The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-10-25
SotheTn's Art, Training. and
Industry as an Actor and
Stage Manager Have Placed
Him in the Front Rank
of Players.
By MATTHE W WHITE. Jr.

NEW YORK. oct. 24-As sat in the
Herald Square Theater the other night
and watched sothern's fine work in
that absorbing play. THE Proud
Prince" I said to myself:
Here is an actor Of the sort America
might well be vain OF exporting to for
eign shores TO show them what practice
and training among US can accomplish"
But this seems 20 be exactly the kind
that London does not get from us. Edna
May, williams and Walker, Mabelle
Gilman-those have gone forth and
earned applause and big audiences. but
they have done little to advance the
reputation of the actors art. And most
OF them have been seen over there after
at most only a year OF so of glory here.
Look at Sotbern's record. 1t is surely
one to make Joe Jefferson blush to re-
fleet how meager and attenuated his
own must look beside H. What list of
roles is that to which Sothern can point,
from that Of the auctioneer In The
Highest Bidder" at the old Lyceum in
1857. on to Chumiey the next season. and
then down through Captain Lettarblair,
The Prisoner of Zenda AN Enemy
to the King" The Musketeers. Tho
Sunken Bell Hamlet IF ] Were
King" and dozen others
Sotherns Accomplishments.
But IT is not only as an actor that
sotheru shines AS a stage manager he
Cling work apparent in Ulysses with
the splendid. achievements in The
Proud Prince. And Mr. sothern does
not blazon hH industry from the house
tops. either.
On most programs you will find a
line to the effect that the performance
was produced under the direction Of So
and So. either the author of The piece.
or well known play "realizer, ike
Julian Mitchell or Ben Teal But the
house bill at the Herald Square carries
no such line. yet all the credit belongs
TO the star. And ne had no previous
presentation in London 10 guide him
For. although by an English writer.
''The Proud Prince" Ike the previous
work by the same hand CIR I Were
King') is seen in this country before
england gets II. which was also the
case with "a Prisoner of Zenda.''
Display of Real Art.
The storm in the first act dwarfs
even the famous one last winter in
Mary Of Magdala" and the pyre cpl
sode in the last is managed with a c,I-
mulating trend toward intensified e.
feet that has all the ear marks of real
art. AS 20 the irreverent use of sacred
things of which some talk has been
made. 10 my mind the whole play reach
es such a powerful lesson that the end
5ustifes the means.
Sothern, who was born in New Or
leans. is now forty-three years old. on
his first appearance in his fathers COM
Dany he was afflicted with stage fright
to that extent that he forgot his lines
and made a miserable failure Of IT,
But he did not lose heart. and sue
ceeded in securing a chance to play low
comedy parts with the tragedian. John
Mccullough
After that he wrote a farce for him
self and stranded on the road with it,
But he managed some way to reach
New York and procured an engagement
10 appear at the Lyeeum with Helen
DRuvray in "One of Our Girls" This
brought him under the notice OF Daniel
Frohman and laid the foundations of
his fortunes.
The other eminent player who opened