The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-01-22


lie would never accept anything e.se from
the man who wrote shore Acres" FL
nally the production given the play vas
so elaborate-so eXpensive-so aGtiful
that no one can think of its pTo6ab Il til
mate worthlessness without deep regret
The scenery used in The Rev. Griffith
Davenport is too complicated. too mol
ern and too abundant to be carried about
by the organizations that usually buy
such nvestitures at second hand. Ii Mr..
Herne's Offering is failure Mr.. Herne's
speculation will result in total loss.
And just now there seems to be little
chance of it developing in any other way.
The numerous alterations that were made
last week. the cutting here and interpo-
lating there. had so little effect upon any
thing but the length of the presentation
that further trifiing seems hopeless.
There is no one in this country who de-
serves success more than Mr.. Herne but
1t cannot be said that he is likely TO find
it in The Rev. Griffith Davenport"
To paraphrase an old proverb there is
time for everything and everything
should be in its time Mr.. Herne's best
work. Margaret Fleming failed be-
cause it was presented some years before
the era of problem plays began, and The
Rev Griffith Davenport bids fair to fail
because 1t was offered two decades after
interest in the subject of which it treats
had died out altogether. While there is
still enough feeling left between the North
and the South to make sectional topics
difficult ones to handle. so much of the old
sentiment has vanished that an author
cannot count on attracting his spectators
with discussion that has already been
worn threadbare and finally settled.
When that abortive attempt at play
writing, Uncle Toms Cabin" was first
put on the stage only a spark was needed
to kindle riotous and explosive passions
throughout the country. Consequently the
dramatiZation of Mrs. Stoves novel
achieved tremendous success-success it
could have gained at no other period of
the nations history and that has only been
maintained today by means of spectacular
and vaudeville interpretations Uncle
Toms Cabin was the first and has been
the last adapted sermon TO succeed on the
American stage. Mark Twain preached
against slavery in ''Pudd 'nhead Wilson
but so artistically that no one felt his lee
ture more than instinctiyely and yet
Pudd mead Wilson" was not a success.
ANA The Rev. Griffith Davenport is
weaker than the average acted discussion
because the author evidently wished to
compromise the matter and succeeded in
being SO thoroughly neutral that no one
could have the faintest idea which side he
meant TO favor
The original object in arranging can
Unofficial Patriot for the stage was to
make 1t as thoroughly idealistic a drama
as was Shore Acres''-to bring into view
the domestic side of the great struggle
that made truer than their writer had
ever dreamed of them being Tom Paine's
lines about the times that try mems
souls In this theme there were certain
" great possibilities but nothing existed
IN the book TO suggest the heart interest
necessary to such 4 work. The Rev
Griffith Davenport could not be real and
true and natural because the Rev. Griffith
Davenport himself was not true and Peaf
and natural. Ministers in plays are al
ways ridiculous. Gavin Dishart was an
idiot and John Storm was either insane or
the worst sort of a fanatic. Griffith Dav-
export was as bad as either. Having ar
rived at the conclusion that il was wrong
for him to hold human chatteis he set
about making himself nuisance TO his
neighbors at once. Asked for his beliefs
and their reasons he was not able to re-
ply, but, with objectionable forgetfulnss IS
OF the adage regarding the goose end the
gander. remarked: II may be right for
you to hold slaves-it is not right for
me-"
Under this idea. unable to justify himself
in any particular. he determined TO set
about freeing his servants. Ii never &C.
CURED TO him that such an act )vas useless
until 1t became universal. He did not care
that his men had grown so fond of him and
had worked so long for him that parting
must mean sorrow to all concerned: he did
not notice that his project came near
breaking the heart of his wife. and that
most OF the serfs resented accepting their
manumissiou papers; he did not recall the
fact that several States had prohibited en-
ploying negroes; that other portions OF
the country were crowded with them, and
that by Helen Gardeners own confession
free black had his choice between steal
ing and starving" And so. childtshly and
narrowly, Davenport broke up his home
and his life without doing anything but
harm thereby. When, early in the work
his choice lay between buying the hus-
band of a devoted servant or seeing the
two separated. the preacher felt grieved
that the plea of his spouse necessitated his
uniting them. Who could feel interest or
sympathy for such a man? Certainly the
Rev. Griffith Davenport was narrow
minded bigot-a dreamer-a theorist--a
fanatic-a fooli
The study of a repellant character being
laid aside, and with it the possibility that
audiences could take sides with so egotis-
teal Il being. or care what he did with his
slaves. only two things remain which
could possibly have been counted upon to
attract The first OF these would pertain
to what managers call "A heart story"
But there was very little matter of that
sort in the drama. Two minor love tales
did exist-the first a sample OF the eternal
nonsense between ingenUe and juvenile,
and the second a poorly developed strain
of affection arranged for the eldest son of
the family and Sue Hardy to whom one
found him Unexpectedly married in the
plays second act. The aforesaid elder son
came dangerously near being the formal
scoundrel of the piece, and no one would
have been much put out had Miss Hardy
refused to have anything to do with him.
The principal story hung on the shoulders
of Davenport and his spouse and was
terestinS for just ten Misunderstanding 'a
parting scene in the fourth act. Matt
of the heart existing between husband
wife should be enjoyable. if only By reas.-
of their novelty. hut histriOnic history
lates that they are not. In all events, Ia.
love between Mr.. and Mrs. Davenport
never in danger of ceasing; the two
not really approach a rupture. even
the man followed the dismissal of
slaves BY enlistment in the Union AMY
and there being every reason to eSng
that at the end of the piece one woulG
both as they were in the beginning
audience did not appear to feel the
est curiosity regarding the afair.
These things being true. Mr.. Herne
left just one opportunity of pleasing
the realness of his atmospheric detail
by his situations. But atmospheric
pretty incidents of the sort thar abound
ed in Shore Acres''-had small place in
The Rev. Griffith Davenport" Al no
time during the play was there a Bit OF
pathos that compared with the pantomime
which ended the drama mentioned nor
Oh, Of ind
BerTys scene with the children earlier in
tL.at offnrt -i.. IL