The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-08

Tonight will be FIRST night" in q new
sense at the Metropolitan opera house,
for never before in its history has that
theater enjoyed the honor Of staging the
first professional production Of new
drama, this privilege being reserved for
the Neill stock company, which will open
a weeks engagement In a brand new
comedy by Arthur James Pegler, a news
paper man for over a decade Identified
with ST. Paul and Minneapolis newspaper
work, and an Industrious contributor of
short stories and sketches to the weekly
periodicals and the magazines
''Matrlmony," for such is the title Of
Mr. Pegler's new play, does not depend
or the local interest attaching to its au
thorship, say those who have read It,
which is easy to believe. Matrimony Is
q subject that has interested, or does
Will, or, possibly, should interest every
one, young or old, of either SEX and it's
treatment in the new comedy is humorous
and clean, not gross or cynical Peglers
"Mauimony' is not a problem play.
Neither is it a bowling farce with q hole
in the plot here and there to insert
singing heroine in a romantic ballad or
eerio-comic servant girl in wing dancing
speciality.
/
spirited viz acious, lovable young woman
in love- as all heroines of necessity have
to be. Mr. Pegler, however, in thus hon
oring the traditions of dramatic art, has
not been bound in any rut Of convention
plot. The old millionaire to whom an I'M
romantic father would marry his loving
and loved daughter does not aggraVate
the gallery. He Is spoken Of He does
not even come on the stage. Neverthe-
less the author finds q way to bring be-
fore the audience the condition In which
Clara finds herself. When hurrying be-
tween the Office Of her lover, George Ire
Ynayne, a Boston lawyer, and the apart
lnents of her brother, Jack Talboys, a
Boston banker, she misses them Doth,
and her pursuing father, bent on break
ing up her romance, is in hot pursuit Of
her from Chicago.
Clara hurriedly escapes this dilemma
by fight to New York. In the mean
time Count Taritoff, a pseudo noble
man. suspects Talboys pere of clipping
to Boston with his wife, "Tottie Teeters,
a. soubrette Tottie fees to Jack Tai
boys apartments for protection from the
irate count and the fearful soubrette Is
Clinging to his manly form just at the
time when he neglects to remember the
announced visit of his fiancee, Isabel
Heatherston, and her none-too-forgiving
mama. But if Jack has troubles in this
act, cara mas nef6 LOT IlIne III the
next for while she is at the Waldorf
Astoria in New York awaiting her low
er's arrival, metropolitan newspaper
man sends his card to her and gains an
audience by virtue of the fact that Clara
needs the presence of a man very much
at that time. Talboys' pere, Maj.
Chaser Talboys, they call him, Is close
on her trail and Clara is at loss to ac-
count for her presence in a hotel in the
metropolis alone and unprotected. Will
the reporter, Reynard Westbrook, so
named because he is so foxy, presuma-
bly,, pretend to be her husband for half
an hour? Will he? VIII monkey take
a peanut? But the major is closer on
the trail than Westbrook thought and he
is vehement, too He berates the sup
posed husband. But Westbrook stands
by his bargain, and Tremayne, the real
lover of Clara's romance, arriving just
at point where Talboys Sr. has ex-
hausted all his invective and almost all