Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-16

DUoUEsNE Henry E. liSeS
ALVIN THEATER. Home oi'c'e
GRAND OPERA HOUSE. Tie Railroad TICKET
WILLIAMS ACADEMY. Field & Hanson 20
u DAvIs' EDEN MUsEE.............. .......Curloslues
WORLDS MUsECM-THEATER......-.. ....Curlosi1es
HARRIS THEATER...........TheS Shadow i,eiecu'e
BIJoU TuEArER The White Slave
The above are the theatrical attractions for
this week.
"a Temperance Town" bumps up against
egood many preiudices beside the one aimed
Mt by the plav. You cannot help noticing
that Mr.. Hovt's latest production is tackling
a pretty large problem in morals; this ethi-
cal element looms up so big in evory scene
that it is impossible to consider the play
chiefly, as believe most plays
should be considered, an en-
tertainment. Mr.. Hoyt probably
would disclaim any serious attempt to solve
the liquor question, and he pointed out to
me Yesterday that he isn't responsible for
preference shown by the audience for the
Iaw-breakers and sinners against the high
natural law of temperance. Mr. Hoyt con-
tends that he has put in the mouth OF the
clergyman lots OF strong lines in favor oflaw,
human and divine. and it is a fact that
the logic OF many of the situations is strong
ly in the prohibitionists Iavor. Bat it seems
20 me that Mr.. Hoyt has built MS play so as
TO throw the moral of sometimes mistaken
zealots always into the shadow and to bring
the saloonkeeper and the collection OF old
soaks as far as possible into the light
And the offensiveness of this will strike
even the most liberal. Ii the
plav had not such an evident purpose there
would be little cause to inquire INTO. much
less to condemn, the morality of "a Temper
ance Town" 1t is fair also to say that the
morality is not all wrong: incidentally MI.
Hoyt not only paints the drinking mans
good points in true colors, but also gives a
well-deserved whack to the quacks and
humbugs among so-caled reformers.
The play, considered aside from morality,
IS likely to be set down as the cleverest Mr..
Hoyr has written. He certainly can paint
the American, especially the American OF
New England, with striking ndehty. take
each man and woman in Temperance
Town" and you will find the character con-
sistently drawn, and, while lulosyncrasles
may be exaggerated, the truth of the Tyre
remains. 1t is one of Mr. Hoyts favorite as
sertions that he does not invent characters,
but draws them from the world about him.
As portrait painter. with all his tendency
TO caricature, Mr.. Hoyt TO my mlnO las
not his equal in America.
Some of THE DIsPATcR's readers may not
have seen "a Temperance Town." and the
following brief resume of the story is given
for their benefit, that they may judge in
mart of the moral it contains: An old cIer.
gyman in a Vermont village wages war with
the liquor seller in the place. He is actua ted
bv a sincere conviction that drinking
is wrong, but that conviction had its
origin in the loss of beloved
son, as it appears, through liquor, Assist
ing the parson are several rogues who make
their zeal IN prohibition's cause cloak for
private schemes for gain. The saloon
keeper is an old soldier who lost one arm in
battle His child is sick and the clergy
mans daughter sends good things to the all
ing little one. She also sends warning IN
the same box with the things for the child
of the raid upon the saloon her father and
the other prohibitionists are planning.
The warning letter falls into one
of the Iatters hands and the clergy
doors because she will not express
contrition for her sin. The stern father,
who Mr.. Hoyt wants us to believe really
loves his daughter, after this noble perform
ance cheerfuily trots of to deliver a temper
ance lecture at church. The audience hears
u bit of this lecture wherein the drinking
man is described as j brute, while it sees the
village drunkard pick up the ciergymans
daughter as she lies faintfn" in the snow
outside the church and carry her to his
home. This climax, wrong as it may be
morally, is effective enough dramatically,
ana Mr.. Hoyt makes a mistake in Gaping it
with the uproariously Imaginable discom-
future OF the temperance people who fall
over the treadle left on the church steps. /"
In the last ct the saloonkeeper is brought
up for trial on the charge of liquor-selling
and convicted. He is just being fined ST, 600
odd dollars, with an alternative OF 80 years
imprisonment, when the son OF the prosecut-
ing clergyman, supposed to be dead, turns
mn n rich man and recognizes in the one
armed saloonkeeper the man who saved bis
life in battle. The p:odiGal son pays the
$1,000 fine without flinching. The old clergy
man, of course, melts, takes back son and
daughter and the play ends. The audience
having laughed heartily and enjoyed
all the story goes away with a
rather hazy notion that there is
moral IN the play somewhere. confess 1
can't tell what the moral is exactly: it may
he that one-arned veterans have Il right to
defy the law that Others have not: it may be
that crank-ridden communities are no more
moral than others; or it may he that charity
covers multitude of sins. The last as
take it would be Mr. Hoyts choice, though
he disclaims any pretense at preaching. 1t
js the first play Mr.. Hoyt has written that
) as made people think. He has glorified
hitherto in writing plays expressly to keep
people from thinking. The chief satisfac-
lion to him doubtless is that n play "a
Temperance Town" is a marked success
Mr. Hoyt will please a great many people
IL he will cut out that highly-seasoned joke
about acquaintance with the Deity, and
about half dozen expletives beginning
with D.. 1t is not the best thing in the
world to put clergyman and a church into
Il comedy anyhow, but Mr.. Hoyt can make
Jokes so readily upon mundane affairs that
he can afford to leave celestial matters
alone. The use of the ID" in plays is be-
coming very common, but it is none the less
re7rehensible-for one it pleases it offends
twenty.
There is another feature of "a Temper
ance Towns" performance which is deserv-
fng OF attention. Mr.. Hoyt's skill in select
ing actors to create his characters is a good
piece of the secret of his success. To be
sure Mr.. Canfieid is the loutish boy of IA
Midnight Bell'' over again, and George
Richards is the same countryman Mr..
Hoyt is so fond OF dclineating. and they are
both very good. But the gems OF the piece
in the acting way are the two bits of char
actcr done by George Ober. As the oldest
l,al
gives two entirely different creations, both
overflowing with fun and delicious detail of
character study.
m; af he TluOnoSne