The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-27
"THE RUNAWAY WIFE. !"
Mckee RankIn's Heroine EnIists Sympathy
Of the Park Audiences.

1.-THE Runaway WIFE might advan-
tageously have been put on at the Park
theatre a week or two sooner, as the
play draws from its audiences such CO.
pious draughts Of tears that the i'll eff
fects of the recent drought could have
been entirely nullified. Gentle women
and strong men wept together yester-
day over the misfortunes of Mckee
Rankins welded pair, and one we'll
known business man sobbed as bitter
ly as though he had been undersold by
a competitor. Yet THE Runaway
Wife," though it does lacerate the sym
pathies severely at times, is not entire
ly in the minor key, and has the con-
selling element of happy ending. 1t
displays Manager Wilton's company to
excellent advantage, and was voted by
the two large audiences of Monday TO
be the best of the Park series next to
"Aristocracy."
Arthur Eastman is a young and tall
ented artist, who has married a wife
from the English nobility, and to keep
her in her accustomed luxury, lives far
beyond his means. Just as he Is about
to extricate himself from his difhcul-
ties through commissions, he is strtck-
en- with blindness, and with wife and
infant son, goes to live at farmhouse
on the grudging charity OF sister
Driven by the unkind treatment Of this
sister and stung by her blind husbands
groundless jealousy of Lord Cham
leigh, a former lover, Eastman's wife
fees from him, leaving word that she
has gone to seek employment to make
them both independent.
Twelve years elapse, and husband ana
wife, each believing the other dead, she
has married her old flame, Lord Cham
leigh, while Eastman, under the assum-
ed name of Vane, is happy in the socie-
ty of his son, now famous artist in
his turn. The boy, meeting his UNI
known mother in society, introduces his
father to her, and mutual recognition
and distress follows; but eventually
Chumleigh is obliging enough to die,
and an operation restores Eastleigh' $
sight. The estranged couple become
reconciled, and the son finds his affin-
ity in relative of his mothers second
husband.
One of the pleasant things of the pro-
duction is the success of Miss Alma AL
ken, who finds her first genuine oppor-
tunity in the role of the shrewish sis
ter, and makes such good use of 1t as
to score a decided hit. In makeup, cos
tune and mannerisms she hits off the
gnarled and knotty New England farm
wife to the life. Kendall Weston again
gratified his admirers as the artist
Eastman, playing the part with the
quiet force and dignity of which he is
the master His assumption of stealth
ity creeping blindness was admirably
conceived. Miss Cashmere proved her
self fully equal to the exacting demands
of Lady Alice Eastman. This artistic
improves with every week Misses
Morrisse and Ponnoyer made two
charming butterflies of fashion, and
with Miss Cashmere were the envied of
their feminine beholders for their elab-
crate toilettes. George Barber made
what was rather a colorless part into a
leading one by his virile personality,
Al. Harrington and Charles Barringer
were highly amusing in comedy hits
Little Josie Mcmahon of this city ap-
peared as the child, and was compile
mented with a floral offering.
Photographs of Miss Cashmere were
distributed at the matinee. Sardous
best known comedy, "A Scrap Of Pa
per- will be next weeks bill.