The times., 1898-05-22

Young authors, on their part. should take
advantage Of present exigencies to
achieve success by failure But, in one
way or another. both sides must meet or
the scarcity OF good material will be-
come famine. in comparison with which
present needs viii seem ridiculous and
puny.
Perhaps the exciting unpopularity Of
serious plays and the difficulty Of obtain
ing anything new IN a farcicaf field may
account for some of the bad pieces the
season has brought forth This occurs
quite naturally TO one who has devoted
time TO thinking over the faults and er-
rOrs of "A Bachelors Honeymoon" last
weeks presentation at the Columbia And
in this connection there also re-Oceurs TO
one the remark upon the inability Of ac-
tors to write plays. There is not a vast
difference between an actor and a pro-
fessional producer. And never was this
more conelusively brought 20 the atten-
ton of local theatergOeTs than In the case
OF John StapletOns initial effort On
Wednesday night a large and apparently
delighted audience which included the
author himself watched the performance
and laughed so uprOariously al what
seemed both tame and hackneyed that
one critically inclined often felt tempted
to doubt the wisdom of his objections
"A Bachelors Honeymoon was put on
for run at HOyt's earlier in the year.
but failed to score heavily. It's chief rner-
II seemed to be in its advertising. but
this went no further. The piece had
good material-too much of II. II any
thing-but II was brought out without
regard for rhyme or reason. The author
evidently had a number of complicated
affairs in his mind and expanded a not
too manifest plot to admit them IN
fortunately, the ideas thus embodied in
the farce were not always his own and
the result was that the entire entertain
ment presented the appearance Of a crazy
quilt, in which a visitor might catch
giImpses Of cloth from every sofa pillow
and table cover in the vicinity. Begin
ming with the Identical theme of "a
Gay Old Boy" the playwright added
with consistent but not much coherent
care. the mind over mind" scene from
My Friend From India" the bit of work
between servant and master noted in Pi-
nero's Snowfall" the adaptation Of the
target practice in a Parlor Match
blending of the shadows in ''The Pro-
fessor's Love Story" with the Punch and
Judy climax in My Awful Dad. =" and a
number Of other situations taken from
a generality of farces. embOdying nearly
every success of the kind that has filed
the stage in a decade.
The humor of some Of these situations
II 50 they may be called-was undoubted.
The work done by Messrs. Gibbs and Sui
livan during Mr. Nash's pistol practice
could hardly have been surpassed for
real humor. while one or two like bits
deserved hearty laughter. The swiftness
of some OF the action was saving the
dialogue was good and a limited number
of the usual characters were we'll drawn.
On the whole, however. bad traits pre-
dominated in the piece Its wit bore the
marks of effort and the entire impOssI-
bility and inconsistency of the whole thing
gave it an air of burlesque that could
not be easily overcome. Then the plot
was badly mixed and frightfully involved
frequently carried so dangerously near
Stiffness that a sensible word would have
knocked il to pieces, and. worse still. full
of horseplay. Despite it's conventionality,
It was quite impossible to keep track of
anything. the crowding of events and
complexities. together with the number of
unfinished side issues, causing this. Alto
gether the play was q lamentable fail
ure, and, so far as its limited scope could
go. II proved without doubt the inability
of an interpreter of other mems work
to concoct original or even passably novel
presentations of his own.
And. by the way, what a pleasure II
will be to have our friends OF the Column
bia Stock Company back again this
week. That organization proved last
year to be. by far. the best stock attrac-
ton ever seen here and improvements
that have taken place should make it
well nigh perfect now. Unfortunately
last season the financial affairs of the
company did not prosper and its hackers
were. therefore, out a considerable sum
on their venture. But in return they Sc
cured experience and the confidence CT