The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-14
AT THE THEATRES
BIJou-"The Price Of Honor"


The Price Of Honor Is genuine bar
gain in thrills. The piece is a sensational
melodrama in which the hero is simple
ton, the villain fool and the, children
philosophers. Its story arnbles along; thru
four acts In which every prohibition Of the
decaslogue is successfully violated, eacl.
Kisses from the gallery Shoplifting, arr
son, perjury, attempted mnrder--these
arc some OF the crimes committed, .dn
full view Of the audience: while still
others, OF a more personal nature, -.are
reserved for the Wings, the audience. how
ever, being told all about them before the
final curtain falls. 81
4 The villain extraordinary is a suave
chap, we'll groomed, and--tell it not to
Carrie-addicted to cigarets. In the first
act he Is described as a gentlemanly
svengali. whose weird & hypnotic power
gives him dominion over good little girls
a wave Of his hands, into very bad little
girls indeed. This expedient, doubtless,
was adopted to arouse sympathy for his
consort in crime, sister to the sinlpleton
hero; but later. the playwright changed his
mind He found that he could not en-
trust this worthy with all the deviltry
REQUIRED by the plot and so he forgot all
about the poor, wronged, hypnotized girl,
and made her also a villain Of the deep
est dye, that being the sort Of lady vii
lain usually found in modern day, popu-
lar priced nnelodrana. So much for the
eyil-doers.
+ AS fortthe hero, he is; of course in love
with the prosecuted heroine but he is so
dull OF wilt that the heroine requires other
guardianship, and this is provided by two
OF the most precocious children that ever
rushed to the defense Of injured feminine
1ty; bootblack detective54and a, news
girl logictan, whose chief duty it is to
Jlll1inV Urbn ffnlA t1,oI, ,;ecio
thruout the play with, admirable thoro-
ness. Then there is a police captain, an
Irish landlord-by which, strangely
enough, is meant landlord of Irish birth
"a rector, curate and other lesser char
acters, including a rag-doll baby whom
the heroine insists upon naming after the
villain for good and sufficient reasons.
Exhibit A in the sensation line Is a
| $4,000 pearl necklace stolen, Of course,
and looking like 80 cents; then comes the
accusation OF the heroine and-horrible
punishment for 50 tritling an offense-her
dlsmlssal from the Department store in
| winch she was employed as cloak model.
However, one glance at the poor girl suf-
| ices to persuade the audience that she
Will 40 much bettersas a prosecuted hero
! Inc that she could ever hope to do as a
model and so they are satisfied
10 retell the story in little would prove
a hopeless task, The author has sue
| OA.AJ
into four long acts, and then, only thru
much talk which is accepted by the an
dlence as a somewhat iresome but in
I eVltable preface to Sthe thrills that are
| sure to follow. 50
The company is wellsbalanced and does
roles allotted to them John Regan makes
! decided hit as the bootblack and little
| Lillian Rosewood, as the newsgirl, is re-
sponslble for a good share Of the gallerv's
cheers. H. H. Hilturn deserves credit for
not burlesquing the clergyman, a char
acter rarely done we'll on the stage. Fred
L. Fairbanks is the hero Thomas N Hef-
1efan, the heavy Hayden. tCurren his
accomplice, and Virginia Russell, the girl
IN trouble. j. S. Lawrence.
Lyceum-"The Charity RalI.D
That quadruple love story, 'The Char
ity Ball, revived again for local enter
tainment, has all the charm of a fairy tale;
II the Ball suggests much in common
with The Henrietta'-botht turning upon
Wall street traitors who also deceive
women, upon speculative widows, metro
apolltan rectors, boy-and-girl lovers ct
cetera-Belasco and De-. Miles comedy
lmpresses one as an excellent fancy, Bron-
son Howard s. play as a possible fact It's
Belasco's oriental touch, no doubt, that,
| IKE Disraehs, gives all his imaginings a
4 semitic ferYldity.,. 10, The dramatist that
] finds his Best exponent in the lurid Carte
could scarcely hope to picture accurately
the tutfiitafian society of the street
But If The Charity Ball. is: not life, II
is at least q pretty theory Of what life
might be- ~ - =,
Technically, the play is accommodating;
1t defies art and reaches practical close
at the end of the third act All that fol-
4 lows is so obvious that the spectator max
conveniently go home after the third
curtain, especially if that curtain finally
falls after many waits about II o'clock
4 as was the case last night. q
The performance given by the Ferris
4 Stock company conveys sympatheticall3
the abundant mirth and tenderness. Sucf
actors as do not quite realize their parts
are agreeable, nevertheless, for. other rea.
u sons. A. Byron BeasIey, in particular
has personality so sincere and genia
that he makes a prepossessing Dick, aItht
1 that gentleman could have been neither
II sincere nor genial. Charles Burnhan
sketches a droll, c1ear-cut old man a.;
Judge Peter Quincy Knox, even If tn
} jurist appears too loud. too brusque fo1
| an old school gentleman Most fortu
) ,nately cast is Miss Maisie Cecil as tn,
} hyper-innocent Bess Miss Cecil has no
been seen before to like advantage Mis-
Leslie Bingham manages effectively tn,
difficult emotions Of Phyllis Lee Mis-.
81 Grace Hayward, the Ann Cruger, "noth
. ers' in touching key the waif boy Cain
y who. In turn, Is figured with precociou
talent by Baby Blessing.
I'll B. Curry.