The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-08
1.-THE ETERNAL CITY"
GAINES GREAT STORY IN DRAMA
 AT THEATRE.
Miss WaIdrors Roma the Distinctly Pleasing Feature of Entertain- | ment--Witnessed by Large
 and Fashionable Audience

gomery Theatre last night.
 The public was led to believe tha Edward Morgan was starring in th' play. Mir. Morgan. in truth was in thu cast, but whatever starring wal done was done by the little wd man who came unacquainted t the Montgomery audience undei the name of Miss Janet Wal dorf. It was Miss Waldorrs triumph not Mir. De Bellevilles or Mir. Nor. gan's. Not that the audience admired Messrs. De Belleville and Morgan less but they admired Miss Waldorf more. This vital young actress electrified her audience. She lifted them out of | their seats. hypnotized their imagina- ton, did as she willed with their emo tions. Viola Allen did the same thing in '"The Palace of the King" But one expected that much of Miss Allen. She is acknowledged a great actress and one went to see her expecting ones emotions to be toyed with.
 Now with Miss Waldorf it Is differ ent. She was guilty of a sort of breach of faith last night. Her audi ence was not looking for the things she did with it. Her spirit leaped the foot1ights. She showed how a woman could love and she showed how a wo- man could suffer. She not only show cu it uul Snt duuIeHCS Ietl 1t. Her audience had no peace or quiet when she was on the stage. It was all so dreadfully real.
 The press agent of The Eternal City" confidentially tells the public that Janet Waldorf Is only her stage name and that she Is in fact a member of a prominent Pittsburg family. Its time for her to don her stage name and bring famc and renown to the family cognomen-plain Midgely
 She has the divine afflatus."if that term applied to poets is applicable to players. The talent, the genius and the earnestness that go to make a great actress are hers. Praises be to her, that she has not permitted her beauty to spoil her. She is undenia- bly beautiful, but that fact comes to one as an afterthought. Che thinks of her fine frenzies, her golden resonant voice. her force and her magnetism and then of her beauty. Beauty is us- ually. a bad start for an actress. It spoils them for the harder work of their art. There are so few actresses who are earnest and artistic and at the same time beautiful.
 Miss Waldorf is more fortunate than is MT. Morgan. The dramatization of Hall Gaines famous novel enriches her role of Roma with far greater oppor- iuHltltS lHdH IL BlNcS lO MT. MOTKdn s role of David ROssi. Rossi does not dominate the play as he does the book nor is he. in the play, the strong stall wart figure he is in the book.
 about whom the lime-light plays in the dramatized version. It is Roma who is the center of interest and the center of sympathy.
 fered in it's transportation from the book to the stage. There is no way given to man whereby a full grown novel may be compressed into an evenings entertainment without loss of vital ity in the process. Some of the story's beauty is bound to be deadened and some of it's attractions are of a neces- Sity annihilated.
 The dramatization was done by no less q person than Mir. Caine himself. MT. Caine Is a self sufficient author It is probable that the job would have been better had MT. Caine allowed 8 more experienced hand to engineer the metamorphosis. It Is hard to forgive MT. Caine for not allowing Mir. Nor gan better chance. As a result of the trying experience which David Rossi was forced to undergo in being transplanted Edward Morgans Rossi was frank disappointment. There was one scene. the last scene In the studio with Roma and the Prime Min ister, in which the reins of restralnr were loosened on MT. Morgan. Then he showed what he was capable of do- IlS. III IHe semi -udTkTeSS nlS genius flashed with electrical brilliance.
 MT, Morgan. undeniably. has power and vitality. Yet he has a most un- usual fault. He is too repressed in his methods He holds himself too much in restraint. He has an evident hor- TOT of ranting and tearing. and in avoiding 1t he leans the other way He appeared. at least that way. in Da vid Rossi. still he could and did light UT. and thrill his audience.
 Last nights audience gave q hearty ovation to W, E. Bonney. Mir. Bon ney was one of the delightful surprises sturdy, loyal Bruno Rocco. The Ital- ian is a dramatic role. Even in their daily walk the so-called lower classes of Italians display their dramatic char Bruno. as Caine drew him. was 9 strong. lovable Italian fired with zeal and enthusiasm for cause which only brought sufferings to its devotees. He was last night as MT. Bonney showed him a short rotund figure, with long, ungainly arms. One expected comedy of him on first sight, but'hard- ly tragedy. Yet this awkward figure fired the audience into enthusiasm. He seized its interest and compelled its ad- miration. The sincerity of the applause that was spontaneously accorded MT Bonney was not to be questioned.
 Frederick De Belleville in appearance was ex-Governor Bob Taylor with a red ribbon across his shirt front One at first, half expected him to come forward and paint word pictures of rural life in East Tennessee. But the illusion was only momentary. MT. De Belle ville's talents are of another order. He Is an actor, a dramatic actor, one who Is learned the great eloquence that can be put in and expressed by ges- lures. And with equal eloquence he read the lines of his role, there being in his enunciation the quaint charm of trace of foreign accent.
 The first staging of The Eternal City 1t will be recalled, met with se- were criticism by some earnest Catho- lies. It made the Pope a stage char acter. It was a daring thing to do and some thought 1t little short of sacri. lege. And yet one of the prettiest and most impressive stage pictures ever shown in Montgomery was the beauti. full view of the Vatican gardens, in the center the Holy Father dressed in shin ing white silk. his stately figure out lined against the royal red robes which covered his high chair. his brilliantly uniformed guards about him.
 The Pope was represented by Frank Bangs. Mir. Bangs is an especially handsome man of the stately type. Was it an accident that MT. Bangs in his stage representation closely resembled the present Holy Father?
 The Pope in The Eternal City" was a splendid, lovable character. If the Pope was to be represented on the stage he could not have been repre- sented in a less offensive way than Mir Bangs presented him. MT. Bangs is a tation of his audience.
 The play was admirably staged. The stage settings and the stage manage