The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-07-30
GOODBYE
MR.. MORRISON
us MEPHISTO.

"HEATER goers have this week
crowded the Alcazar to the limit Of
its capacity and even little beyond,
bidding good-by, as II were, TO that
veteran actor, Mr.. Lewis Morrison, who
has endeared himself to us all by years of
well-directed labor IN his chosen field
Much that is best in dramatic literature
We have seen presented, because his re-
spect for the standard drama outweighed
a consideration for gain. He has ever been
ready to lend a hand to promising play
Wrights and more than one, now on the
road to fame, owes the opportunity of
hearing to this actors kindly Intervention,
California he loves, and with reason, for
California has ever been ready to ap-
plaud his successes He has kept her
clever children in mind and the Faust"
companies he starts on the road next
season will contain many California
aspirant for histrionic honors, for, with
the Golden State in his summer itinerary,
he left the ranks open, sure OF finding
here Just the recruits he needed. Tonight
Mr. Morrison plays Mephisto for the last
time, for 1t will no longer be included in
his repertory. He divorces the character
with sorrow, for il has given him fame
and fortune and through all the years has
not lessened IFS power to draw. But the
role of Marguerite. however attractive it
may be to an audience when played by
Miss Roberts, is a trying and monotonous
one for a voting woman to portray indeh-
nitely With her future in view Mr.. Nor
rison has made an elaborate scenic pro-
duction of George Foster Platt's Fred
eriGk the Gre@a ne h feaspFe OF next sea
essentially German In atmosphere, and
Mr. Morrsons Mephtsto have been too
often praised to hang upon words of ap-
prevail from me- but word may be said
of Mr.. Whittlesey's excellent work as
Faust. Nature has given him the right
physique art has made him an ideal stage
fover and costumer with soul has done
the rest Mr.. Dennithorne plays Valen-
tine with intelligence and strength and
rises in the part quite above the manner
isms that so often mar his performances.
The minor support is good and gratefully
well rehearsed.
a rather pathetic. story of his boyhood.
Day after day, in the town, where he
lived, he passed on his, way to work a
drugstore that had for him one magnetic
attraction In a corner of one of the WIN
dows stood a toll glass jar. of beautiful
var.col9red ggmdr nd 5,s and n ON how his
for those delicious sweets! How often
did he hatten his nose against the pane
Two for a penny they sold, and seldom
could he get the copper 10 buy the tantal-
say to himself,s'I shall buy all the gum
drops Il can eat, and have one big feast.
But he left the town. and the gumdrops
to seek fortune. In bigger world, and
al many a boyish longing must ever be.
Years afterward. when wealth was his,
he went back TO bis boyhood's home, and
there. in the same window, in the same
corner, stood the same glass jar. filled
to the brim with what might easily pass
for the same gumdrops. He bounded into
the shop, bought the treasure, jar and all,
and took it home with merry heart only
to find that the beyish longing had died
unsatished and that possession came too
late for happiness-the epitome of life. it
Wirfked them back, went in search of a
boy with a gumdrop appetite second only
to his own departed one, and filled him up
TO the very throat.
Next week an elaborate production Of
Romeo and Juliet is billed, and should
prove a big attraction. Miss Roberts will
no doubt be a charming Juliet and will
have the advantage Of a Romeo worthy of
her affections For the coming season the
Alcazar management has secured as lead
ing man G. F. Ormonde. late of the Ly-
ceum Company. New York
CHARLOTTE THOMPSON.