The sun., 1905-11-19
BELASCO AND HIS THREE ACES
the MAGICIAN'S SLEEVE DULKS
LARGE IN ms NEW PLAY.
Absorbing Melodrama. However. SnDer'
Iativeiy Staged ana Played--Thc First
Act IL It's High water Mark Shake"
gpeaFe Now on Three New York Stages.

Act IL IT'S High Water Mark Shake
speaFe Now on Three New York Stages.
II Is q case OF showdown at the Belasco
In more senses than one and the manner in
which the pot IL pockete1 IL highly charac-
teristic. When The Girl Of The Golden Weat
10 throwing cold hands against the gambler
sheriff for the life Of her lover, she wins out
by means Of full house secretly filed from
the pack. Her motto Is the clearest OF para
phrases Of that OF 70 San: II Is better to
have three aces up your sleeve than to suffer
-muchl Not highly moral saying this.
but II might serve as the rubric for all OF Mr..
Belasco's play writings. Here as always
the magi ian's sleeve bulks large. This
very scene Of the gambling, in fact, is only
one OF the aces distracted from the much
thumbed pack OF cards melodramatic.
What makes the present play showdown
Of the Belascan method Ia the fact that for
once the audience is on to the card stacking
On the first night OF THE Darling Of the
Gods, when Mr.. Belasco was thanking all
his aides, from Miss Blanche Bates to the
callboy, a gallery god took advantage OF
one OF his dramatic Tauses to complete the
list by shouting And the author, Mr.. Sar-
OF the plays that bear Mr.. Belasco's name.
But not many first nighters are as keen and
we'll informed as that god of the gallery.
The play passed as an original creation OF
genius, being likenel to the greatest Of all
classics, from ShakesT care to Wagner. The
voice of that lofty spirit was as of one crying
In the wilderness. Now there is no such
chance of mistake The sc enes characters
.l. To- ,,.,l
have long been familiar to the humble't
pla Jgoer, from Thir avenue to Eighth.
The abstra cton Of aces takes place in the
sight of all present. The play is not only
most obviously melo Ira ma, but the oldest
of melo lrama. The dramatic standard by
which it succeeds--and its success was as
merited as it was instantaneols-is not the
highest, but pre- 'iols near the lowest.
The fact is most 70 tunate, at least for
the humble truth teller Mr.. Belasco is
rare, even a unique genius in his way, and
: 1t is an ung ateful task to be always point
ing out that his way is very far from being
that for which he has received the highest
praise. But year by year the task is becom-
ing easier. AS THE Girl of the Golden
Vest shows us what he ia, so its prede-
cessor showed us what he Is not. "Adrea'
was put forth-or SO 1t was announced As
manifesto of his and Mrs. Carter's powers
In high tragedy, and it was acclaimed as
triumph in it's kind by those to whom
THE Darling Of the Gods was near-Shakes-
peare and near-Wagner. But the verdict
OF the public was far otherwise. OF its
financial success 1 cannot speak. With Mr..
Belascos and Mrs, Carter s following it
would be strange il any play fell quit,
fiat This much, however, is certain, that
compared to all of its pre- 1ecessors, it failed
signally; and with the intelligent public
It's failure was absolute The aces in the
unfamiliar pack of high tragedy proved
80 unfamiliar that scarcely a trick was
turned. Enough said! / come to praise
-The Girl of the Golden West" not to bury
sAdrea.-
MIR. Belasco's triumph was sounded at
the very start, in the decorative beauty,
the apt symbolism, of the curtain he has
devised for this playa view of the Sierras
from the Western plain, with the golden
SUN setting beyond their crests. 1t seemed
as if one might pass the whole evening lost
in the ebon shadows Of the mountains and
basking in the warm splendor Of the .effll-
gent sun. Words cannot describe such
beauty; but I can at least make note of
the means by which it was achieved. No
mere device of transparency could pro-
duce such an effect of incandescent fame.
The disc of the sun and it's flaring streamers
were laid on in Opaque gold. Their light
was reflected from spotlight in the gallery.
How were its beams kept from striking
also beneath the summits? The sides OF
the mountains were Of rich, nappy cloth,
which drank in every straying beam. Very
simple when you know how it was done
But only Belasco could be the father of
such striking and perfect scenic art
The rising of this curtain disclosed a
front drop, representing The Girls hut,
high up on Cloudy Mountain, with only
the air and the clouds beyond. Again the
touch OF the wizard! The canvas rose
slowly, almost imperceptibly, unfolding the
walls of a can On, with a mountain path
leading downward. At the bottom of the
canon the Polka saloon appeared, with
warm lights in the windows and the sound
OF rough and hearty revelry issuing family
from within. The curtain had transported
US to the golden West, and the panoramic
view of the canon showed us the spot in
which The Girl lived, and the two cabins !
in which the story of her fate was to be
enacted.
With this the merely pictorial possibilities
of the story were at an end. 1t would not |
be possible, az in "The Darling of the |
Gods" to blind us to the crudities OF the |
play by means Of rich and varied scenery |
and costume, quaint and picturesque man
hers. There was nothing but to interest us
In the uncouth life of the Forty-niner and |
convince us of its reality and significance.
To accomplish this, of course, would re-
qure a writer of drama not of melodrama
But there were times when it seemed as if |
Mr.. Belasco were triumphing here also.
He succeeded. in fact, in proportion as |
he relied for his effects upon the simplest |
and most legitimate means. The rising
Of the panoramic front drop disclosed a |
revel in the saloon. Adjoining
the stage was dance hall, from which |
issued the sound of music and the shuttle |
Of feet, the men dancing in couples for the |
lack of women folk; while glimpses of |
activity in the world oustide the window |
how clever Belasco is at this of stage bus- |
nessl- extended and intensified the atmos-
phere NJ reality In full view on the stape |