The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-12-27

BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

mont They told us Of a wonderful
| comedian az the Chinese theatre in
Doyers street and we found him a
chink chunk of falsetto Crudity They
were enthusiastic about a marvellous
! tragedian at the italian theatre In Mott
street, and hired Carnegie hall for an
/ exhibition Of their discovery, but the
dago was no more than an ordinarily
competent actor They became ecstatic
over a company of Japanese players
Whoi when put on view in Broadway.
seemed as though they ought TO be
juggling balls. sliding down wires and
oiimbing poles, SO merely physical was
their acting. They are so foolish in
tneir laudatOn Of the German stock
artists IN Irving Place that one feels
hAe decrying the considerable merits
OF the Conried productions. These un-
patriotic zanies were numerOusly rep
resented at the Yiddish performance,
which wasn't bad, though no better
than are given by the cheapest of the
cut-rate stock companies in English.
30 much by way Of a spanking for
those childish ones who hurrah for
whatever is not American in theatrical
art.
To the drama Of God, Man and the
Devil" / took a Polish Jew along to
tell me what its Yiddish meant The
a.
pedoler enriched by the Devil. who un-
dertOOk to prove that the Hitherto sin
less peddler would become wicked un-
der temptation. A prologue was in
Heaven, and the voice of God was
heard, but he was not seen. The Devil
appeared in the ensuing act on earth.
wearing a fur-lined overcoat, as IL to
protect himself against the cool change
from his home climate His agree
ment with the Almighty was explicitly
spoken OF as a wager, the Mans soul
being at stake. IL was plain tho the
Polish jews who filled the balconies,
saw nothing sacrilegiOus in all that, as
they applauded the moral deductions
heartily, yet they did also laugh a the
DeVlIs humor. He contrived to have
the Man win the capital prize in n
lottery so that wealth might work his
moral downfall. And it did. We saw
him next as the occupant Of a fine
house. putting aside his ugly old wife
marrying his pretty young neice and
generally going to the Devil for a fact,
physically and metaDhoriCally. How
ever, the sinner saved his soul by de-
stroying his body That Is what my
Hiddish friend said. and IL did seem
sO-the command against self-slauRht-
er to the contrary Notwithstanding
He became so repentant, remorseful
and Cxpiatory that he committed sui
70
many words, that he had lost his wa
ser with God,
drama which Kryle Bellew put in
to use last week may we'll be classed
with the monumental plays; but il
is only three-quarters Of an hour long,
and is given in the same bill with a
popular sort of piece; so The Sacra-
ment Of Judas" as 10 is called, is ac-
cepted as it wouldn't be if il were the
whole evenings show. The chief char
acter. an apostate Roman Catholic
Monk, hears the confession OF a man
who expects to die at once and grants
him absolution under the following sin
sllar circumstances. In the time OF
the Reign of Terror i'm France an aris-
tocrat hid I'm The cottage Of a peasant
and lll-repaid the hospitality by wrong
ing the girl OF the family. A young
priest had unfrOCked himself in order
70 espOuse the cause of the revolution
Isis, and he was an inmate Of the same
humble household. He was an honest
lover Of the maiden. too, but her heart
mad been given TO the nobleman. When
the former Monk learned the evil that
his rival had wrought he betrayed him
20 a thirsty leader of the revolu-.
tonists. It seemed certain that the fu-
gitIve would be arrested within a few
minutes and killed He did not fear
an orthodox Catholic, of what was be-
yond for him If he died without
priests service. He appealed to his
betrayer, who hatefully refused, de-
claring that he both wouldn't and
couldn't.
a man once a priest is a priest for
all time and eternity" the penitent
wretch urged, mo matter If ne does
renounce holy orders. I have heard you
say so, and you cited as authority the
fact that converts baptized by Judas
were not baptized again after he had
betrayed his Master. You are bound
by your solemn VOW to administer the
sacrament to me-"
So the apOstate priest listened in an
guish TO the aristocrat's confession Of
wrong to the girl both loved and pro
nounced absOlutiOa. But the ordeal
made him "a priest again in spirit as
well rs i'm fOrmality. He helped the
culprit to escape, on condition thar he