jack, but that, like every
thing else she says, doesn't get past the
orchestra.
Hugh O'DonnslI Makes . Prayer.
This part of the plot might have been in.
teresting if the author hadn't evidently in
tended the audience to take 1t in dead
earnest that Hugh O'Donnell is too bashful
to ask girl to be his wife. Even this
might be forgiven if it was not followed a
few minutes later by Mr.. O'Donnell himself
uttering loud theatrical prayer for the
deliverance of the people Just at 3 point
when in the real situation everyone knows
that all Hugh O'Donnell's utterances were
purely and forcibly of an earthly nature.
O'Donasu is impersonated by John E