The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-15
1.-TWO MEN AND A GIRL"
MIR. MURPH REWARDED WITH CURTAIN CALLS.
His New Play is Clever, but 1t Has its Defects and Whole is Not
 an Unqualified Suc-

Frederick Paulding's new comedy drama TWO Men and Girl presented by Tim Murphy and his company at the Montgomery Theatre last night is a pleasant sort of an entertainment, but 1t is not the unqualified success that Mir. Murphys past achievements war ranted the public to expect.
 The action of the play takes place with the interior of a hunting cabin in the Adirondacks within twenty-four hours and the management has availed itself of the opportunity to present one substantial stage setting for the three acts. This scene is handsome and per feet as to detail.
 The story of TWO Men and a Girf is simple. It deals with the rivairy between two brothers for the ioVe ol a girl. One brother, Tim Murphy' is a philosophizing bachelor, masnan,- nous, heroic, honest and generous. has not known the sweets Of love unth he meets the girl who has rejected ms younger brother because of his evil ways. The girl respects the great harted bachelor and promises to DC ms wife. but still clings to her love TOT the scapegoat
 This is the bare thread of the story which ends with the girl learning 10 love the eccentric bachelor and the chaerin of the younger brother wno unfortunately has been drawn by Mir Paulding after the most approved vil- lain of transforming melodrama.
 If the play was somewhat disappoint- ing. Mir Murphy was not. As an artist he has fathomed the emotions of human nature and he was ever on sure ground. There are tragic moments in the play and here MT. Murphy gave his friends insight into a new phase of his art. He measured to great heights in the dra- matic situation at the close of the second act and the audience rewarded him with two curtain calls and insisted thanked the Montgomerians for their approval.
 There was some disappointment that Miss Sherrod, whose splendid work in other plays has made her a favorfte here, was not cast for the leading part In truth 1t is suspected that Miss Sher- rod herself suggested that she had be- come too rounded in physique to play girl parts convincingly. The "girl part Is in the Keeping of Miss Ger trude Dalton. a slender young woman with a sweet face and harsh, rasping voice. This marked defect of Miss Dalton did not contribute to the suc- cess of the entertainment. There were times, too. when Miss Dayton positively recited her lines as though she was at school. She has the stage presence and the winsomeness and it Is quite probable that before the season is much older Miss Dalton will improve greatly.
 MT. Harlan is miscast as the younger brother. He seemed to agree with MT. Pauding that he was to be a melodra- matic william and was at all times in- congruous. MT. Murphy Is too much the artist to be told that MT. Harlan is out of place in the cast of this comedy. His defects were too numer- ous to specify, notwithstanding his re- semblance to John Drew.
 There are really but three parts in the comedy, but Miss Sherrod, as a wo- man of the world, and others to whom small parts were assigned. did those parts well.
 valet of a venerable doctor afforded an excellent bit of character comedy and the stimulation of love scenes between Miss Whitfield and MT. Pennington to arouse the jealousy of their respective sweethearts was deliciously done.
 Many persons in the audience who remembered Miss Whitfield as a visitor to Montgomerdy and a Tennessee girl were delighted to note the marked i'm proVement Tn her Work over preceding seasons. She had a juvenile role and she played it with certainty. with ease and grace.
 The new play teens with cleverness, but some of the situations are astonish- lngly inconsistent The reconciliation In the last act, for example. jars the average person. It is extraordinary for the purely personal affairs of a man and a woman to be narrated before room full of people and for the wo- man to throw herself into the arms of the lover to the accompaniment of the braves of her friends. Mir PauldinR has done a remarkable thing for a male writer. He has drawn the woman of the play clearer, surer and more dis tinct than the male parts
 MT. Paulding has written clean. good -natured comedy. one that makes the spectator feel better and when he has used the pruning knife on some of his situations it will be winner. He has the foundation for lasting suc- cess.