The record-union., 1899-11-27
ADJUSTMENTS.

>-~~@A>~-
admissions represented the audience in
the Clunie Opera-house last night, and
over 300 people were turned away. un-
able to- get even standing room in the
theater. Clearly the Elleford Norton
Company is a popular one with the
theater-going people who desire low
prices for dramatic entertainments.
The play was a new one here, Lost in
New York. It was a typical New
York drama. such as the old Bowery
Theater was once famous for. A ras-
cally guardian seeks to divert the for
tune of his deceased brother from his
widow and child. The widow is kept in
poverty and at hard work until she
becomes blind; the child is taken from
her and committed to the slums, when
the widow is seized by the villian-not
one of the usual heavy Williams, but
weah and silly old fellow-and kept in
confinement in his house under the be-
lief in her mind that her brother-in-law
is very poor and is doing her the great
est possible kindness But the lost
child, who has become a gutter walt
drifts into the house, and while singing
lullaby for a child, attracts the atten-
~~~O
and daughter are reunited The rascalll
old brother-in-law in the meantime has
fallen in with an adventures. who first
blackmails him and then joins with
him in the effort to defraud the widow
She swears the latter into the insane
asylum, from which she is rescued by
her daughter and the latter's sweet
heart, a plumber Of course, the
schemers are baff1ed, the thieving
brother-in-law is ''come up with" and
the waif and her mother come into the
fortune of which they had so long been
deprived. And of course, also, the
plumber marries the waif It is we'll
told but extravagant and wholly i'm
probable tale. Jessie Norton and the
gallery had the play and the house to
themselves. She is on the best Of terms
with the gallery, talks to, jokes with
and rebukeS 1t, or when she is so mind
ed leads it in cheers, and has it whistling
to her singing, and doing just about as
she wishes In fact, it is just bit too
close a relation for the pleasure of those
who want the unities of the drama pre-
served, and the characters assumed to
be maintained throughout The play
Norton the fullest opportunity for her
low comedy work and specialties, and
presented Mr. Elleford in two charac-
ters, which he disguised and acted
capitally It gave Miss Maitland a
chance to do some very good work as
the blind widow, and it cast Miss Lillian
Elliott as the adventures. when it is
simply impossible for that amiable and
sympathetic woman to assume such a
character and not disclose the fact that
it is uncongenial. She has hut one
requisite for the part-capable actress
that she is-and that is a pleasing
comelinesS of face and figure. Mr.. Cor
rigan introduced into the play tramp,
with no connection whatever with the
plot, but as a bit of fine character act
ing it was superior. Baby Lillian is
the smallest child on the stage to-day,
and it is no exaggeration to say the
brightest. It is remarkable that one
so young-a mere hop O my thumb
can so we'll take and maintain a speak
ing part. Her voice is strong, clear,
and her enunciation more like that of
an adult than little child. Besides
sustaining an important part last night
WE'LL she took her stand in the gallery
and sang responses to one of Miss Nor
toms songs, and just as well and ef-
fecti1 ely as Miss Norton herself, and a
deal more sweetly, for the latter prob
ably lays no claim of that kind; her
strength is in her method, and it is
one that wins. Tonight, for the first
time in this city, Christmas Bells
Thanksgiving afternoon a matinee with
the comedy drama, "a Nutmeg Match"
and that night the melodrama. 1.-The
Black F;ag''