The Saint Paul globe., 1904-05-16

DICKENS INJECTED
INTO T0[SI0Y PLAY
Remarkable Hy brid Drama Pre-
sented at Metropolitan Un.
der Title Of Resurrection"

Tolstoy has little reputation as a
humorist; The Resurrection" has not
heretofore been accounted a comedy
either light Or fairly heavy But pa
irons of the Metropolitan opera house
were surprised last night, and even
gratihed, when they discovered that
Count Leo, in this profound study Of
unhappy humanity, had been collabo-
rating, so to speak, with the late
Charles Dickens.
The original dramatization of "The
Resurrection" such as that presented
here some months ago by Miss Blanche
Walsh, includes, in the second act,
jury scene" that is accounted by some
critics the most striking and ToIstoyan
part Of all the play.
Here twelve men, the jurors who will
decide the fate Of Maslova, the heroine,
accused of murder, are seen within
the jury room, discussing the case
Russian types are shown, the military
man, the farmer, the merchant, the
nihilist, the aristocrat Some of the
men think the girl innocent; all of them
express characteristic opinions. 1t is a
wonderful study in human nature, yet
somber, heart-stirring, like the best of
Tolstoy's work
But in the new drama tiZation ex-
plotted by Miss Florence Stone, the
second act shows the court room, not
the jury room, the actual trial. not the
deliberations of the jurors. This change
is sufficiently surprising to persons
who have seen the original play. The
progress of the trial, moreover, reveals
details of procedure that can only be
overlooked on rejecting that Russian
Jurisprudence is no doubt as eccentric
as Russian campaigning. But the play
retains it's melancholy east until the
counsel for two of the accused rises to
defend them and to attack the wretehed
MaSloVa.
| Words Sound Familiar.
| His, first phrase not only sounds odd
| ly homefike, but in some inexplicable
/ fashion, it changes the current of the
/ auditors thought He begins to feel re-
| lieved, even resigned, well-nigh cheer
| full. For some reason the manifest in
I justice being worked against the suf-
| fering girl seems now less forbidding;
the certainty of her conviction and its
I dfeful consequence have ceased to re-
| volt his mind; the spectacle of the bru-
| tal-faeed moujiks, the pitiIess police,
| no longer suggest Siberia and the
knout.
passioned appeal" he holds out little
hope of justice none of clemency, talks
| of nothing cheerful, descends not at all
to levity; yet cur spirits rise and we
| smile within. why" we say to our
/ wife, this doesn't appear to be as
7 gloomy as the other version"
+ We IoII back in our seat contentedly
as the learned Muscovite is about to
close, and when he begins his perora-
ton our satisfied nerves telegraph a
thought, arouse a recollection. The ora
tor upon the stage has ended with
| these words of happy memory:
And for such relief they appeal to
a high minded, intelligent, sympathetic,
| patriotic jury of their scountrymen."
1t is the speech OF, Sergeant Buzfuz
in the case of BardeH VS.. Pickwiek The
| Russian lawyer, in a Russian court, is
accusing Russian outcast Of murder
| in the very words employed by the
English advocate to charge respect
able English gentleman with failure to
keep a promise of marriage to said
gentleman's most respectable English
landla6y, the Widow BardeIL
Miss Stone should advertise" we
| whisper to our wife, ." The ToIstoy-
Dickens Version; or, the Resurrection
Pfekwfck.' She ought to double star
with De Wolf Hopper"