The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-21
AT THE THEATERS
.Bilou-"The TWO Wallis"


Vice is monster of frightful mien
AS, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet, seen too off, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace
-st .... Pope.
In Pope's quatrain may be found the
philosophy of melodrama. There is a
JOY even in hating and the extremes OF
sentiment are much more closely allied
than the mean Of Indifference popularity
supposed to lie between them. Thus pa
thos is akin to humor and rascality has
an attraction even for the best of us,
else why do good people go Summing,
unarmed with either tract or Ratchet?
Therefore, when the world and his wife
lock up the kitchen door, and turn the
cat out in anticipation of melodramatic
evening, they do SO with the expectation
that the villain will be 'deep-dyed fell
low who will harrow up their feelings and
fascinate them with the very exuberance
of his villainy. Upon him depends the
measure of their enjoyment. The heroine
is interesting only as she suffers thru his
Vaccinations; the hero, because he per-
mits himself to be duped that he may
fight more desperately in the later acts.
A melodrama without hero is quite pos
sible' and We may even dispense with the
heroine, but bereft of the villain the
play at once falls to the ground. When
villainy dies the audience dons it's wraps
and If the curtain is not rung down at
once the play is finished to an array of
empty plush chairs. @
The villain, then, must have plenty of
red riotous blood in his VEINS He must
be no namby- pamby, but a daredevil
fellow, stopping at nothing to achieve his
ends and with an ingenuity in crime suf-
ic1ent to enchain attention. Therefore,
1t follows that the playwright fortunate
enough to invent a new sin would find
the invention immensely profitable and
might look forward with assurance to a
long run for. his play.
Since he first took up melodrama as a
business Lincoln j.. Carter has assumed
responsibility for a somewhat lengthy
list OF plays, of which,, according to the
Dill boards. the greatest is 1.-THE Two Lit
tie Waits, now playing at the Bijou This
statement, however, does an injustice to
the Chicagoan, for his latest villain is q
weak sort of a chap, strong on plotting
evll.5 but lacking the nerve to execute:
merely an accessory before the fact tc
crimes which fail of fruition True he
contrlves to stir up plenty of trouble for
the heroine, but that is the result Of cir
cumstances rather than his own endeavor.
His villainy will not wash; it is frayed at
the edges, run down at the heel
As for the heroine she possesses the
requisite amount Of womanly co1,ra ee
which is fortttude, to make her tribula
lions interesting. The hero is a weakling
also ana the well-meaning friend who
wishes to set all right is a pitiful blum
derer. But the hero and heroine have two
children and in these children is the sal
walton OF the play. The characters are
made not impossible and they are finely
lnterpretated by Stanley and Lolita
Lamb who are virtually the stars of the
company.
Miss Blanche Shirley doubles in the
roles OF the heroine and her twin sister
and handles both acceptably, besides
giving evidence Of amazing dexteritv in
the matter of changing her costumes
while the. stage waits. Sully Guard, as
the nero IS so bad that one wonders how
he does it; and Burt l.. King az the
wishy-washy villain, is only slightly bet
ter Credit is due Robert Harland for an
intelligent impersonation of a policeman.
j. S. Lawrence.