The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-29

The biggest meIodrama on earth, if
measured with a tapeiine, is The Ro-
nance OF a Hindoo Princess" 1t is
$50 feet by leo on the level, and it fills
that area of the HippodrOme stage
twice by a change of East Indian
scenes. Measured by clock this play
is small, for ii lasts only forty min
utes. Measured by a count of spoken
words, it is not more than leafiet, but
the directions for its action would fill
a book. The bill says that Frederick
Thompson arranged" il; no one is put
down as having written il. A deaf man
might find il entertaining, but q blind
man never. The actors who play the
princess father and two suitoFs have
leather lungs and brass tongues with
which to make an entire audience of
5000 persons hear what they say, but
il would be Disseminating to have the
sensuous little heroine speak like a
female baritone, and so she talks con-
fidentially TO a near portion OF the as
semblage only. However, all can see
by the pantomime that she chooses one
OF the princes to marry, that her des-
potic fathers choice is the other, and
that there is warfare between the rival
wooers for possession OF her.
A royal palace and its walled yard
make such a frontage on so spacious a
public square that all looks actual, and
what happens in that environment is
done so naturally that it makes no sug-
gestion OF unreality. At first the place
is alive with the ordinary coming and
going of Oriental people, with horses,
bulloeks. donkeys. camels and ele-
plants in everyday uses of business
and pleasure. Soon the princess is
brought from the palace on canopied
litter to receive the rival suitors. They
come sh0wily on decorated elephants.
each with a parade of followers. A
hundred Nautch girls dance for the d.
version of the guests. These Oriental
wabblers are not imitatoTs of the gross
Asiatics seen at worlds fairs, but slim
and timber American Oscillations. 1t
is no wonder that when these pOetiZed
coochee exercises are over and the
princes contemplate the beautiful prin-
cess reclining like a half-draped Cleo
patra on her couch, both are mad with
desire to be her Antony.
This romance of q Hi' doc princess is
told to the end in animate pictures OF
enormous size. We next see the royal
maid on a balcony at an upper win
dow. The prince of her preference
comes by moonlight on an elephant
and bears her away. The prince of her
repugnance mounts an elephant and
starts III pursuit. We have TO wait
quarter of an hour for the next view.
In the interval we watch the making
of a part OF the scene that is to ensue.
The front half of the stages floor
sinks into water, and that portion pro-
jects In front of the curtain. The proc
ess of transforming the city square
into a country lake by fifty rapid men
in white uniforms is a part Of the show.
although IL hurts the dramatic illusion.
Probably as many are at work behind
the curtain, for when IL is raised the
palace walls and turrets have given
place TO the tents of the fugitives on
a bluff overlooking the water. The
pursuers arrive.
A tumultuous battle is fought. The
princess is grabbed away and grabbed
back. The right princes army defeats
the wrong princes army. The princess
friends chase her flying foes and drive
them into the lake. Four of the ele-
plants slide thirty feet down a steep
bank and plunge into the water. ON
the opening night, the princess compli-
Gated the princes in their duel over her
by falling off her horse, for the deadly
enemies had 10 stop their sword play
and Join hands to save her from the
trampling hoofs: and. as there had
been disturbance among the twenty
elephants, only five could be brought
into the battle But the nerves OF the
girl and the temper of the beasts have
quieted down, and now there is--if /
may suggest a line for the posters--a
magnitudinous apckAeosis of menagerie
tank drama.