Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-25
Special Correspondence to the HERALD


III remember Los Angelef1os Alright,
they love to laugh with the world.
There will be chance enough with Mr..
Wilkinson's Widows and A Texas Steer,
which are both crowding the theaters
here. coming in the near future. Mr..
Wilkinson's Widows, which you will
see first, is now being presented at the
Baldwin. 1t is jolly, merry sort of a
comedy farce, and is admirably calcu-
lated to drive dull care away. Pardon
the chestnut. The story is simple, but
the complications are intricate. The late
Mr.. Wilkinson, the unseen but often
mentioned hero of the play, was a gay
sort of chap in his lifetime. He kept a
wife in London and another in Edin-
burgh, and so manipulated things that
their marriage certificates were dated
the same day and the same hour. But,
poor fellow, he died, perhaps as PEN
ance for having endeavored to get too
much happiness out of life, and his
widows married again without ever
having had the remotest notion that
each was not the sole sharer of his joys
and SORROWS. When the play opens the
two widows, now Mrs. Perrin and Mrs.
Dickerson, respectively, are living in an
apartment house in London and are the
best Of friends. Major Mallory, an old
friend of Mr.. Perrin's, just returned
from India, calls and tells him of his
fiirtations few yeare ago with little
married woman in Edinburgh. Perrin
is much amused until he finds out that
the lady in question was Mrs. Wilkin-
son, whereupon he is Mortified. 1t hap
pens that it was the other Mrs. Wilkin-
son, however, and upon this and cou
pie OF pictures of the late amented,
owned by the two relicts, the complica-
tions OF the comedy are based. 1t is
impossible to describe the plot further,
for it would take columns and you
would be no wiser for the telling.
But Mr.. Wilkinson's Widows is in
tensely amusing. 1t is constant ripple
of merriment from beginning to end,
and it is interpreted by exceptionally
clever people. George Drew Barry more
plays the volatile Mrs. Perrin. She is
daughter Of Mrs. John Drew and the
wife of Maurice Barrymore. She is very
attractive personally and is one OF the
brightest condolences on the stage. She
is making big hit in this part, but
never saw her vet when she did not
make hit. Emily Baucker plays Mrs.
pickerson. She is a charming actress
and very pretty woman. You will
remember her as q member of Rosina
Vokes's company couple of years ago.
Matte Ferguson gives delightfully."-
comic impersonation of an independent
maid with an absurd regard for the
memory of the departed. Annie Wood
represents cook who is as broad as she
is long. Thomas w. Ryley plays Mr..
Dickerson very capably. Thomas H.
Burns is immense as Major Mallory,
who is genial gentleman with pro.
pensity for flirting and another for hav-
ing fits. John w. Thompson, an old
stager, is the stage manager and plays a
small part, and Edward Coleman comes
out we'll as a solicitor. There you have
the plot and the people and the show is
worth seeing.
You will like A Texas Steer, which is
now at the California. 1t is the most
entertaining ching Charles H. Hoyt
ever wrote, which you will admit is say
ing a good deal. 1t is very clever
satire on political Washington, and in
cidentally satirizes few other things
as WE'LL 1t has something of story,
the characters are cleverly drawn, the
dialogue is bright and it is tremendously
funny. What more can anyone ask in
comedy? Maverick Brander is a Texas
cattle king. He has wife and daugh-
ter who are ambitious to shine in So
ciety, and during his absence on trip
to Mexico they secure his election to
hxy+ "a 1,hawol of
but as his daughter, Bossy, says, he was
elected honestly, for they paid cash
down for his votes. Bossy has lover,
young army captain, who has been or
dered to Washington and proposes to
look after them on their arrival in that
city All this happens in the prologue,
which winds up by Brander's return in
triumph, surrounded by a mob OF en-
thusiasts. He is furious when he finds
what has been done. II see it all, he
says; "you have taken advantage OF my
absence and elected me to congress"
But with score of guns pointed at him
he accepts, and the curtain goes down
on a scene of wild enthusiasm.
The first act opens in Washington, the
scene representing Branders apartments
at the Arlington. The cattle king con-
gresham and his family have arrived
and all sorts of amusing things happen,
but / will not spoil your enjoyment by
relating them. Bossy and her mother
are naturally rather unframed, and
Bossy's lover endeavors to give them
points before their introduction to soci-
ETY.. Bossy thinks he is ashamed of her
and gives him his conge. They make up
in the last act, however, in one of the
prettiest love scenes you ever saw. The
second act occurs nearly two years later
than the first and finds Brander schem-
ing for reelection. An investigating
committee come from Texas and create
circus, but Brander jollies them up
ana fixes things all snug, and the cur
tain falls for the last time on the de-
parture OF the committee on their way
to give his constituents the "straight
steer" and their declaration that he is
second Daniel Webster. The play is
crowded with incidents and depicts very
humorously the pitfalls which beset the
path OF the unwary congressman. Tim
Murphy plays Brander, and presents one
of the strongest character creations the
stage has seen in years. There has
never been but one verdict re-
garding his performance, and you
will be able to Judge what that is
when you see it. Flora Walsh, who, as
you know, is Mrs. Hoyt, ia the Bossy