The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-23

racers for a finish. But in this vaude-
vile dramalet, three thoroughbreds
run madly distance of half mile or
so on stationary treadmills. while a
panorama is moved rapidly behind
them, and the illusion Of an actual race
is created. And Neil Burgess income
continues.
One of those divans that encircle a
high centerpiece is in q drawing room
in Panhandle Pete" and I wondered
why until Pete, the panhandler,
crawled under the seat to hide, lifted
the top of the center like a lid, pro-
truded his frowsy head lige jack-in-a-
box, and then sank out Of sikht when a
woman came in She took off her bon
net and jabbed long hat pin down
through the cushion-like lid A yell of
pain came from within and Pete popped
up with the pin thrust through his ear.
l describe that because. positively, it
is the only novelty I'm the play.
But the people at suburban theatre
were tickled by the unoriginality be-
cause they were used to laughing at
some of it, and because the rest was
newly brought from Broadway sources.
James Harrigdn was q familiar ac-
quaintance from vaudeville, not identi-
fed at sight, but recognized when he
began to make up as a tramp. The
idea of the show is to do what had
been done with Nat Wills, Walter Jones
and Ward and Vokes-make Harrigan
the tramp star comedian of a musical
farce. So there is the tramp juggier,
repeating his dexterous tricks and rag
muffin antics, besides having a spell of
monologue filled with jokes of matri-
mony, and another spell of doggerel
parodies of popular ballads. His faith
full adherents laughed Loyalty at every
old thing he does, even to striking a
match on his unshaven chin and talk
ing with his mouth crammed with
bread. Nevertheless, they laugh a lot
more at the hat pin stuck through his
ear. And then. again, when he induces
unsuspecting girls TO stand over the
grating of q subway ventilator. so that
the draught blows their skirts over
their heads, the glee is hilarious. That
device is taken from a recent Broad
way play, and 1T isn't polite, but it
proves that while some folks will laugh
at stale fun, those same folks will
laugh harder and longer when the fun
is fresh.
Theodore Roosevelt was made per-
sonage in play Of trusts versus labor
lately, and audiences cared so little for
the president, as therein brought down
TO a theatrical level, that the piece has
been retired for reconstruction with the
political element eliminated This week
we have William Jennings Bryan on
the stage, by the proxy of an initiative
actor but in this case it is a sketch in
vaudeville.
Right here I offer a reward Of a blue
ribbon for a false high forehead that
won't show it's junction with a real
low forehead. Our women folk go shop
ping with a sample Of dress stuff, and
come home with ribbons Of precisely
the same color. That actors don't make
the tints of flesh and papier mache eX-
actly alike is proof that the won't
Yet John w. Ranshme renders himself
liable to the accusation of being q ma
llcious enemy of Mr.. Bryan, instead of
the exploiting friend that he pretends
to be, when he makes the Nebraskan
pink half way up his forehead and
white above that line. I won't specU-
late as to the inside condition Of the
brain in a head thus variegated in tints
outside And when the color line is
further marked by a ridge in the skin,
what sinister design Of malicious mis-
representation may not fairly be attrib-
uted to Mr.. Ransome.
In other respects this made-believe
Bryan looks like the genuine Bryan,
and at the outset .acts and talks like
him; but soon the manner, voice and
diction drop to those of a mOnologue
humorist, VINO makes Bryan tell old
jokes as new from his European tour.
However, Bryan's adherents in the au-
dience don't get discouraged, and
when Ransome sings Down With
Trusts and Up With Toll there is
enough cheering to enliven a political
meeting.
It was not until Mr.. Bryan. by the
tactless proxy of Ransome, medled with
local politics, that he got into trouble.
This was the day before the primary
election, in which the rivalry between
Hearst and Jerome for Tammany en-
dorsement for the governorship nomi-
nation would some TO a finish fight. The
make-believe Bryan came out fiat for
Mearst. Thereupon the Hearstites
yelled and so cid the Jeromers, but the
two factions said different kinds of
things, and for awhile the actor made
his mouth go without being heard at
all.
To some Of US who saw Booths
hunchback jester in 1.-The Fools Re-
venge," his expression of malice to his
royal employer and love to his cher
ished daughter still seems the acme of
contrast in a single personation. With
younger folk very likely Mansfields
tricky rather than great performance
of I'D. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde" sands
out as the most vivid depletion Of dual
ity in discord. Something like Victor
Hugo's and Robert Louis Stevenson's
creatures Of contrariety is attempted
by Stanley Dark in a new play called
Man and His Angel" inspired by
Tennysons Day Dreams" The poet
wrote:
"If there be
A devil in a man, there is an angel, too;
And if he did the wrong you charge
him with,
His angel broke his heart"
That Is to say, as Beecher was fond
Of preaching, there is an upper and a
lower nature fighting in every man
for dominance; as set forth in Hugo's
play and SteVenson's story; and in poor
Beecher's case in real life, we know
how de structive was the conflict. Stan
ley Dark illustrates this theme in Man
and His Angel" with a man who is q
deformed cripple and a girl who is an
angel of loneliness. The story goes
that David rryne, hideous, has been
the servitor and defender since her
childhood Of Sonia SteDDiaIc baa1,tifl1l