Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-11-04

sala Rose, walking into the din3no foon Her father and Felicia followed. anu ghe meal proceeded in silence. Mrs oterhng had her meals served in her room Mir Sterling was preoecupied. ne ate very little and excused himself early and, although it was Saturday night, he remarked as he went out that he would be down town late on some special business.
 Don't you think father looks very much disturbed lately y2' asked Felicia a little while after he had gone out.
 sOh, 1 don't know I hadn't noticed anything unusual, replied Rose After silence she said: Are you going to the play tonight, Felieia2 Mrs. Delano Will be here at half past T. I think you ought to go. She will feel hurt if you refuse . SN
 "f'll go. l don't care about it I can see shadows enough without going to the play
 That's doleful remark for girl l9 years old to make . replied Rose, but then you' re queer in your ideas anyhow. Felicia If you re going up to zee mother, tell her I'll run in after the play if she is still awake.
 Felicia went up to see her mother and remain a.ith her until the Delano carriage came Mrs Sterling was wer- ried about her husband. She talked in- cessantly and Nas irritated by every re. mark Felicia mao. She would not list en to felicia's attempts to read even a part of Rachel's letter, and when Fe- lieia offered to stay with her for the evening she refused the offer with good deal ef positive sharpness.
 se Felicia started eff to the play not very happy, but she was familiar with that feeling, only sometimes she was more unhappy than at other times. Her feeling expressed itself tonight by 8 Withdrawal into herself. When the company was seated in the box and the curtain was up, Felicia was back of the others and remained for the even ing by herself. Mrs. Delano as chaperon fer half dozen young ladies under stood Felicia well enough to know that she was tqueer, . as Rose so often said, and sAe made no attempt to draw her out of the corner, and so Felicia really experienced that night bg herself one of the feelings that added to the no meHtam that was increasing the coming on of her great crisis
 The play vas an English melodrana full of startling situations, realistic scenery and Unexpected climaxes. There was one scene in the third act that in1- pressed even Rose Sterling
 It was midnight on Blaekfriars bridge =The Thames flowed dark and forlidding below St ZPau1s rose through the dim light, imposing. itg dome seeming 10 float above the build ings surrounding 1t The figure of q child came upan the bridge and stood there for q moment. peering about as if locking fer some one. Several persons were crossing the bridge but in one of the recesses about midway of the river a woman stood. leaning out oxer the pafaRet with a strained agony of face and figure that told plainly of her in. tentions Just as she was stealthily
 
 into the river the child caught sight of her, ran forward. with a shrill cry more animal than human and seizing the woman s dress, dragged back upon t with all her little strength Then there came suddenly npon the scene two other characters who had already figured in the play, tall handsome, athletic gen. tlenan dressed in the fashion, attended by slim figured lad. who was as re- fined in dress and appearance as the lit tie girl clinging to her mother was mournfully hideous in her rags and re- pulsive poverty These two. the gentle man and the lad, prevented the at tempted suicide, and after tableau on the bridge where the audience learned that the man and woman were brother and sister the scene was transferred to the interior of one of the slum tene- nlents in the east side of London Here the scene painter and carpenter had done their utmost to produce an exact copy of famous court and alley we'll known to the poor creatures who make up part of the outcast London hn- manity. The rags, the crowdlng, the vileness, the broken furniture. the hor- rble animal existence forced upon creatures made in God $ image, were so sl.illfully shown in this scene that more than one elegant woman in the theater seated. like Rose Sterling. in a stump tuous box. surrounded with silk hang ings and velvet covered railing, caught herself shrinking back little, as if contamination were possible from the nearness of this piece of painted canvas It was almost too realistic. and yet it had hors; ole fascination for Felicia ss she sat there alone, buried back in 8 cushioned seat absorbed in thoughts that went far beyond the dialogue on the stage
 From the tenement scene the play shifted to the interior of nobleman's palace, and almost sigh of relief went up all over tke house at the sight of the accustomed luxury of the upper classes. m r.