The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-21
WOMAN AGAINST WOMAN" AT
THE METROPOLITAN.

Woman Against Woman" which is
to be the offering of the Ferris Stock
company for the fourth week of their
season at the Metropolitan, starting to-
night, is melOdramatic play in five
acts, telling story of intense heart
interest. The play has not been seen
here since its production at the old
Grand opera house some eighteen
years ago, and is entirely new to the
present generation of theater-goers, so
that its production at this time will be
in the nature of a novelty.
The principal characters of the
drama are three girls, Rachael West
wood and Bessie and Miriam Barton,
who leave their home in Willowdale
to seek their fortune in London. Two
of them, Rachel and Miriam, succumb
to the evil influences of city life but
Miriam, meeting with Sir Henry Ches-
terton, who is attracted by her youth
and beauty and desires to marry her,
casts the blame of her youthful esca-
pades upon her sister Bessie, and binds
the latter by oath never to reveal the
truth Regarding them Bessit, after the
marriage of Miriam, returns to her
village home, falls in love with John
Tressidor, a former sweetheart of Ra-
chefs, who loves her fondly in re-
turn, and the first act of the play is
devoted to their marriage.
AT the close of this act Rachel West
wood returns to WilloWdale, hoping to
win John Tressidor, and finding that
he has married Bessie vows venge-
ance. She throws out hints regard
ing Bessie's career in London, which
arouse suspicious in the mind of Tres
sidor. The second act Of the play is
situated in the home of the Tressidor's
in London, where Rachel comes to fur
Their poison the mind of her husband,
who demands that Bessie shall deny
the calumnies of Rachel. This the poor
girl, feeling bound by her foolish oath,
refuses to do. and the hand of Tressi-
dor is raised to strike her when her
mother enters on the scene.
In the third act Bessie seeks out her
sister Miriam and demands to be re-
leased from her oath, but Miriam, fear
ing to lose the luxurious position that
she has attained, denies the request,
and the curtain falls on one of the
most dramatic episodes of the play.
The fourth act pictures the desolation
of the once happy home of the Tres
sidor's, the illness and death Of their
child, and the return of Rachel to
gloat over the ruin she has wrought.
The wife and mother, crazed by grief
at the death of her darling child, at
tempts to murder her tormentor, and
in burst of frenzy discloses to her
husband the secret that has ruined her
AAdpp41lGSS, lUS OF MIRIAM
brought about through the evil com
panionship Of Rachel. The disclosure
is overheard by Miriams husband. Sir
Henry. and Bessie when she sees him
realizes what she has done and swoons
in her mothers arms.
The last act carries the spectator
back to Willowdale, where Bessie, con-
Valescing from a lingering illness
awaits with Impotence news from her
husband, who, filled with remorse fol-
his treatment Of her, has gone to the
wilds of Australia to seek forgetfuI-
ness. John returns to find Bessie low
ing and fogiving, and the curtain falls
on the husband and wife happily re-
united.
The cast to be seen in this play will
include Mattine Choate as Bessie, Lii
liam O'Neil as Rachel, Fannie Granger
as Miriam, Mabel Griffith as Deborah
Barton, Lon Beaseley as John Tressi-
dor, Chas. c. Burnham as his father
FT7deric Clarke as Sir Henry, George
R~ss Fiske as Gilbert Craven and
Harry Langdon as DR.. Grayson.