The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-05-05
AN IDEAL

NV uO6Ue PEuC
Miss Rose coghian az 1.-THE Second
Mrs. Tanqueray."
Even though some OF them may not
have admired the play, yet every per-
son who witnessed Friday nights
performance at the opera house was
more than delighted with the mag
nificence OF the acting of the star and
the very capable support given her
by a more than ordinarily strong COM
pany. 1t is not exaggeration to say
that "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,'
as rendered by Miss Rose Coghlan
and the cast supporting her was by
far the best acting ever seen on the
local stage and e the proverbial
Chill OF a Billings audience could not
Withstand the appeals made to it and
several curtain calls were insisted
upon.
To those who had seen ner before.
it seemed that Miss Coghlan attains
a degree Of perfection as Paula Ray,
afterwards the second Mrs. Tanque-
ray, never before reached by her in
all the many like characters she has
essayed in her long and wonderfully,
successful stage career. She exerted
a spell over the audience that proved
irresistible and made every one feel
the emotions and passions she por-
trayed in mimic life before them. To
them she was a real woman, suffer
ing and feeling with all the fervor
OF the passionate being she imperson.
ated and they were carried along with
her through the Genes and incidents
of the play, returning only to a reali-
zatiOn that it was but mimicry during
the brief periods when the curtain
shut her from view. To attempt an
analysis of the character and it's null
t%itldjnous caprices and moods would
be almost impossible; it would be to
attempt to describe the colors OF the
prism or to dissect the manifold emo
tions of which the human mind is
capable. Petulant anger, flashes OF
merriment, towering rage, absolute
contrition and exhibitions of love as
tender as ever the heart gave alter
mated with a rapidity that tested the
mind to follow, while underneath all
lay the consuming sorrow OF a woman
ing memory and recollections of a
past that could not be forgotten, to
sadden and depress those who SYM
pathized and suffered with her.
The moral in the play is, perhaps,
obvious to all who followed it. 1t is
appeal for womanly purity and an
of the unrelenting ways
of the world and the memorable law
that demands punishment for every
wrong done. Sympathy aud love may
be strong, but they are not strong
enough to overcome all disregard for
the conventionalities and the rules
established for the better govern
ment of men and women and the re
preston of their passions. Much as
Aubrey Tanqueray loves his second
there is ever before him the
OF her past life and the mem
Dry of his first one, of the chaste,
pure woman, whose purity was as the
lndriven snow and her virtues as the
indebted ice, to make him miserable
when comparing her to the n whom
took when love came to him the
second time. Neither does that love
blind him to the duty he owes to his
laughter, nor prevent him from seek
ng to keep them apart, so that the
may grow up in an atmosphere
'emoved from every possible danger
If faint and contamination. The ira
,ic end that comes to Paula and the
sorrow to the father and daughter
,nly accentuate the lesson the play
would teach.
World Wide Reputation.
49,