The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-16
DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL.
GRAND.


Harriet Beecher Stoves "Uncle Toms
Cabin" with accompanying and incidental
music by the gifted author Of "She's the
Warmest Baby in the Bunch and other emil
nent composers, was given at the Grand last
night to a very thoroughly satisfied audi
ence.
'Uncle Toms Cabin has been seen here
before. 1t has been seen in most places be-
fore. But hitherto 1t has been rendered with
the aid of two Marks, six bloodhounds,a dom
key and street parade. and 1t was some
thing of revelation to the younger genera
ton to find that Mrs. Stowe had only written
lines for Marks. a single Simon Legree.
q solitary Topsy, and that she intended that
there should be but one Uncle Tom, and he
the star. Usually the honors Of the lead are
divided between the bloodhounds and the dom
key
A. w. Martin has found a copy Of the book,
and sticks to the single character feature that
Mrs. Stowe had in mind But If Mr.. Martin
has stuck to the book in this respect he gives
us performance that Is refreshing in its
ingenious disregard for the conventionalities
in other respects. He does not let any sort
Of sentiment interfere with the introduction of
a good thing, and the younger generation In
the house was vouchsafed some information
as to the prophetic powers Of the authoress
the nose of Marks and notified him that If he
interfered with the escape Of George Harris
he, Phineas, would give him. Marks, what
Dewey gave the Spaniards. The line ELECTED
more appreciation than any other single sen
timent tossed off during the performance.
When Little Eva took it into her childish
head to become an angel size went over to
the beyond with due solemnity and to the
music of "Now 1 Lay Me-" and, just for fear
that the house might be too much affected by
the emotions evoked by the death scene Mr..
Martin had thoughtfully arranged to let
down drop and to have young woman tn
an abbreviated empire costume and scarlet
topper" dash out and sing "She's the
Warmest Baby in the Bunch"-obviousy re-
ferring to the late Eva.
1t takes a few incongruities to make Uncle
Tom go at this late day, and the performance
was really an excellent one.-.2 Milton u.
Barlow, whose work on the end In the
minstrel show has made him very familiar
to the theater-going public, played the title
role, and played 1t as he, OF course, must
much better than 1t has been seen OF late
years Mr.. Barlow knows more about how
the old-time negro should act and talk than
anybody else on the stage today, and it was
to be expected that he would do the excel
lent work that he did.
Stella Thompson was capital Topsy, and
the speciality that she gave with the banjo
was really good.
Baby Beatrice evinced a degree Of precocity
that actually suggests the Eva Of Mrs.
Stoves creation, and there was no other
finish to expect than that she must die young.
The little one did a song and a dance clever
ly. She shared the Juvenile applause with
little Nellie and Master Arthur Thompson.
The balance of the people in the cast do very
we'll
The company is very large one, and the
greater part Of the clever work done is by
people not generally carried by Uncle Tom
companies. There is a band of accom-
plished dancers, so-called pickanlnnies. They
gave a cake walk that was a delight to the
eye and a solace to the soul that is touched
by rag-time melody and the elaboration of
saltatory movement. The buck dancing in
the auction scene is better than any seen
here before and there is young man
who should be better known and whose name
should be on the programme who does q
neat turn with number of drum majors
staffs Altogether, the show is strong in
specialties. and better than the average as
to the play itself.
The same bill all the week.