The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-24
ADJUSTMENTS
"The College Widow"


 morous "The College Widow IS petter than a tonic. It loosens laugh in the hearts of crusty old individuals who nave not smiled for months and leaves them feeling younger The tonic properties or "The College Widow" which are so hap oily effective, are due to the genius Of George Ade, the Indiana satirist and hu- morist, who has portrayed Amerlean types on the stage in manner which opens new field to the dramatist. The best part about "The College Widow as we'll as "The County Chairman" Is its genuine Americanism, the fidelity with which familiar types are portrayed ana the humor derived from an accentuation of their peculiarities. They are the kind of people every one has met old friends and acquaintances who are seen in every day life.
 At the Jefferson theatre last night "The College Widow struck happy vein at the start and never lost its grip on one of the seasons largest audiences. It was all so good, so funny, so refreshing and true to life that a wave of enthu- slasm swept over the house and was succeeded by storms of laughter There was not a poor actor in the company and there was no opportunity for the much abused star system to assert It. self. It is true that Dorothy Tenant and Frederick Truesdale were supposed to play the leading roles, she that of the college widow" and he that of Bolton. the half-back, but there were others equally as good as these two and all made a picture of American college life that struck home. Every man in the house who had been to college greeted old friends on the stage of the Jefferson last night.
 There was the town constable, the country gawk who develops into howl ing swell the football coach, the big center" the tough trainer, pair of typical dads the professors, classical ly ridiculous, and all those other types who belong to college life. When 1t is considered that every one of these parts, so rich in possibilities and provided with George Ades witty lines, was in the hands of performer of ability, who was outside the range of criticism, it can readily be imagined how satisfying was the result
 Dorothy Tennant as the "college widow who entraps Bolton for the At water eleven because he is valuable ma terial' and in the end falls a victim her~ self was pretty and clever. Frederick Trusedale as the football coach, Dan Baker as the trainer Walter Walker as Hiram Bolton, Neil Moran as Peter Witherspoon and Adeline Dunlap as the athletic girl were exceptionally good. The characters which were especially rich in humor and "local color were those of Flora Wlggins played by Katherine Nugent: Silent" Murphy, played by Ernest B. Carr Daniel Tibbetts the town marshal, who was capital in the Toll made excruciatingly funny by Edgar Hal stead; "Bub Hicks, in which Raymond Chase provoked roars of laughter and Hon. Elam Hicks, who was presented by George Ober in a fashion to provoke unrestraned mirth.
 Lawrence Wheat won all hearts as the boysh undergraduate, He was capital and his own personality contributed no little to the enjoyment of the part which he played.
 The various scenes of the play were, as was to be expected, admirably staged. The football game in the third act was clever bit of stage management and won derfully effective. The game was not played on the stage, but view of the grandstand was given and the realism was intense, the excitement contagious.
 The lines of the play, while not so bril- liant as those of "The County Chairman perhaps, were nevertheless in MT. Ade's best humor. Rather than writing clever sallies, MT. Ade has succeeded in present. ing a group of American characters who do not need lines to make them realistic They are simply drawn from real life and placed on the stage, there to aston. ish and delight by their fidelity to the originals.
 "The College Widow afforded rare pleasure. To the old it brought back the days of their youth and to the young it's hoo .~IA ol spirits which made them more in love with life