The Indianapolis journal., 1903-10-11
"a FOOL AND HIS MONEY"
Bright Farce Presented at EngIish's
by a Capable Company.

by "A Capable Company.
The cautious theater-goers who remained
away from "A Fool and His Money" the
new Broadhurst comedy, which was pre-
sented at English's yesterday afternoon and
last night, missed one of the brightest and
cleverest little plays that has been seen in
Indianapolis in many a day. The new piece
is light in texture, but it is of refined ma
ture throughout and fairly bristling with
bright, witty lines and laughable situations
Mr.. Broadhurst, the author, has success
fully returned to his old manner of comedy,
which proved so welcome in his earlier
farces, and in "A Fool and His Money has
written a piece that is characteristically
American in the story itself and In the tell
ing of the story.
The play proved refreshing in that 1t was
gay and innocent at one and the same time.
There was no French flavor about 1t, such
as has been only too plentiful of recent
years in the majority of the successful
farces. The dialogue was crisp and breezy,
but it was always clean, and the plot was
worked out in the most ingenious way i'm
aginable. The play was in four acts. 1t is
true that the fourth act seemed somewhat
unnecessary, for it only served as d sort of
epilogue for disentanglng some complica-
tlons that might just as well have been
Strengthened out IN the third act But to
nnd tault with this one feature would seem
ungenerous, so enjoyable was the new COM
edy as a whole.
AT the beginning of the piece the audience
becomes acquainted with happy go-lucky
young American named Percy Merrill, who,
during the absence in Europe of his father
"a hard-headed old man of business-is
making the family mansion in New York
Rlf fna nf oil cnnfC nf anGfxF Fri
oliJy. Percy, who has more money than he
knows what to do with, has gathered about
him merry set of friends, male and fe-
male all but two of whom care more for
his purse than for the young Spendthrift
himself. One OF these two is Jean Gerard,
a French artist whom Percy has befriend-
ed, and the other is Eleanor Ashton, a good,
honest Colorado girl. In the opening act
Percy is discovered by his father, who un-
expectedly returns from abroad, in the act
of presiding over gambling game with his
friends, and the father grasps the occasion
to tell the foolish youth a few plain truths
concerning himself and his waywardnesS.
Percy gets on his mettle, tells his father he
will have none of his money, and decides to
shift for himself. The second act takes
place on golf links, and IT is here that
Percy announces To his associates that he
is a poor man. AS is to be expected, the
parasites fade away as If by magic, with
the exception of the poor French artist and
the Colorado girl.
The third act shows the disinherited one
lodgings, with a very comical hired girl
TO look after the rooms Percy has set his
wits to work and has invented a novel i'm
provement on car-wheel-or something OF
the sort-and has applied for a patent on
il. This act is given up to much good fun,
for the manner in which the two bachelors
perform their housekeeping duties, and the
delclously awkward sayings and doings of
the servant girl, Esmeraldo, are responsible
for good deal of amusement. The fourth
act tells of the success of Percy's inven-
tion, the satisfaction OF the father upon
finding that his son Is man or brains
after all; the wedding of Jean, the artist,
to the French girl OF his heart, and the
prospective marriage of Percy and the girl
from Colorado.
The comedy was admirably acted from
first to last, every member of the intelii-
gent company contributing share to the
success of the performance. Jameson Lee
Finney played the role OF Percy IN an easy,
gay and engaging style, making the part
very pleasing and enter tanning. George
Henry Trader portrayed the French artist
with some slight exaggeration, but his act
ing was always within the boundaries of
high-class farce. Myron Calico appeared
as the business-like father of young Percy
and his work was thoroughly in keeping
with the character at all times The part
of an outlandish German baron was we'll
taken by Alex. Brunn and Charles d.
Males did excellent little bit as the
Scotch keeper of the golf links.
Lydia Dickson played the role of the serv-
ant girl, ESmeraldo-the part made IA
nous In New York by May Vokes-and
played it in q manner that won much
laughter from the spectators The charac-
ter is very similar to the role OF Tile in
MY Friend from India" Esmeraldo is
on the stage only short time during the
play, but whatever she says and does is
genuinely funny. Mr.. Broadhurst seems TO
have a special talent for originating COM
ical servants. Anita Bridger, the Colo
rado girl, and Mabel Dixie, as the maiden
from France, looked very pretty and were
handsomely gowned, while they gave ex-
cellent interpretations of their respective
roles. All of the smaller parts were in
competent hands and the play was staged
in good taste.
The audiences at the two performances
were very small for some unaccountable
reason. The comedy deserved crowded
houses.