The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-10-25
LAST NIGHTS PLAYS.
Underground" at the Academy
Held in Slavery" at the
Opera House.

Underground" which opened at the
Academy of Music last night, deals with
the struggle between capital and labor,
as it is seen in the coal fields of Pennsyl-
vania. Naturally, the villain represents
capftal,-the hero. labor,-so one may ap-
plaud the speeches of the latter actor,
and at the same time express a little SYM
pathy for the poor working man. In this
case the capitalist has kept the laborer
out OF his Inheritance by trickery, until
in the last act, justice is done. and the
laborer is illogically rewarded by becom-
ing a capitalist. Broadhead, the mill
owner, appears to be a sort of down
trodden creature from the first, he may
have friends somewhere, but they are
not produced from behind the scenes, and
his only consolation when first one and
then another thwarted him was to re-
marx, "Hal hap with a circumfiex ac-
cent. Harry Hanscompe was the Broad
head, and Frank HARRINGTON played Tom
Dawson, la~borer-until he had recovered
enough money to be a capitalist.
Ruth Macauley played Nellie Reed, an
impulsive young person who loves Daw-
son, but is in~conveniently engaged co one
Joe Tonkin wv. B. Atchison). A timely
explosion removes Tonkin, and after
Nellie has wept for him a short six
months, she becomes the bride of Daw-
son. Nellie is an adept III weeping--she
does it in full view of the audience at in
tervais during the action. Lillian Harper.
q pretty little soubrette, played Nancy
Davis, o young person short OF stature
and shorter of skirts. In the second act
she sang a mournful ballad about one
Johnny. who had left her-probably
frightened away by her voice. Then she
danced, probably to show how %reconciled
she was to Johnny's going. 1t was the
prettiest dancing that has been seen at
the Academy this year, and If the house
mad had its way, she would probably have
kept 1t up two hours longer. Someone
sent her a big bunch of chrysanthemums.
Hugh Sharp (Tony Murphy sang He's
AL Right Now" and talked in a rich aud
juicy Irish brogue. Willie Gilligan (Miss
Flo Williams) was a small girl who did
not succeed in making the audience think
her a boy. owing TO the fact that she is
blessed with a face too angelic for any
thing more masculine than Fauntleroy.
When Sam Potts, Oscar Girard) a
crayon agent, appeared Cd the scene with
a portrait of President Harrison under
his arm, the house showed its political
state of mind by a whirlwind of Misses
that did not cease until he calmly re-
versed his picture, showing Cleveland on
the other side, and then impartially set
1t up edgewise. Hen Stroh is a deaf-mute
who does some really clever pantomime
and unravels a mystery by recovering his
speech at the proper time. Ed. III. Lay
took the part. James Reid (Alfred
Beverley is a sort of combination Jed
Prouty and Joshua Whitcomb, with a
little mining profanity for reasoning.
There is the usual quartette, Messrs.
Hooper. Consadine. Gleason and Inman.
who ':stand on the bridge at midnight"
and howl dolefully. The realism is
supplied by q scene at the bottom of the
mine with cars going up and down. and
an explosion thrown in. The strike which
figures SO prominently on the bill-boards
remains there and does not appear on the
stage. The hero watches it from a window
and reports progress to the audience.
Underground" will stay until Satur-
day night with the usual matinees.