The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-07


mans adaptation Of Thackeray's novel
Henry Esmond' next month, in Phil
adelphia and after that elsewhere on
his tour.
Sol Smith Russell has given up his
intention of giving a few perform
ances of Katherine and Petruchio" as
"a Bachelors Romance" gives every
indication of lasting out his engage
ment at the Garden theater in New
York.
Mr. Russells good judgment is to
be commended. Martha Morton Gre
ated David Holmes for Russell, but
Shakespeare didn't have Russell in
mind when he conceived Petruchio
According to the consensus of jour
nalistic opinion in New York, plays
that seem sure to stay where they are
for some time to come are: IAN
American Citizen" at the Knicker-
booker; The Idols Eye" at the Broad
way; the blithe little French Maid, )"
at the Herald Square; Cumberland
'61," at the Fourteenth Street, and the
old but thoroughly renovated "Old
Homestead" at the Academy of Mu-
sic
Bigamous Bates, who has spent a few
awaiting trial for bigamy, has been
released on heavy bail, and will appear
once more in his faNOrite role of mu-
scum freak, beginning a re-engage-
ment at Middleton's Clark street mu-
scum Bates says he, likes the business
and will continue in it while he may
Commenting upon Julia Arthurs de-
but in New York city, in the leading
Of 7 Of
atfzation by Frances HodgsOn Bur-
nett of her admirable novel of that
title, the New York Herald says:
1.-The heroine of a latter day play is
usually satisfied with breaking one of
the commandments. But "a Lady of
Quality" in order not only to keep up
with the times, but to be even a bit
ahead of them, breaks tWo-one in or
der to supply the usual past to live
down." the other not to make the ''liv-
ing down" too tame for the purposes
of the last acts of five-act play
And just as Mrs. Burnett in her
novel "A Lady of Quality" which she
and Stephen Townsend have jointly
dramatized, keeps the story going by
having the repentant ClOrinda fell the
blackmailer, John OXOn, her former
lover with blow which accidentally
kills him. so in the dramatization this
fourth act.
If the breaking of the sixth and
seventh commandments in one play
proves successful, is it unreasonable to
expect that dramatists will enlarge
upon the idea until one of them pro-
duces a drama in which the heroine
breaks all ten-say five acts and COM
mandments broken in groups of two to
each act? m
And when the ten have given out,
may not some peculiarly ambitious
playwright devise others to be broken,
and thus open up an indefinite dramat-
ic vista?
But speaking seriously, as the occa-
sion merits-for "a Lady of Quality
is a serious play-Mrs. Burnett's story
is a strong one, and the drama prom
Uses to be equally SO, while the produc-
ton, which has been planned on an
elaborate scale in scenery and cos
tunes, should be highly effective. For
neither is Mrs. Burnett novice at
writing plays nor Miss Julia Arthur
novice at acting.
THE Old Homestead" has astonished
those who watch the business of
theatricals, says the New York Sun. 1t
is at the Academy of Music again,
primarily because Mature" failed to
fill out the time assigned to it, but the
familiar New England drama, with
Denman Thompson in his character of
the genial farmer and with some new
scenic features, has drawn crowded
audiences, ard has pleased them just
as though the play were novelty. By
and by there will be Frohman pro-
ducsion here of THE White Heather"
the latest Drury Lane melOdrama, with
much scenery and a noteworthy cast.
The career of Madeleine Lucette Ry-
ley is an object lesson for women who
would write for the stage. Although
the satirists of our time have found
ample material with which to launch
their shafts, and have discovered Vul-
nerable points in the arn1Or of the new
woman, they have none of them ac-
cused her of being lacking in intelli-
gence. No longer can her traditional
tyrant, man, claim the right of emf
nent domain over the field of intel
lectuality, and in every walk Of life or
field of professional endeavor feminin-
ity has claimed the right to stand
shoulder to shoulder in honest compe-
titiOn, and has maintained that right
through sheer ability, seeking no ia
vorS on the score of 1.-The weaker sex
1t was only recently that a young
English woman successfully wrested
from her masculine competitors the
coveted degree of doctor of philOso-
ply at the University of Bonn. The
Senior Wrangler degree of Cambridge
not long since glorfied gifted girl
of that British university In our own
country examples are not lacking of
the remarkable progress made by
womankind. At the bar, in the pulpit,
in medicine, in the conduct of great
industrial enterprises and in CONNER
cial pursuits women are successful
competitors, and in literature, pure
and simple, her success is too widely
recognized to be commented upon. In
this relation it is strikingly signifi-
cant of the wonderful progress of the
woman fin de steele of dramatic au-
thorship, and that the three foremost
comedians of our time have to thank
the woman dramatist for the most
successful play Of their respective ca
reers. 1t cannot be gainsaid that the
greatest success of Mr.. Goodwin's ca
reer on the stage has been achieved in
Madeleine Ldcette Ryley's comedy.
'An American Citizen and so in the
case of Mr.. Crane in "a Fool of For
tune by Martha Morton, and Mr.. Sol
Smith Russell in "a Bachelors Ro-
nance" by the same-fair author.
No greater proof of feminine excel
lence in the line of stagecraft is need
ed than examples of Mrs. Ryley's art
as. dramatist 1T was commonly as
serted without contradiction in times
past that women have no sense of hu-
NOR, but Madeleine Lucette Ryley has
arisen to the defense of her sex, in
christopher Jr.. y which she wrote for
John Drew, and which achieved I'M
precedented success not only in this
country but abroad, where 1T yet Nils
an important niche on the British