The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-23
} THE TIVoLPS "MANDARIN"
SOUTHWELL COMPANY IN "THE
GYPSY BARON"
Burmese Jugglers at the orpheum
Who Work Without Hands.
Gin Mizzoura" Again at
the Alcazar.

"The Moth and the Flame" which
Herbert Kelley and Effie Shannon
presented in the Columbia Theater
last night to an unusually large and
modish audience is, in the main, very
much like the pictures Of it that you
see on the billboards. That scene in
the church-where the villain at the
altar in the act of wedding the spotless
heroine when the ceremony is parted
In the middle by the entrance of the
other woman and her fatherless child
is played just as advertised Mr.. KEEL
cey does strike his cast-off victim a
cruel blow on the brow, and the girl
who is about to become his bride utters
a whitening Coward" The plot and
the main situations remind you for
chilly of Miss Laura Jean Libby. Mr.
David Belasco himself has never sue
ceeded in being more Laura Jeanish
than Clyde Fitch is in his play. But
and here comes the difference and the
reason why some 1000 intelligent play
goers gave warm attention to THE
Moth and the Flame" last night-Mr
Fitch has set these yellow back situa-
lions to an accompaniment of keen,
smart, American humor. His abSurdly
serious characters are countered by
others that are candidly fippant, i'm
pertinent and cynical. These latter con-
tribute an almost constant run of Spry
comment and raillery. They forestall
you in the gentle business of jeers and
sarcastic laughter. In fact, Mr.. Fitch
has written a little audience of his own
that saves the one out in the audi
Jot Of
lot of merriment. A very ingenious bit
of playwriting.
So 1 will not venture to take Mr.
Fitch's seriousness too seriously. The
villain, who starts out to be
the very plausible smoothly that
you would call by another
name, soon blossoms out in the
regular conventional colors of malevo-
lence. After the pugiliStic episode in
the church he still pursues the girl and
threatens her with the secret of her re-
Gently suicided fathers defalcations;
and when this matter is congenially
baffled he sadly leaves for Europe, first
giving his name to the woman whom he
has betrayed and their child. 1t would
be too much to ask Mr.. Kelley, or any
other actor whose personality is a pop
ular fixture, to forego some sort of an
amicable compromise at the end; and
=
in keeping with the suddennesseS that
have preceded it. Indeed, this ending
is a gem when you think how much
worse Mr.. Fitch might have done. He
might have reformed Mr.. Kelley en-
tirely at the twelfth hour and given
him Miss Shannon's hand ana forgive
ness. In the present arrangement she
does not need it, for the impulsive
youth whose love and warning she had
scorned in the earlier scenes is conf
IDENTIFY ready and waiting as the last
curtain falls.
And this is not the only forbearance
on the part of the author. He has not
clothed the injured lady in black al
paca; and she does not speak of the
fruits of her love as "me-c heild"; and
the youngster does not invade the altar
crying "Popper!"
The comedy part is really admirable.
At times you are reminded in a modest
way of oscar Wilde. The lines glitter
like bright tin pans. There is a GER
tain modern social swing in the talk at
the ball adults in children's costume
very droll conceft after the mode of
Pinero) at the interrupted wedding, and
in fact, in the last act, too. In the
lighter characters epigrammatic imper-
thence is given full swing and many
of the saliles are memorable. The most
of the wit-work falls to a Mrs. Lori
mer, twice married and divorced and
looking for more. Miss Marion Abbott
has this part, which is quite the catchi-
est in the play, and she makes it de-
lightful with her large contralto hu-
NOR She was easily the belle of the
party last night. Miss Leila Ellis has
another part in much the same vein,
which she handles successfully, and
Miss Winona Shannon gives contrast