The San Francisco call., 1905-04-19
PLAY UN WORTHY
OF MISS ANCLIN

Dukes at three a penny" not to
speak of possible Prime Ministers, are
handsomely scattered over the cast of
The Crossways," playing at the Cali
fornia this week. The Crossways," or
The Cookmaid's Delight'-one takes
the liberty of substituting-is a play to
ravish the back stairs. 1t should de-
light them almost as deeply as the i'm
mortal Laura jeans works. The way
her Grace tears round in sables and
spangles, in point d d'Alencon wrappers
OH peignoirs, to be surei-and In silver
opera cloaks that make Lohengrin fade
away is simply grand
OF course, her Grace has a lover and
French maid, and a husband who is
mean enough to object to her going to
the opera alone with her lover. He is a
curious person, the husband. At one
moment he tells the bejeweled lady
that he would rather have taken a gut
ter maid to the ducal throne than the
said bejeweled lady. The next moment
he is 1mploring her to forgive IL not to
forget, love. To the casual observer it
would seem that the forgiving stunt
should have been done by the dook
Still, we have the French maids testi-
mony for it that he is "'orrid, and she
'ates him." And, drat 1t, one cannot find
either that the duchess has a Past. She
has evidently a very present temper
and a real high-toned attack of nerves
in the second act. Personally. feel for
the dook.
The conspirators - collaborators In
the case are j. Hartley Manners and
Mrs. Langtry. who acted in the play
when 1t was first produced In New
York. Now, Mrs. Langtry should know
something about dukes and such. We
all know that she was banished from
their august society for wasting ice
cream upon the Prince of Wales royal
spine. Perhaps they do act like Noel
Duke of Keensbury, Lord Scarlet and
Sir Charles Croffte. If so, no wonder
the Peerage-who is 1t calls 1t the
"Beerage ?"-is destined to destruction.
For, seriously enough Mr.. Manners
puppets crumble at touch They are
beautifully unreal, glitteringly uncon-
vincing. Take the lover, Sir Charles
Croffte. He is a politician who has
given up the hope of a premiership for
the sake of her Grace. AS Peter Rob-
ertson asks, Why? There has been no
scandal, no cause for scandal. But the
piece bristles with "whys?" Things
are done without reason. in absolute
liunaccord with what one has previously
been told of them, by all of the charac-
ters. Naturally the situations, strong
in themselves in places, fail OF any
effect
Miss Anglin as her Grace does all
that could be expected. But even Miss
Anglin cannot make bricks without
straw. Her Duchess of Keensbury is
gowned most convincingly, and she is
as hoity-toity with the Duke, as high
minded with the lover-who steals
her pearls, and all the rest of the
things the score calls for. But Miss
Anglin is too intelligent to play such
a part without an atmosphere of re-
sentiment exhaling from the work
One wonders, indeed, at her presenta-
ton Of such a play.
Frank Worthing as the gentleman
who steals tn pearls, tries to steal the
lady, and then lectures the Duke on
the sinfulness of jealousy. failed
, honorably. So, too. Edwin Emery as
the changeable Duke. Mrs. Whiffen
added to the glad unreality of the
thing with her usual aplomb as Lady
Croffite; Miss Blanche Stoddard was
lucky in one-minute part, in which
she didn't have to turn ethical somer-
saults, and Miss Cartwright's French
maid was a really clever bit. Mr..
Manners himself was Lord Scarlet,
with herculean self-sacrifice on tap,