Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-22
THE STAGE
IN GOTHAM.
Arthur Crispin's Breezy Riview
of Matters of Theatrical
Interest in New
York City.
Copyright, 1892

4NdLndu I1dlS .AN ". dOOu W III
Guy Fitzroy ........ William Ingersoll
Lieut.. Col. Knowlton Thomas Oberle
= Captain Adams >. Clarence Handyside
Ebenezer Lebanon 49,. .Thurlow Bergen
Tom Adams ,....... Richard Sterling
William Hull ...............S. M Hall
The Jefferson Boy ...... Master Ralph
The Talbot Boy ......... Henry Lewis
Jasper northumberland Frank Mayne
Sentinel .................C Charles Budd
Alice Adams ....... Maxine Elliott
Mistress Knowlton E. .Estelle Mortimer
Angelica Knowlton Gertrude Elliott
The Widow Chichester Hattie Russell
Clyde Fitch, the author of "Nathin
Hale" will some day forget himself
and write a really great play. Joking
aside, however, he will never do it I'M
til he does forget himself
Nathan Hale" the four act drama in
which Nat c. Goodwin and Maxine
Elliott are now appearing at the
Knickerbocker theater in this city, il
/ Illustrates this fact very forcibly. If
! the whole play were as strong as the
third act and even as some portions of
the fourth act, Mr. Fitch might with
justice lay claim to being the foremost
dramatist of America.
These are the spots in the play in
which he appears to have forgotten
himself. In other places, where he has
recollected that he is Clyde Fitch and
is writing a stellar vehicle for two
people, he becomes as theatric as any
one of the better known dramatists In
this country.
The story deals with the we'll known
adventures of the Revolutionary
patriot, Nathan Hale, who was subse-
quently hanged as spy on an apple
tree in an orchard on Colonel Rutgers
farm at what is now the corner of Pike
and Monroe streets in the extreme
lower end of New York City. History
is not followed in asservile manner, but
it is sustained sufficiently to~prevent
many of the episodes used by Mr.. Fitch
from doing violence to the salient facts
which are so we'll known to every
school child.
Nathan Hale is in love with Alice
Adams, as is shown in the first act.
He is a school-teacher in the Union
Grammar school in New London, Conn.
The first act passes in April, 1875.
The second act occurs in September,
1776. A conference is being held at
the residence of Colonel Knowlton on
Harlem Heights. A letter from George
Washington is read, in which the COM
mander-in -chicf states that it is abso-
lutely necessary that information of
the enemy's plans shall be obtained.
Otherwise. owing to the peculiar dis
tribution of the Continental forces at
that time his army is in danger of
practical extinction at the hands of the
enemy After the call for volunteer
to obtain this information there is a
dead silence. which is only broken
when Colonel Knowlton expresses his
surprise that no one should feel suffi-
GENTLY interested in the welfare of his
country to undertake the mission,
which he candidly states MS very apt
to result in death. Then the officers
state their side of the case. They say
that they would willingly sacrifice life
or property to aid the cause, but that
the work wanted is not for honorable
men and officers. Colonel Knowlton in
an impassioned address argues that
their duty is where he has pointed, and
at the conclusion of his remarks, Ns-
than Hale rises and declares that he
will undertake it and learn the where
abouts and plans of the British To
the protests of his fellow officers he
replies that he conceives it to be the
duty of a soldier to do anything, no
matter how distasteful it may be.
which will further the interests of the