The times., 1899-08-27

| A-OAo It, JOStpu SeQley. and
| William Dobbin threatening to give the
actress ample opportunity for a display OF
her genius while the battle OF Waterloo
| should provide no end of color and a score
| OF the powerful incidents in the book can
not put supply the suggestion for dyna-
| mic ciimaxes. How completely William
| GliIette will mt the character of Sherlock
Holmes anyone who has read a Conan
! Doyles fascinating sketches will not need
| to be told. Neither is it necessary to
more than hint at the wonderful results
! the erudite dramatist should obtain from
| absorbing detective stories in which are
| two such creations as Holmes and DR.
| Watson. With the physician either as a
| principal in the love tale over which the
sieuth must hover or as a confdante 10
whom-and the audience-may be related
the means taken for setting aside the diff
| hculties encountered by some other lover.
Mr. Gillette should make most delightful
presentation. Washington, by the way. is
i TO be first allowed the privilege of decid-
ing whether he has or not.
Alphonse Daudet's .'Sappho'' gives ample
promise of affording Olga Nethersole a
| valuable vehicle when Clyde Fitch has an-
ished manipulating it. Like "a Tale OF
Two Cities, this work is already a sort
OF surety. its cordial reception abroad serv-
! ing as guarantee of it's merit. If NM
/ Daudet and Belot were able to make an
| interesting play out of ''Sappho" there is
no reason why Mr.. Fitch should not dupIi-
cate their triumph. The novel is quite as
dramatic as are Camille and Carmen
! nlied with fertile characters and suggested
| situations, 'Wormwood," too. should cas-
| lily be turned into such production as
would please patrons of the popular priced
houses, but little can be hoped for either
| The Gadfiy' or When Knightheod Was
| III Flower. The first of these two liter
/ airy efforts is a complicated discussion of
theological subjects such as are not apt TO
| claim the attention of theatregoers; with
out more than ordinarily able handling the
/ contents or the second will not afford
! more than half dozen sword combats
ana single scene for Julia Marlowe
washington reviewers who have been as
| siduousiy reading Children of the Ghetto''
| for month or so are certain to need their
knowledge of the book whether its dra-
matization is longliyed or net, for. as is
| generally understood. the Liebler COMPANY
is TO give the piece its premiere at the
National Theatre. OF the chances outside
critics will have for airing their informa-
tlon II is not policy TO say much 1t would
| seem that James A. Herne's arrangement of
novel by Israel Zangwiu should have
abundant worth, but Children of the
! Ghetto" IS of doubtful texture and Mr..
Herne, II ne was the author of "Shore
Acres, is also responsible for REV Grif-
| nth Davenport. Much of the fate of the
offering will depend upon the manner in
which the galleries receive Mr. ZangwilI's S
Jews-whether they are taken seriously or
! compared to the Semitic types one sees at
the vaudeville houses and so subjected to
rldicule. misplaced laugh will often kill
a fair play and an admirer of BILLY" Wat
son may cause the overthrow of a PRO-
duetion that, whatever its faults or vir-
hnnr are.r
| care and with great expense.
AT the first glance Mr.. Zangwill's book
seems to be merely poyglotic combina
tton of German Greek, Russian Spanish
| Hebrew, and Yiddish. When one has waded
through this he finds much that promises
We'll for the adaptation. ''Reb" Shemuel
Melchitsedek Pinchas. Moses Ansel, Simon
Woif, Guedalyab, Michael Birnbaum, Eph-
RAIN Phillips Sam Levine Sugarman. Da-
yid Brandon, Hannah Jacobs. Mrs. Jacobs
Malka, Milly Phillips, Leah, Mrs. Belco-
vitch, Dutch Debby, Becky, the Widow Fin
| kelstein, and Esther Ansell are all good
stage characters, with very human emo
| tions- But Children of the Ghetto' with
! its Dtckens-like touches of neighborly hu-
NOR and pathos is more combination of
! sketches than a logical story, and must
needs be treated much as was Beside the
Bonnie Brier Bush il coherent work is
to be its outcome. AS it stands the novel
can prompt nothing but a failure-changed
1t is not apt to inspire admiration from
| playgoers more than the resentment OF
I litterateurs
With Children of the Ghetto" as with
the other pieces mentioned it is impos-
| slble to prophesy. success or anything else
until the adapters have stated what they
intend doing with the material supplied
As has been said. an able transcriber may
efect such alterations in a condemned
story as Will make it a dramatic production
worthy of the heartiest commendation A
promising book may be so treated as to
become an impossibility behind the foot
lights. But, judging alone from the vol
umes of which versions are being reck-
| lessly made for the coming season, The
| Times ventures to predict that many of
the presentations for which great prepara-
tions are about TO be completed will cost
their hackers unexpected money and pres
tige, while the reviewers who have la
boriously readied themselves for the an
ticipated triumphs will never have the
coveted opportunity of exhibiting the re-
suits of their toll.
Speaking of Children of the Ghetto"
reminds one, by the way, that the manner
in which the Liebler Company and its
imitators turn the authors of their vehicles
into press agents is not only tiresome,
but shortsighted. A writer who has low
cred himself to the ranks of the advance
man; who has mounted a pedestal and is
then bidden to xget off and push" gem
orally succeeds in destroying much of the
reverence which has helped to make his
works popular Thus, before the Amer
lean production of 1.-THE Christian" we
of this country were prone to look up to
Hall Caine as being a genius to be re-
spected and admired Mr. Caine came to
these shores and spent two months In gain
ing notoTfety of such a sort that when he
left he had become an object of general
ridicue The most brilliant novel the
Manxman may now publish cannot be iead
without remembrance that it's composer
sacrificed his dignity dozens of times at
space rates while in ''the land of the free
and the home of the brave
Not content with so prostituting Mr.
Caine last year, either the Liehler firm or
Israel Zangwill himself is attempting to
make the author of Children of the Ghet-
to" seem absurd-with manifold results.
Mr.. Zangwill has spent his odd moments
since his arrival in New York in the very
fashion adopted by his predecessor. I'm
satisfied with appearing in the excusable
interview or the commendable position of
wandering celebrity, he has literally grab
bed every possible opportunity to rush into
print with his life and works While in
this fashion the Lieblers may get their
production talked about it is hardly prob
able that much of the talk would be agree
able to Mr. Zangwill could he hear it, Stu
art Robsons effort to extract similar ben
eft from the visit of the Countess Voynich,
l.