The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-10

n EW YORK, Dec. S.--Nat Goodwin
IN sat at the audiences side of the
footlights, on Monday night, and
saw himself act a new part on the
stage The play was "A Fair Ex-
Thomas W. Ross. who owed the re-
semblance of face 10 nature and Of
manner TO cultivation The actor and
henry NJ. Blossom. jr.. the author, had
arrived TWO years ago with Checkers, -
and now they endeavOred to come
again. The theatre was filled by peO~
pie about as noisy as though they were
at football match, but there was no
opposition among the rOOters. and il
there were others there who didn't wish
10 see the Ross-BlOssOm team win they
kept silence
OF course, Ross is more like Goodwin
than Goodwin is like Ross: the one is
an imitation of the other; yet the new
er actor carries off the freshness of a
club cub as the older one hasn't been
able 10 these dozen years. The COM
edy fills an evening with generally
amusing chatter by a short dozen Of
young folks, well dressed if not alto
sether well-maunered, and put forward
as representative society at New
York Country club. In that respect it
IS "a good entertainment But whoever
wants q plot To run clear through every
play should quit ~ Fair Exchange" at
the end Of the first act, when it looks
as though the second would bring
some. II doesn't, nor does the third.
Absence of plot in this Blossom COM
edy does not mean dulluess. It's char
acters talk smartly and develop them
selves into positive types. The best Of
ER ~ of siyfg "a
tails is at the beginning of the play; it
IS SO good, indeed, that it starts the
piece at its highest point of excellence,
and inevitably it has to toboggan to its
finish at the bottom of the decline. The
rise of the curtain Introduces four
dinner-cOated chaps at a poker table
The sunlight Of morning is peeking
through the drawn portieres and the
Curtalned windows. Rich and mOdiSh
appmtenances of bachelor apartment
life surround the card players as they
sit under a large circular lamp. one
man is limp drunk. Another is ShreWd-
~ sober Two more are just careless
enough TO be .prey 10 treaChery. \
NTH, the hero of the comedy. returns
from telephone in the hallway, loses
10 his reckless friend. thus foiling the
sharper ana delivers a moral though
simple. sane and hoWcry lesson. Then
ers breakfast dress for the forenoon
and take care of the one "all-in" fell
low.
Presently girls come to the club house
10 attend Larchmont boat race with
the men, and commonplace situations
ensue with uncOmmOnly deft and
truthful details. If Mr.. Blossom had
written two acts and a half more in
as good style as the initial half an
act (Which is All adaptation Of one of
his earlier short stoTies), his play
would be a masterpiece in American
comedy. The people who rushed Mrs
Narren's Profession" from the stage
Tor its immortality might Well look to
tins play, which quite casually makes
drunkenness and gaming, stock and
race betting, the ordinary practices in
good society, to be laughed at as weak
nesses. bat no more than lightly re-
proved as vices. The second act has,
where most authors put in plot a sue
ctSSlOn OF Jests on the condition of a
young mans head and stomach after a
nights jag. BY way of serious inter-
est, it makes him declare 20 several
persons on a club house porch that a
young woman of their mutual acquaint-
dnce Is pursuing him with her atten-
uouS. That seems TO be customary i'm
his set OF gentlemen. Several of the
Youngsters indicate a desire to reform
their drunkenness. but none in this CO.
ierlc is aware OF its greater offense Of
cdddlShuesS. They do wear perfect
clothes. but the fine feathers don't
make them other than foul birds i'm
dirtEmS the nests of their clean female
mates with Islander.