The San Francisco call., 1904-11-22

| maxine EilIOLI maze ner uTSt AOOe1
appearance as a star last night at the
Columbia, and, as in her play, had all
her own way" with US. Miss Elliott
brings a Clyde Fitch comedy, Her
Own Way" made for her last year by
the indefatigable playwright. 1t Is ex-
cellently tailored. The leading role hts
Miss Elliott to nicely, and 1t is sur
| rounded by some Of Mr.. Fitchis more
smartly drawn figures. OF these, two
are new in the Fitch gallery, the villain
he is almost Kremer-nke-and the
hairdressing lady, who, perhaps, would
have come more newly before the
| Sophy Fullgarney, in The Gay T, Loro
/ Ouex." There are also the familiar
! fighty society grandmamma, the
climbing" daughter. the weak ana
| sanguine speculator, soldier nero, the
smart servants, and for novelty again,
| the abies of the smart set. These, with
| Miss Elliott as a charmingly wlll1ul,
womanly, altogether winsome laoy, act
/ out the story, pretty, engaging, anus
ing, entirely In the conventional Hah-
ner.
Very deity Mr.. Fitch lets one into
] the standing and secrets OF the CarIey
household. The first act-and this is
the usual Fitch novelty-takes place
| in q children's nursery. Four tiny fash-
| quet, with three large servants In wait
ing. Enfants terrible they are, acQualnt-
ed with everything above and below
stairs; and between naughty COM
mands for more icecream they let one
know that Sam Coast (the villain) is
stuck on" auntie (Miss ElliotD. but
that auntie likes Mr.. Coleman (Charles
Cherry and various other facts or IN
terest. Then comes auntie to share the
fun. I shouldn't like to have missed
Maxine Elliott's graceful swoop under
the table in the hide and go seek game,
/ to speak of nothing else. All through
the scene, charming picture to begin
with, is notably attractive.
The act leaves the soldier lover
telling Miss Carley that he Is about
to go to the Philippines. The second
act ends with his good-by, without de-
claring himself, as the bad man has
| told him that Georgiana was going to
marry him. To compass this Sam
Coast decides to ruin the Carley's,
Georgianas brother Steve, his wife,
the mother. This he purposes to do
through Steve's weakness for specu-
| lation. Steve has gambled away his
J own his wife's. his mother-in-law's
money. Georgiana saves the day with
/ her own fortune. Coast tempts the
! brother to speculate again. He does,
and the third act finds the sisters for
tune also gone. After his little habit
/ Coast again asks Georgiana to marry
him. She tells him that money can't
buy everything. He says his money
4 can. Then word comes Of Colemans
| death in an ambuscade. However,
/ how it all ends happily is quite worth
while finding out and Mr.. Fitch brings
some peculiarly clever dialogue to the
! telling.
AS Georgiana Miss Elliott is regally
/ lovely. II is not quite fair to begin with
| this, but one is helpless before the Ell
| lott beauty. And one may take Miss
Elliott as seriously as she deserves as
an actress. Perhaps the womanly
sweetness OF the character is its strong
! est phase, but Miss Elliott suggests the
strength, the lovable willfulness, the CO.
| Quetry, the nobility of the girl. with
| equally happy and facile art. Depth
greater than she has touched before
she reaches here, and the lighter phase
is more lightly given. and altogether
/ Miss Elliott shows notable and distin-
! guished advance in her art. The sup
porting company is good. Among the
other women Fannie Addison Pitt. as
the woman in an Adelina Patti auburn
wig, is very amusing; George Law
renee, as the hairdresser. overdraws.
but entertainingly is a very clever
! character, and Nellie Thorne realizes
we'll the Mrs. Carley.
James Carew is the Sam Coast. and
though fairly convincing is not so ef-
fectiVe as the part gives opportunity
for. Charles Cherry does all that is
needed in manly fashion for the soldier
lover, and r. c. Herr enacts with
some skill the part Of the specializing
brother. Scenically the production is
of notable handsomeness.
BLANCHE PARTINGTON.