The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-07-05

las a $4,000 automobile, and is de-
generate OF the most approved and mod
ISL kind.
The daughter. Germaine LeChat, is a
study only second in interest to her
father. After reading the play and see
ing it twice acted. think that with a
stronger. or rather more suitable.
actress than Mile Lara. the role would
gain enormously.
This young lady has studied her scales
assiduously after the precise methods
Of the Franchise. She has distinction.
dignity and plenty of temperament, but
these attributes are canalized in the
classic style and we miss the freedom,
the touch OF the vulgar necessary for
tho exact delineation OF Germaine Lee
chat. She is her fathers daughter in
/ her imperious will and stubbornness in
the face of disaster, and she has some
| thing of her mothers bourgeois love of
comfort and hatred OF display. A course
Of socialistic reading and a study of
womans rights have set her against her
fpther. When these two wills collide
there is war.
/
said. except that the skilled and sym
pathetic investiture of the part by
Madame Blanche Pierson lends it
! reasonablencss and vitality. The poor
woman. her brain fuddled by the con-
slant boiling of the pot in which she
/ is immersed. watches her husband in a
| scared. furtive way. She knows that
| he is a thief. but feebly defends him
when her daughter. outraged by his
| stlfshness and heartlessness, attacks
him. Your father" she pleads. would
/ he the best of men we're it not FOR
! business. but as soon as he begins bust
ress, I admit his conscience takes leave
of him" A fair though not sweeping
epitaph for many a mans headstone.
| Well Written and Well Acted.
De Ferrabdy is the Lechat. His i'm
personation is the delight Of Paris and
rightfully so. This actor shares with
/ Gemier Of the Odeon the histrionic
! honors Of the town. His rapidity Of
speech. clearness of enunciation. litne,
vigorous. nervous movements and his
perfect self-control ut him for the role.
Octave Mirbeau is lucky I'm possessing
such an able collaboration. Lelior excels
/ in the delineation OF musty arIstocrats.
! His old Marquis is an elaborate portrait:
not detail is missing. He held his own
! in the scene a faire. OF particular inter
est were the two spectators. imper-
| sonated by Laugier and Garry. The
! former IS. as usual, burly; the latter Is
! fine a scimiter. He really suggested
glacial CULTS of villainy Mirbeau knows
Bslzac thoroughly.
! The lover is Raphael Duhos. compare
tiSeiy a new acquisition Of the Francois.
He leaves one cold. Is it not a CON-
mentary on this piece that the inter-
esting people in 1t are scoundrels aud
selfish: the good arc dull or mediocre?
/ Mrbeau's literary ability is manifest
In the brilliant. polished, restrained
style. He makes rapier TRUSTS at
church. state and society. and being a
radical at all points he does not care
whom he wounds
A Dramatic Miniature.
The announcement that the Renais-
sance would close its doors for the sum
mer sent many to that house, for Ana
/ tole Frances engaging little episode,
"Crainquebille." was nightly played as
an afterpiece to Ia Princcsse Georges
a revival OF an antique DumeshHaI
comedy. / wished to judge Il the praise
given with generous hands 10 the France
tableaux was just. and ! also desired 10
see again that impossibly charming
young actress Marthe Brandes IN her
new surroundings, for she is recent
seceder from the Coincide Franchise
household
No need Of Introducing that spirit
uelle writer Anatole Thibault. known
as Anatole France. America has long
appreciated his That's" his many-col-
ored short stories, his delicate irony
"Crainqucbillc" is not a play. but a
. transcript from low life by a man Of
singularly sensitive temperament. AL
phonse Daudet was fond Of the phrase
Russian pity" in writing about. Toll
stoy or Dostoicvsky. n. France has
this pity" in abundance, only it evokes
the names OF Charles Dickens rather
than the MuscovitIsh masters of hc-
ton
Crainquebilie is one Of those street
vendors peculiar TO Paris. a wretched-
looking old fellow with grizzlcd mus
Jache and weather beaten face. who
pushes his old cart slowly before him
through steep and narrow streets
Montmartre is often we'll named Cab
basc, carrots, peas. potatoes. onions. he
sells. and is beloved in the Quarter for
his kindly ways. AS II to show the I'M
expected tricks fate can play, the old
man. while waiting for IA cents owed by
woman TO whom he had sold some
vegetables. gets into an alterca-
ton with policeman, interferes with
traffic. is arrested, unjustIy accused.
and imprisoned. when he returns to
his beloved Montmartre after fifteen
days absence he finds things changed.
no one will have anything to do with
him. he is insuited. jeered at, and.
finally, starving. IS forced to take ref
uge with street Arab in an old build
ing
To achieve his portrait the dramatigt
resorts TO miniature painting. with