The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10

posite than Big Jennie would be. But il is
Barries joke, and he plays it on the au-
dience till the curtain is about to fall. Then
he explains that his little Mary, frequently
mentioned by the principal young woman
in the comedy, is his purely arbitrary and
fanciful term for the stomach of the En-
glish gourmand. The real heroine of this
freakish piece Of fiction is a genial Irish
creature, who learns from her aged grand
father. an observant druggist, that the En-
gliSh aristocracy has been overfed and un-
der-eXercised until its digestion and conse-
quently it's disposition has become bad.
After the death OF her grandparent, she
keeps the secret OF his discovery while using
il curativey. Thus she becomes known al
a mysterious health giver, using no medi-
cines and variously surmised to Se a spir
itualistic medium, Christian scientist and
a satanic witch, while her only method is
to induce less eating and more activity.
Z Z +
The entertainment yielded by this COM
edy, with its ironical travesty and satirical
burlesque and with its ethical purpose
mixed in with the absurdities, is especially
enjoyable by people keen for theatrical nov
city, but not at all for those who prefer
usual things on the stage. Barrie has gone
further away from the normal-shaIl / say
from the sane ?-cOnventions Of modern So
ciety, than he did in his other remarkable
play, The Admiral Crichton," in which
lily of billiards. In Little Mary il is an
humble MORA LOney who, by introducing
the stomach cure into the household Of
high and mighty Countess of Plumleigh,
dominates an aristocratic circle. She is
brought there to operate on the invalid
daughter of the house, who. after being
trundled about in a wheel-chair for months,
leaps out of il and dances In the joy OF
good health. Besides that an INDECENT
lording becomes Industrious. a matron' $
surliness disappears in buOyancy, two mis-
tad hot bo1
amicably and an estranged father and son
get to be chums-all because Mora has in
duced them to moderate their veracty.
When they are well and happy they
clamOr for the secret of the change which
she has wrought without any tangible me-
dunn. Thereupon she speaks the tag-end OF
the play-the lesson of temperance at the
table; and simultaneously Barrie gives
final gibe 10 one of the English unreasOn-
able prejudices. 1t is considered vulgar
over there 10 mention the stomach. They
are as shy to that organ of digestion as
We are the belly. So, when the MORA Loney
says. right out loud. that Little Mary is a
synonym for stomach. the countess and her
relatives are shocked dreadfully.
Pretty sentiment has not been excluded by
Barrie from his fantastic play MORA I.oney
is such winsome girl of twelve in the first
act. as embodied by Jessie Busley that IL is
easy TO imagine she is the Little Mary. She
is the housekeeper for her grandfather and
at the same time the caretaker Of three or
phans, who range from four months 10 four
years In age When the curtain rises two
of them show their heads over the box
shelves which are their beds while she
mothers them affectionately and lulls an
infant 10 sleep i'm her arms with much
cooling and cuddling. The Earl OF Carlton.
impersonated by Henry Y. Dixey, comes TO
the drug shop with prescription and waits
in the living room while il is being COM
pounded. He Is charmed by the naivete OF
the girl in her open admiration OF him. Six
years later. when she goes 10 the Plumlegh
house, they meet again, and one OF the re-
suits OF her ministrations there Is that the
earl, with his stiff social ideas limbered by
stomachic Improvement, loves and marries
her. And MORA IL so engaging with her
Irish accent and clipped words that you don {