Evening star., 1901-04-09
ANU SEMENTS.

COLUMBIA Observation-Disclosures its faith
in Playwright Augustus Thomas, whose
ability to snatch heroes and heroines from
the most direful of dilemmas is so well
known, the audience at the Columbia Thea
ter last evening sat securely through the
four bristling acts of Arizona, the latest
product of this writer of State-named plays.
Had the author been a man of less note
than Mr.. Thomas, the audience would have
had it's serious doubts to the possibility
of a shaking out of the knots and tangles
that piled upon each other during the
course of the drama. With the picturesque
peoples of the frontier army post and the
far southwestern ranch, and the interesting
locale of territory about which so little
is commonly known, the writer of "Ari-
Zona' has constructed play which is
filled with striking incidents and is full of
life and attractiveness to the very drop of
the final curtain. There is a spicy element
of doubt as to the conclusion up to the end
and even with the close of the action there
is left room for pleasant speculation as to
the final fates that befel the characters
who proved worthy of the auditors inter-
est. Arizona is essentially meiodrama,
telling pretty story in lights and shades,
and ending as the audience would have it
in the death of the villain and the tri-
umph of a thoroughly trammeled hero. 1t
is a high type of the melOdrama, not with
out its thrills and tense situations. Gil
makes tread upon the heels of one another
with almost startling rapidity, and there is
keeps one on the qui vive to remain abrea st
of the incidents. The play was worthy of
the long run it scored in New York and has
In il the elements that have made such a
Each act is in Arizona, with strong, cor
rectly defined southwestern color maintain
ed throughout. The cast is practically the
same as last year. Vincent Scrrano having
inc O1 of iairf
Hale is again the villainOus Capt. Hodg-
man. Mr.. Hale seems destined to always
live and die stage villain. He has
played the black parts in, one might say,
hundreds of productions. Edwin Holt is
the colonel and j. W. Cope the wealthy
ranch owner, with Edgar Selwyn as Tony
the vaquero. Olive May is Bonita, and
Marion S. Barney the wife of the colonel.
There are many excellent bits of character
work i'm the long cast. E. H. OConnor of
this city, in a small part, received quite an
ovation from his friends in the audience.
ARIZONA" seems to be in for big week.
NEW NATIONAL THEATER.-"When
We Were Twenty-One.'' a comedy by Fl.
V. Esmond, was presented by Nat c. Good
win, Miss Maxine Elliott and a company of
intelligent players at the New National
Theater last night. Mr. Goodwin, good
actor and good fellow. because of the af-
fection in which play patrons hold him,
because of the clever lines he cleVerly read,
ana because tI his human, uI-I0edtrlc act
ing, was given generous applause through
out the four acts. At the conclusion of the
third act the clamOr for speech was in
siStent. and applause sWelled up and re-
ceded in great waves of sound despite
that the footlights We're turned ont and
the orchestra had begun to play. The re-
ception given Mr.. Goodwin was but a little
more demonstratfve than that given his
beautiful wife. The audience, large and
fashionable, and newly released from the
rigors of holy week, appreciated all that
was done for its pleasure.
when We Were Twenty-One'' is story
worth hearing, even though the telling of
it takes somewhat more than two hours
1t is story of friendship between a little
company of men, and of love between a
man and a woman, without a shade of
selhshness In any phase. Despite the some
what fiamboyant society into which the
auditor is introduced, it is one of those
plays from which a man unconsciously alb
serbs a sermon.
1t is a pretty scene on which the cur
tain rises. Richard CareWe Sir Horace
Piumely. Col. Miles Graham and DR. Ter
renee McGrath are four bachelors old
college classmates, all of whom have pros
pered in the world, and have arrived at
middle age They are celebrating a birt h.
day in Dick Carewes room. They are tell
ing stories of college days and old sweet
hearts, while they play whist, smoke
cigars and drink whisky and seltzer in a
realistic way. 1t is bachelor apartment
The talk at the card table, the taking of
tricks and the putting of smoke go on so
naturally that one may easily feel himself
looking in upon birthday party of jolly
bachelor.
The efforts of the men to save Richard
Terrence Audaine from the wies of a no.
torious woman, the young man being the
ward of Dick Carewe and orphan of a man
dear to the memory of all the quartet
furnish the main theme of the play,
about which many pretty scenes are set
and many pretty speeches read. The rec
onciliation between Dick and his ward
of his misstep furnishes an opportunity
for bit of strong acting which Mr.. Good
win embraces and makes the most Of
In the unfolding of the plot, where Phyl-
lis, daughter of Dicks housekeeper and
who had been betrothed to the ward de-
clares her love for Dick, and he announces
his love for her, the situation Is dramatic
and presented with such quietness and yet
with such genuine fervor that it is impossi-
bic to believe that in this instance stage
love is all Illusion.
Mr.. Goodwin was Dick Carewe; Nell
OBrien, Sir Horace Plumely; J. r. Crau-
ford, Col Graham; George E. Beliamy Dr.
McGrath; Henry Woodruff, the Imp Miss
Maxine Elliott, Phyllis; Mrs. j. r. Crau-
ford, Mrs. Ericsson and Ethel Brandon.
Kara Glynesk, the Imp's wife.
LAFAYETTE SQUARE OPERA HOUSE.
THE Moth and the Flame" by Clyde Fitch
as prayed last nlght by the Lafayette
Stock Company, was first presented In
Washington by Herbert Kelcey and Effle
Shannon two seasons ago. 1t is a society
drama, strongly satiricai, with one strong
dramatic situation, a melordamatic climax
and considerable commonplace material; a
combination, which in the hands of CLYDE
Fitch, becomes an interesting whole. The
first act is by far the strongest
In the ample mansion of the Wolton's, a
party is being given by the daughter OF
the house. The guests are all alfred as
children and frivolity and thoughtless
gayety rule the occasion. During the fes:
tivities Wolton pere, who has been specu.
lating heavily with other peoples money is
threatened with exposure and ruin. Not
being brave enough to face the outcome he
retireS q his rnnnn and Commits s,,icid1 %