The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-30

first act IL shows family of four living in
an attic; a father once prosperous but re-
duced through his own weakness 10 I'M
scrupulous snatching at odds and ends for
living; his second wife, vigorous wom-
an. wholly selfish and british, and his two
daughter. one by this woman and another
by his first wife. The younger girl is an
anaemic, dying very slowly for want OF
proper food and Sanitary environment. The
other daughter is healthy, restless, resent
full OF poverty after having known comfort
and possessing strong love and pity Tor
her stepsister.
Katinka, the only member of the family
neither mentally nor physically degenerate.
is pursued by two men whose motives at
first seem the same and equally base, and
Is loved by third, Eric Hargreaves, a
poor student, who boards and lodges with
Katinka's family, the Jenkinses Albert
Lindsey, married and well-to-do, has seen
katinka on the streets more than once and
at last follows her to her home and offers
TO take her away. Brinker, retired money
lender, Is willing to marry her as a matter
OF convenience. Pressed by the sight OF her
sisters fading into death Katinka goes to
an address Lindsey has left for her. Get
ting place in a variety theater she rises
to an unusual salary, and by adding to this
money given TO her by Lindsey she Is able
to return the Jenkinses to prosperity with
only her father knowing the means. He
lies to his wife and the sick girl, to whom
a way to health opens. in telling them that
he has succeeded in establishing an ipsur-
ance agency.
Lindsey cannot stand the pace, and after
spending funds held in trust for his chill
dren and going deeply into debt to Brinker
he runs away, his last blow being Katinka' 5
refusal to go with him because of his dis
honesty and of the revelation that ner alli-
ance with him has brought her only the
scorn Of the sister for whom she sacrificed
herself; Crushed by her misery Katink "a
snatched from her hand in the nick of time
by Eric Hargreaves, who has been con-
cealed In her apartment. Buoyed by his
INtra fnV her SaN1 - L. hat ha ~
save her she waits until II comes TO him
that the best way out Is for both to enlist
In the Spanish-American war, she as a
nurse. She accepts his offer in the pres
ence OF Brinker- Hargreaves Is dressed in
khaki and brass buttons. Brinker, whose
love for Katinka has become for him a
mania, breaks down and seems at the end
to be drawing his last breath.
XXX
The valuable significance of the play is
In Brinker, and the defects in that cbarac-
ter are lost to view behind the great art
of Mr.. Lackaye. Without the slightest con-
ception of life Brinker goes stubbornly
ahead according to his instinct, and his
love for Katinka Is In no part weakened by
the spectacle of her giving herself first to
Lindsey and then to Hargreaves. Brinker' S
desire consumes him and its expression in
the mean tricks that he has learned from
others-tricks were his heritage from his
ignorant forefathers-is one of the merits
of the play. His passionate longing for the
girl, his offer of marriage to her when he
knows she has no right TO ask IL, his bitter
despair when she turns to Hargreaves, en-
noble the money-lender's sensuality.
For Brinker is an honest brute. Har-
greaves, with his cheap going to war,
his blatant "heroism," never can love Ka-
tinka as could the money-lender, and the
exalting Of Hargreaves is the fatal blunder
- - - - III
Magdalen" or some of its subsequent
thinkers. Katinka, too, instead Of being
shown as the helpless girl that she is, is
presented as a wise woman, VINO no sees sees h re-,
with Hargreaves she thwarts the original
purpose of the playwright, and instead OF
being protest against the causes or the
worlds miserable Observation-Disclosures the
play fails, futile and almost as empty as
the most conventional drama idealizine
contemporary domesticity.
This incompetence in the play Is, also
the sign upon the wall by which such ar
actor as Mr.. Lackaye is stopped. 1t is cor
relative with the stupidity of the crowd in
the gallery that laughed at Brfnker as II
he were a clown, and that, In the coarse
easily apparent degree, represents the atti-
tude of the general public toward the
drama. There Is no American actor tina,
could feel and materialize the sense of the
character of Brinker as does Mr.. Lackaye
For years he has applied the same ability
care and conscience to other characterize
lions, none of which has reached the height
of this one. And yet, except for the few
he remains in comparative obscurity, while
actors OF not a tenth Of his ability get
the reward that should be his.
This Is true, too, of other members OF
Miss Bingham's company. Henry E. Dixey
plays the paternal Jenkins as a man from
whom every bit of light has gone. Into his
poverty he has carried the fiippant style OF
prosperous days, and this helps him when
events should force on him realization OF
his degradation. He slips out of the re-
sponsibility of promoting the sale of his
daughter with an eel-like ease. and wher
fatty accused by her of his cold cruelty
only his external comfort is destroyed-his
soul is not at all shaken.
Mrs. Madge Carr Cooks PRESERVATION OF
Jenkins's wife has not the elaboration OF
Mr.. Dixey's work, but Ii has the fidelity OF
Mr.. Lackaye's. With as little heart as
a procuress and with a case-hardened pre-
tense at responsibility, she is frightfu
sample of human depravity. At some points
the character is written well; at all it is
played well.
Miss Bingham modestly and artistically
seeking the true place for the character o.
katinka among the rest of the personages
seems a more able stage manager than al
actress. To her belongs the credit of hav
ing put together the company and that II
almost as high as If she had Mr.. Lackaye's
ing. Her Katinka is not accurate-th,
play handicaps the actress almost hopeless
ly-and her playing in moments of stres:
lacks depth.
Ferdinand Gottschalk is cast in a carica
ture of a reformer a crudely conceived
feature of the play, at least as far as thi:
country is concerned, and he overacts 1t
He is player of unusual skill, and this Il
not lost entirely in the reformer but ii IL
obscured. Joseph Holland acts finely il
the part of Lindsey, and Hobart Boswortl
Is suitable for the profitless character o.
Eric Hargreaves. Miss Lucille Spinney per
sonates the sick girl. who regains he
health but does not find intelligence. TIL,
minor characters all ably acted.
Surprisingly, last evenings audience die
not fill the theater This evenings should
Miss Bingham's company offers an excep
tional opportunity to see brilliant actinl
and to examine an interesting If not
sound play.
Vaudeville at the Grand.
Americans show Europeans how to make