The morning call., 1894-09-25
THE THEATERS.
SIN Old Kentucky" Fires
the Southern Heart.
MOroSco's Achieves Another Success.
The Orpheum's Novelties-Don
Juan ad lib. Fills the Tivoli.

"In Old Kentucky" cannot fail to be
recognized as a series of dramatic pic
lures illustrating the life and manners of
the people in "the corn-cracker State"
as its nickname is. There is the moon
sinner with his hidden still in the noun
tains, the echoes of vendetta, the foud-
ness for stimulants, the colored "boy"
before the war. and the almost universal
delight in morse flesh and the turf. These
materials, besides love episode. and
jealous interlude thrown in, make
up, with the aid of some good
scenery, especially in the first act, a
fairly picturesque and fetching piece of
work. The singing Of the plantation
negroes and the Pickaninny brass band
are both good cards; the latter fires the
Southern heart by playing Dixie" Round
after round of applause greeted the we'll
known air. and the enthusiasm was so
great that IL would not have been surpris-
Ing bad some one emphasized it by emit
ting the Southern ''yelP' about which so
much used to be said during war times.
With some defects of construction Sin Old
Kentucky" is at the same time full
of thrills" Theodore Ross played Frank
Layson, a young Kentuckian of the Pc
Rod, high strung, and at the same time a
coward in the face of public opinion !;
Frank Z. Jamison was the villain, Horace
Holton. rather 1nconseguential one by
The way; Miss Louisa Closer did well
with Barbara HoltOD, in love with Frank
LaysOn and jealous of Madge Briefly,
Miss Lulu Tabor. There are some goud
scenic effects in the first act. but the two
scenes OIL which the piece depends are the
fire scene, showing Madge leading Queen
Bess from the burning stable, ana the
| Ashland Oaks when, as a Jockey, she
wins the race.
Colonel Sandusky Doolittle, great
Spectator and hOrseman, as person a ted by
Burt u. Clark, was typical Kentuck ian,
whose llklngs were distributed among
horses, the turf, the fair sex and mint
juleps. He speaks wi moderate South
ern accent not too much. but just enough,
and has IA bluff heartiness of manner in his
bearing characteristic of the class he
represents. He has some good lines, too,
that he gives out with due emphasis.
Thus, when referring to the jockey Ike
who was too drunk to mount Queen Bess
on race-day at Ashland Oaks, Lexington,
he gives vent 10 a sentiment that must
find an echo in every Kentucky heart ::
"Oh, whisky, whisky! What pity it Is
that one can take too much of such good
thlng! Again. when arguing with him.
self against the timidity he felt in making
a declaration to Miss Alathea Layson. a
matured. matrOnly lady for whom he had
had an unspoken love for twenty years,
Doolittle exclaims. "What, Kentucky
colonel, and afraid of a w0manW This
caused litter among the audience on ac-
count OF the Breckinridge-PO cele-
braiPd case.
While the Colonel, however, is a great
factor in this melOdrama, Miss Lulu
Tabor, as Madge Briefly. is the heroine.
She is the representative of the noun
taineer class, despised by the people of
what is called in Kentucky 'Ihe blue
grass" or valley section. Miss Tabor
plays the mountain flower with spright-
ness with the racehorse Queen Bess,
which she rides TO victory in place of
drunken Ike, is well marked out by the
author and nicely executed by herself. She
takes the audience by her pretty and
vivacious ways, and has the large advan-
girl, with a perfect "mane" of chestn ut
colored locks. She has caught the soft
Southern accent, but does not make as
natural use of it as the Colonel. Miss
Tabor has what Is called 'fa" part, as
she Is 10 every important situation arising
in the piece. in Old Kentucky" ought to
take with the public.
Again Morosco's Grand Opera-house
Was crowded last evening, and again it
was clearly demonstrated that San Fran
cisco will literally patronize a good per-
formance put on at popular prices. James
A. Reilly IN his comedy drama, 'The
BrOom-maker." presents work that is
homelike and not too melodramatic In
the second act, where the broom
maker has twenty or thirty children gath
cred about him and instructs them in the
srt of making whisks, he proves that
Frnebel's methods IN the kindergarten
were founded on good principles. A fter
three verses of song Illustrative of broom.
making, the youngsters grasp the idea
thoroughly and TO the refrain make brooms
that might be used. The youthful element
plays 8 strong part in the production, and
young Robbie Riley as Hans almost shares
the honOrs with his father. The duet,