The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-24
Al THE PLAY LAST NIGHT.

There were a number of Twentieth
Kansas veterans in the audience at the
Crawford last night that saw Mid
night in Chinatown When the Kansas
regiment was in San Francisco they
saw Chinatown at all hours from noon
till midnight and back again. so they
went last night to see the awfulness of
the Chinese quarter depicted on the
stage.
What they saw was horrible enough
in more ways than one and the amount
of killing done on the stage would
cause the Chinatown HighbinderS TO
blush for their inactivity. The play
travelled, bag and baggage from the
mountains in the first act, to the Owl
saloon in San Francisco in the second
act and then the docks, the prison and
opium den. The realism was absent.
The scenery was wrinkled and worn
and the actors were in the same class
Both needed an artists touch and some
fixings.
Still it would be a mighty bad play
that did not please some one in the au-
dience- The second act closed with the
villain in pursuit Of the girl who denied
his attention and then just in the nick
of time the wronged woman stepped
upon the scene. drew an old time horse
pistol from beneath the shawl she wore
and ordered Frank Meredith" to stop.
He stopped and said that time worn
say: What, Blanche Graham, you
here? Stand as1de.'' And then Blanche
and the horse pistol say Yes, it is :.
Then the gallery gives one cry of APP
prevail that grows and swells the longer
Blanche holds the wavering horse pis-
tol as the curtain IS low in coming
down
And then in the third act comes the
most dramatic scene of all. The drunk
en- comedian wanders to the docks to
commit suicide but the water is too
cold. The Wronged woman wanders to
mia far fTll
but she falls asleep some barrels.
Then along comes the villain and APPS
the comedian on the head and drops
him into the water and the stage hands
throw a quart of salt in the air to rep
resent the spray. just then the wrong
ed woman wakes uD to announce that
she has seen it all so the villain inserts
a knife between her ribs and runs off
policeman and the hero come along
and then the villain returns in time to
say that the hero did this horrible
deed" And the hero says. Who is
here to save me" and then the come
dian who fell into the salt barrel comes
up at the call of time and says. L.
Just that and nothing more.
The wronged woman is needed in the
next act because the engagement only
carries a small company so she CON eS
to life, poor soul The hero is sent to
prison and his sweetheart tells the Jail
er, in a tone that would fail to sell
Quoting an auction, that he must let her
Joe escape and the jailer opens the cell
door and tells the hero TO hike. When
the hero reaches the door he meets the
villain coming in Fooled" They have
a hand to hand fight and roll over the
dusty stage while the jailer stands by.
The hero shakes off the villain and
starts for freedom when the villain
draws a revolver and is about to shoot
but the comedian who fell in the salt
barrel comes up from the dressing room
where lie has been smoking a cigarette
just in time to stand in the doorway
and point the same horse pistol, hereto
fore mentioned. at the villain and to
hold it while the upper part of the au-
dience yells approval. It was grand
The opium den is a very tame affair
and was rather short on Cinnamon. The
opium smoked in the scene was proba-
bly, corn silk or catalpa pods. 1t was
a good sized audience that saw the play
and from the amount of applause there
were a plenty who really seemed to en-
joy it, but then some people would en-
joy anything.