The Indianapolis journal., 1903-04-28
MeIodrama mt the Park.

Theodore Kremer is the Clyde Fitch of
the popular-priced theaters. He sits at his
desk in his New York office and turns out
play after play for the cheaper amusement
houses, and somehow or other everything
that he writes seems to give more than
ordinary satisfaction to the theater-goers
to whom he caters. He has been well
known in New York for years as the lead
ing writer of lurid and emotional dramas,
and now his name Is coming to be of value
in this part of the country as well. The
regular Park patrons, remembering the
thrills and throbs of Kremers Fatal We'd
ding" turned out in full force yesterday
afternoon and last night to witness the
opening performance here of the same au-
thor's newest effort, For Her Childrens 8
Sake" The audience in the afternoon was
the biggest matinee crowd Of the season at
the Park, and in the evening every seat in
the house was taken.
FOR Her Children's Sake tells just such
a story as is to be encountered in the pages
OF a Laura Jean Libby novel or a 'fireside"
story paper, having to deal with a pair of
young lovers who are separated through
the wicked scheming OF jealous woman.
The heroine, made the victim of a base lie,
leaves her home, and. being overcome with
sorrow, joins circus. Just why she should
join circus instead of going into the mil
linery business Is never clearly explained
by the playwright. She is supposed to be
still in love with her young doctor-the hero
is promising physician-but, believing
him dead (this heroine will believe any
thing you tell herr, she ups and marries
another man, who straightway breaks his
neck by falling from a trapeze. leaving her.
at the beginning of the second act, which
is supposed to take place several years
later. with two very pretty little children
on her hand: Still true to her old love- she
marries again, and this time finds herself
the wife of the villainous proprietor of the
circus with which she Is travelling. The
circus gives a performance in the town
which was the scene of the heroine's girl
hood. and, of course, the hero, who ism I
dead at all, turns up, handsomer than ever,
when a doctor Is sent for TO attend her
during a spell of illness. Then do the ex-
citing incidents come thick and fast, and
the audience Is kept in an uproar of joyous
approval or virtuous Indignation, as the
case may be. OF course, in the end the bad
people of the play are disposed of to every
ones satisfaction, and everything ends as
Ii should end.
Selma Herman is such a good little ac-
tress that she gains the deepest sympathy
of her audience from the very start and
causes everybody to overlook the absurd
inconsistencies of the part she plays. She
is really worthy of logical role in a log
acceptably. Foster Lardner is handsome
young leading man. who portrays the hero
in manner that wins for him the strong
approval of the audience. Edwin Alton as
the villainous circus proprietor. takes his
part so well that he is most heartily de-
spised by every right-minded person in the
gallery and Adra Ainslee, as the jealous
woman who causes all of the trouble, also
succeeds in making herself a much-hated
character. Two very clever child players
are Master Charles La Mont and his little
sister Marie. and they render their parts
with intelligence that is remarkable in such
tiny youngsters. The boy is particularly
good, his acting being entirely free from
the artificiality that usually makes q stage
child so unbearable. The other characters
in the piece are creditably interpreted by
Lee Starrett, Frank M. Kelly, William Nc
Key, Kate Medinger and Gertrude Dalton.
There is no doubt that For Her Chill
dren's Sake" will continue TO please the
Park audiences immensely. 1t will remain
at the Park through the first half OF the
week, giving way Thursday to Hoyt's pop
ular farce-comedy, "A Texas Steer"