The Saint Paul globe., 1897-11-21
g; 9 rar1latic

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ton to star next season. Either Cleo
patra" or "Gismonda" will probably be
the first opera in which she will be
seen.
cumberland 81" is in the fifth week
Of it's run at the Fourteenth Street
theater in New York. This romantic
drama of an American vendetta, with
it's scenes among the cadets at West
Point and soldiers in the Cumberland
mountains, seems to have captured the
fancy of all sorts of people just as was
the case with 1.-THE Girl Left Behind
Me-" which was the work of Mr.. Fyles
in collaboration with Mr. Belasco
The newer play has the same balance
between naturalness and sensational
ism, and makes the same successful
appeal alike to polite parquet and re-
sponsive gallery.
Can Women Write Plays?" was the
subject of a debate before the Playgo-
ers' Club in London lately. The ques-
tion has been answered through the
centuries by Mrs. Cowley, Mrs. Inch
bald, Mrs. Centlivre, Miss Milford, Mrs
Bateman, Mrs. Mowatt, Nine Margue-
rite, Mrs. Burnett, Mrs. Ryley, Miss
Mer1ngton, Miss Morton, and a host Of
other women. AS a matter of fact,
anybody can write plays. But not
every one can get them acted Lady
Bancroft, at the meeting in question,
told tale to that effect. A woman
submitted play to her at the Prince
of Wales theater, with the assurance
that it contained the finest and most
dramatic situation" ever conceived by
nv ls0N .f1rl,&
And, briefly described, the situation
was this: The former lover of a mar
'ried lady intruded himself upon the
latter's presence, and in the course Of
their cOlloquy there enters-fateful mo-
ment-the husband. So overcome is his
fra1l spouse by the discovery that she
almost faints, but, recovering herself
before finally collapsing, she exclaims,
turning to her visitor, 81 beg your
pardon, L have not introduced you,"
and proceeds to formally present him
TO her husband. Lady Bancroft was
highly impressed by the originality of
the situation" but that play never
saw the light under her auspices.
1t Is Dixey the Magician, says the New
York Herald. He has gathered together all
his versatility and to this he has aided his
personality, and with the combination he
made pronounced hit at the Garden the
ater last night. His programme included
sletght of hand, illusions and magic generally.
with portrayals of three of his old 7'Adonis
characters injected in the center
While not yet Of the calibar of Hermann
or Kellar, DiXey gave none the less clever
and agreeable entertainment. His seight of
hand was finished and none of his attempts
failed in the slightest With his natural
ability, DiXey should go on to further
achievements in his new line. He received
very warm reception and was called before
the curtain at the end of each of the parts
of his programme.
At the end responding to calls, Mr. Dixey
made short speech of thaaks.
''The Magdalene," problem play by Col.
Alfriend, the author Of "The Great Diamond
Robbery" was produced last Monday night
at the Murray Hill theater in New York
The Metropolitan critics refuse to stand fer
it, The acting of Mckee Rankin and Nance
o'Neil is, however, highly commented.
Says the New York Tribune over the sigma
ture of William Winter. in the matter of
Julia Arthurs first night at Wallack's the
ater in "a Lady OF Quality" Miss Julia
Arthur, who being clever woman, infused
more meaning into the part of Clorinda than
she could possibly have found in it, was par
ticularly pleasing in her boy dress, and also
in her free and easy manner a juvenile
rake but she was best in her womans raj
ment and in her expression of diversified
moods of impulse, pride, scorn and sorrow
Her change from masculine to feminine gear
and from madcap swagger to naughty de-
corum was accomplished with exceptional
brilliancy of pictorial effect. In the frolic-
some passages, at the beginning, the interme-
diate episodes of disdain and intrigue and the
rueful betrothal at the end, Miss Arthur was
felicitous in action and pleasant both to
hear and see, and her audience manifested its
admiration of her proceedings with cordial
applause"
Robert Downing closed his season in New
ark on Saturday last, and will go direct to
New Orleans to fill a special engagement at
the Academy of Music in response to a tempt
ing offer made him by Klaw & Erlanger His
repertoire will embrace THE Gladiator" p" ''In-
gomar," Damon and Phthias' and "OthelIo."
and each production is to be sumptuously
staged. His wife, Eugene Blair, will assume
the leading female roles.
When Joseph Jeffersons oldest son was a
child the family lived in a quite exclusive
neighborhood in New York city. Master JEFF
ferson, being true boy, Joined in play with
the other boys in the street One lady who
was very particular as to with whom her
children played .admonished her boys for
playing with stranger saying:
Il don't know that Jefferson boy. Who is
1--WE don't know who his mother is" was
the reply, but his father works in
theater."
G. Bernard Shaw, author of one of the
cleverest and best-acted plays now running
here, THE Devils Disciple" which Mr.
Mansfield is giving at the Fifth Avenue is
personally one of the most individual of
dramatists, says the New York Herald.
He doesn't care a rap for outward appear
ances or conyentionalities. For instance,
he'll go to a London first night in a flannel
shirt and slouch hat, and he lives in the
simplest manner. dispensing with all lux
uries. In fact, he's a good deal of socialist,
not only in his opinions, but in his appear
ance He wears his hair long, and when he
talks to you he throws his head back and
forth and runs his fingers through his hair.
Here is an anecdote to show you how SIM
pie his tastes are. Of course, you've heard
of Miss Elizabeth Marbury? Shaw is one of
the dozen or more distinguished foreign au-
thors whose American agent she is GER
tain play of his, produced here not long ago.
was not very great success. Miss Mar
bury, thinking he would be rather displeased
at the small remittance for his royalties on
this play, wrote him a somewhat apologize
letter, giving the warm weather and other
reasons for the poor success of the play.
In due season she received a reply, which
began:
''Rapacious Elizabeth Marbury What do
you want me to make a fortune for? Don't
Won know that the draft which YOU have