The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-30

ciety Represented on the stage-FaIIen Creatures Show Their Contempt.
 Seats nowadays are at a premium at the pretty Kleine theater, situated on Unter den Linden, for thousands are most anxious to see Gorki's intensely dramatic play, Might Asylum" This is not to be wondered at, for never has writer of modern times, not even Hauptmann or Bjornson, portrayed hu- man misery in such a masterly manner. Gorki shows us in this night quarter the very dregs of human society, a gathering of thieves. beggars and wom- en of the demi-monde. Hardly ray of light falls though the broken win dows of this hopeless cellar. Oh, what picture of the most ghastly and mel ancholy features of Rusianlife! Is it possible, one asks himself, that such fearful misery and brutality can exist in this world.
 The inmates of the might asylum" have nothing to gain and less to lose. They have only contempt for the world, but possess a quiet humor which men tions the most dangerous things with out fear The asylum is owned by a keeper named Kosteylew, scoundrel of the worst kind, His wife Wass Wassilissa, has love affair with an in- mate, Pepel, a young thief.
 Pepel is twenty-eight years old. He has been thief from his youth. He considered work useless. H onor and conscience do not exist for him. What are honor and conscience?" he says. 'They do not replace the boots when one freezes in the winter" He has cast an eye on the sister of his mistress.
 Among the other inmatse are several interesting characters, who at one time were in a higher strata of society. One is a boron and the other is an actor.
 The baron is the companion ot one oi the women. He always brags of his for nler station and loves to tell his fei lows that he at one time drank his cof fee with cream and fin bed. Now for { bottle of whiskey he will walk on al fours like dog.
 He barks, and says to his tempter the thief, Pepel: You would not hav' dared to let me crawl on all fours l1k' this at the time when l was not one O you" To him his whole past and hi fall is clouded by a fog. Everything ap pears to him useless, and yet he say to himself in a trembling voice: "Bu there must have been some purpos that I was born"
 The actor, the other high born char acter of the play, has been entirel! ruined by alchohol. He ctutters, ha no memory, and quotes wrongly hi former parts. He is never called b. name, only, in short, the actor. Ant with what pain he says: And do vol know how I am called, what my stag name Is? Schertschkow Sawolochki No one knows 1t, here, no one. Here am nameless. Do you understand how insulting 1t is to lose ones name? Ever dogs have their names"
 The third of this remarkable groul is Satin, radical thinker. He is prout for once being a man of education. H. has a contempt for money, but love whiskey. Money is obtained easily b, many, but few can let go of it. he says
 One who is always at work in tn asylum is the blacksmith, Kleschith, brutal fellow, who has whipped his wifi half to death. We see her in her mis erable bed, while her husband is a work on rusty nails. The other inmate are lying around drinking tea an Killing time.
 But in their. midst comes an ol white haired pilgrim. Luke, the wis prophet of Gorki's Small Citizen an of his other books. He has a staff il his hand, bears a knapsack on his bac and wears 8 little kettle on his bell He wants to know nothing of earth an heaven, and only wishes to wander He has understood the play of tn world, and is no longer surprised a anything. He is on a pilgrimage t the south of Russia, where g. prophe has arisen, who is proclaiming ne, faith.
 When he is asked by one of the in mates, 'Is there a God D he answers in deep thought: "If you believe in Hir He Is with you, but if you do not be lieve in Him, He is not with you. Luka deeply impresses his hearers, wh asked him many questions, and he ha 9 wise answer for each of them. To tn baron, who cannot get rid of the hab of telling of his former mastership, h says: ''Mastership is like smallpox man gets over. it. but the marks re main.p < :.
 Luka has kind, loving words for tn