The evening world., 1893-11-18
MAINE AND GEORGIA."

They must be singularly behind the
times in San Francisco II they accepted
Maine and Georgia" as a satisfactory
var play. 1t was seen at the Fourteenth
Street Theatre last night. and turned
out TO be a highly ordinary affair, con-
structed in a wild and fearful manner,
and leading up to battle scene that
may save II from the unadulterated con-
tempt II deserves 1t Is war play with
the now thoroughly hackneyed idea OF
love story between the North and South
"a most uninteresting love story, too.
Then, in the first act. In order to bring
cut the heros heroism more conspicu-
ously, he Is accused OF meaty little
murder. ap:opos Of nothing at all. Just
after listening to the love episodes Of
three couples-crudely dragged in one
after the other--the villain Kills man,
the hero rushes in and sees the body,
the crowd appears and sees the hero see
ing the body. the audience sees the
crowd that sees the hero seeing the body
and there you are. The hero leaves the
body lying there, and goes to join his
regiment, which Is instantly heard ap-
preaching. He Is tainted with the ac-
cusation OF murder, but he smiles, OH
so cheerfully. and presses in his arms
the girl he loves, who wears golden
pstail and an occasional Southern ac-
cent. A most annoying little French
Canadian waif. who during the first act
rushed on the stage every five minutes
with long, dishevelled black hair and
accent suggesting Chinese laundryman
trying to speak German, has seen the
murder. She follows the hero to the
war and tells him all. He is quite vexed
when he hears that he didn't commit
the murder. He rather enjoyed the ac-
cusation, and when he learns that he Is
innocent. bursts into tears. and gurgles
for at least five minutes. The heroic
speeches he utters would fill a three
hundred page novel. He is full OF them.
He never says anything commonplace.
He is the kind OF fellow who talks Emer-
son and Herbert Spencer to the barber
who shaves him. He has been good to
the supposed drummer-boy. When he
discovers that 1t is the French Canadian
waif, he instantly intrusts her to the
care of the girl he loves-and makes her
frantically jealous Although she Is
still struggling with a Southern accent,
she treats the hero very coldly. and in
dulges In Laura Jean haughtiness with
considerable effect
| In the fourth act the battle scene Is a
little relief from all this nonsense, and
after the fifth act you are allowed to go
home. The cast that interpreted this
dramatic gem was exceedingly tame,
with one or two exceptions. The ex-
ceptions were Miss Louise Sylvester, an
actress of whom New York is very fond,
for she Is artistic. legitimate and dra-
matte; l.. r. Stockwell, of San Francis
co, whose comedy is distinctly good, and
whose aggressive methods could give
points to many Eastern comedians; and
Harry Mainhall. who made the part of
the hero as sensible as he could. Miss
Elsie Lombard looked very pretty, and
was pleasant and harmless. Miss Marie
Burris evidently imagined that she was
tragedy queen. Her non-continuous
Southern accent was one OF the jokes of
the performance. Mr.. Stockwell should
buy up job-lot OF accents and distribute
them among the members of his COM
pany. Perhaps, after all, the many post
ponements to which Maine and Georgia.
was subjected were due to the non-ar-
rival Of accents rather than of scenery,
| ALAN DALE.