St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-27
clever. The play is picturesquely
staged.
At the Grand-The Land of the Liv-
ing.

With two such oId-time stock COM
pany favorites as Will S. Harkins and
Hudson Liston in the cast, it was no
wonder that ''The Land of the Living,
Frank Harvey's melodrama, had much
to recommend it to the typical large
Sunday audience at the Grand.
With scene covering the world from
Cape Colony to London, a stretch nearly
as great as the Span of Life" it has
many opportunities for scenic display,
London and London bridge by night be-
ing favorite subjects for illustration.
The dramatic success of the show, how
ever, is the thrilling explosion scene at
the climax of the fourth act in which
the melodramatic complications are all
solved by the villain blowing up an old
shed into which he has inveigled the
hero and his coadjutor, the mo-
tive Of the latter being that which
Shakespeare described hell hath no
fury like woman scorned." After the
flames burst through the crevices in the
floor of the old shell, the woman re-
wives from her drugged state long enough
to cut the cords with which the hero
is bound. The latter then breaks open
the door, carries out the limp form Of
his savior, and while the floor and fur
n1ture in large sections is removed to
the attic in full view of the audience,
there is a terrific explosion and through
the stage comes q liberal supply of fire
works, suggestive of the Last DAYS of
Pompeii.'' The shed begins to fan to
pieces and finally breaks into such small
bits that, in the vista beyond the once
solid wall, can be seen the fleeing hero.
bearing aloft the body of his benefactor
1t is at this point that the audience
and particularly that portion of it which
occupies the gallery, forgets Sunday
laws and all the restraint of civiliza-
ton and let's himself loose in one grand
burst of lung exercice.
Last nights audience included the
delegation of Indians from Leech lake,
which is on its way to Washington.
They occupied the four upper boxes, in
all the glory of reservation toys and
a great many Of them looked as though
the whites had put up a job on them,
and burnt the stockade three or four
days ahead of schedule time.
Will S. HarkinS has a unique role, a
hero who for a large portion of the
time is without his reason, and forced
to ramble along in an incOherent way,
oblivious to all about him, save the
woman who is helping him to accom-
plish her revenge and his justice.
Anthony Arkwright, the hero's faith
er, is pictureSquely adapted to the ac-
tor, Hudson Liston, who is assigned it.
OF the many roles in which he has APP
peared here, it would >be hard to find
one which fits him more admirably.
Myron Calice's villain was somewhat
colorless. although at times he rose to
the eXigencies of the occasion with
more naturalness.
Nance O'Neil and Lola MOrrisse, who
assumed the roles of Kate and Nora
Arkwright respectively, are handsome
women, true to the type of refined Eng
fish women of the middle class they
represent. Miss Morrisse's role, with
its collateral romance, lends it a light
er measure than that of Miss O'Neil,
but in their respective parts, both We're
acceptable. Helen Corlete has a con-
spicuous part in that of Meg, the wife
of the villain, Tredgold, and her vim
dictive following of the man who had
deserted her won for her the most flat
tering encomiums from last nights au-
dience.