The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-10-06
AM


That the sympathies of the American
people are with the struggling Cubans,
who are seeking their liberty. was proven
at the performance of 1.-The Last Stroke
at the Academy of Music last night. NJ
play possesses all the elements which
constitute the makeup of a first-class
melodrama. 1t deals with the love af-
fair of a renegade Spaniard with Incl
dents of the Cuban rebellion surrounding
it. Don Julio Valdez loves the pretty
wife of Richard Vance, an American citi-
zen. In the first act Valdez picks a row
with Vance, and IN the struggle. Vance
is shot by a Spanish spy, who is lurking
in the vicinity. Lucille Vance, the wife
swoons as her husband falls, and while
unconscious is carried off by Valdez to q
Spanish gunboat.
The scene then shifts to Cuba, where
the meantime Vance had recovered from
his wound, and upon being told his wife
had been abducted and the ship sunk in a
storm. he goes into the service of Gomez
in Cuba. Valdez appears here as a
Cuban officer, though still in the pay of
the Spaniards. Through three acts Valdez
weaves a net around Vance and at last
has him condemned as a spy. Sonora
Martinez, though, knows of Valdez's
scheming, and in the last act gives her
testimony Which duplicates the cringing
his wife as a nun recalls her to him, and
she. being released by the church, goes
with him..
The love affair of Lieutenant Dunn and
As%0@ - 49, aNAfI - 49, - ~ &S%<R
furnishes humor throughout the three
acts where the play deals with Cuba.
Zavaia, a Confederate of Valdez. and
orderly O'Grady, nave some differences
which amuse the audience. DR.. Nicholas
Blake. the American consul, scores a hit
when at the end of the second act he as
sures Padre Navarro. a Cuban priest,
that Sin this Cuban affair ] would have
you understand the American admins
tration is not the American people,
Bon Ton Theatre.
That the Bon Ton has not suffered
any by the change of management from
by the excellence of the bill and the gem
erous applause of the large audience.
The return of the old favorites, Haines
and Pettingill was received with long and
loud laughter and hand ~clapping. Every
thing about this team is funny; ever the
corncob pipe of Pettingil provokes laugh
ter. Hafford and Mantell also have
many friends in Jersey City. and their
as usual well received. + Emile Edwards
was somewhat of a Surprise. and her
singing made a hit. Ward and Brown
were also very clever, and were well re-
ceived. The Fremonts, Dan Waldron.
Sully and Gallagher, John Shepley, Coo
gan and Bacon, Ned Bennett and Jessie
Reese, were all excellent and should be
seen to be fully appreciated. The duet
tfsts, Bridges and Little, though not
announced on the printed programme,
proved to be very clever n undoubtedly
n-dut liS III VI NhC evening"
"when London Sleeps,s at the
Lyric Theatre.
The Lyric Theatre has never had a
better house than that which last night
| greeted the highly sensational melodrama
when London Sleeps" The play is
one of those good old fashioned melo-
dramas where you cry one moment over
the trials virtue is subjected to by viii
lainy and laugh the next over the COM
ical tribulations of the comedians. 1t is
F-1f 80 y eo~4% ~ nna 80 Axz
and the heroine is snatched from the very
Jaws of death at the end of each act in
the most unexpected and inexplicable
manner. In the hands of a poor company
| much of the play would be ridiculous.
The story is that of a young slack wire
per former who turns out to be the heiress
to a large fortune. She is pursued by a
| profiigate cousin who wants her fortune.
First he tries to make her marry him,
but is baffled by her unwavering love for
a noble hearted trapezeist, to whom she
| had become betrothed IN their circus days.
In this endeavor he entraps her into the
| most notorious den of vice in London.
and in this scene matters become as sug-
| gestive as were the bankers on the Mid
| way at the Interstate Fair, at which all
the clergymen of Trenton are now kicking
most vigorous.
Failing to make his cousin marry him
the villain next seeks his cousins death
in no conventional manner. He sets his
house on fire and she escapes by walking
with a child on her back on a telegraph
wire across the stage holding on to two
other wires. Next he tries to burn her
up in a heather temple. and although the
flames surge all around her, her lover
rushes in just in time to save her. The
ending is rather weak, but as 1t was late
when the play ended last night, there is
a faint suspicion that it was cut.
As said before the troupe was a good
one. Edwin Walter was the villain and
Miss Perdita Hudspeth was Oueenie
C~arruthers, the White Queen of the Slack.
wire. Harry Bewley as Sammy, witt
songs and dances, was very funny. Mis-
Florence Ashbrook is a handsome won.
and who played the part Of the Villains
accomplish well.
All the other members Of the compan,
filed their parts most satisfactorily.