The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-11
A Great Thriller mt the Park.

Howard Hall, the actor, who tours the
popular-price circuits in his melodramatic
thriller called THE Man Who Dared"
finds time. it would seem, to read books by
Dickens and Conan Doyle. and to dash off
lurid plays as a sort of side line. Mr. Hall
became responsible for one of the most
strenuous melodramas that ever stirred an
audience to deafening enthusiasm when he
built Zone can hardly say wrote) 1.-The
Child Slaves of New York." which began
half-weeks engagement at the Park yes
terday before crowds that fairly reveled in
the extreme sensationalism of the piece.
That the builder of the play is pretty well
up in his Dickens and his Doyle is very evil
dent from the very start. There is mod
ern Fagin, who lives in New York and who
has a company of Artful Dodgers and Oil
yer Twists and Charlie Bateses, thieving
for him On the Bowery, and there is a
melodramatic Sherlock Holmes for hero
who ''deducts things most beautifully, and
who always turns up at the right moment
to save the good people from the wicked
people This new Sherlock Holmes who is
called Homer Sherwood, has a marvellous
ability to be everywhere at once, to read
everybodys mind. to accomplish feats of
heroiSm that would floor the entire police
force of Indiana polls, and to produce revolt
Williams are about to carve good folks to
pieces with knives, or slash them to death
with whips, or beat them to pulp with
clubs, or otherwise cause them frightful
embarrassment and inconvenience.
1t has been remarked before in these col
umns that villains in plays never have fire.
arms when they are most in need of them.
In this new piece they possess every imag-
Unable weapon, except the sort that will kill
at long range And If by chance they man
age to get hold OF revolvers the good people
of the piece-meaning Sherlock the Second
and his trusty Servitors-spring UP from
nowhere in particular and wrest the death
dealing things from their impoteDt hands.
No mere newspaper writer could possibly
review the story that is enacted in 1.-The
Child Slaves of New York. 1t is too much
to undertake and shouldn't be expected.
But whatever else may be said of the plot
and its terrific climaxes, it must be owned
that the play is the sort of thing that sim
ply stands 'em on their heads down at
the Park-as the doorkeeper says. 1t is so
full of excitement that many of the specta-
tors limp. from their exertions in applaud
ing and yelling approval, when it is all
over.
There are specialties, too-songs. dances.
quartet numbers and Irish jubilees by the
exaggerated Bowery types. and these bits
prove highly amusing to the audience. The
company is the usual melodramatic organ
ization, though little better than the
average. Will II. Vedder as the detective
Harry Barton as his chief assistant Will
son Reynolds as the leading scoundrel and
Frank Opperman as the modern Fagin,
play the principal male parts for all they
are worth, and the feminine characters are
well portrayed by Eleanor Wescott (who
appears as a LADY reporter'), Madge Ber-
trandt, Fanny Argy and Maggie Meredith
The scenery is unusually elaborate and the
entire show immense success of it's kind
| 1t will remain at the Park the rest of the
| week. and is sure of standing-room-only
audiences.