The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-04

forth her life-work of rearing her
three boys rightiy-of being "a maker
Of men" Miss Ellington preached her
sermon eloquently, and made our eyes
overflow with tears for such tender
ly true wife and mother. This was a
pathetic drama.
Belasco's wife in the play that came
next was named Middleton, while Su-
tro's had been Harrington, and when
Frank keenan,, in MY Aunt's Ad-
vice., looked at Miss Bates and saw
her resemblance to the other actress,
he said, Good afternoon, Mrs. Hing
ton" and then cOnfusedly corrected
hls-Well, let it go for a blunder. But
If it was a trick it was winning one,
for it marked the sequence of wives
and made the audience laugh. The
second wife, though, had a less ethical
lesson to learn and teach; which was
that, If you hate your husbands chum
and desire TO get him out of the house,
the best way isn't the one your aunt
advises, if she tells you to pretend love
for the chum, SO that your husband
VIII become jealous and turn him out.
This was a hilarious farce.
A third play at this matinee was pro-
duced by Ethel Barrymore, for whom
Richard Harding Davis had written it,
The title, Miss Civilization" indicated
problem piece, and so it was, for it
presented in a Way-but didn't answer
one or civilizations questions: How
does one pretty girl charm men out of
their wits, and make them all the kinds
of fools that she cares to, while none
of the next hundred equally pretty
girls can do it? The public picturers
don't let us forget that Ethel is an ex-
ample of the type of beauty Just now
= a w rnd nd -T7ov,
see her on the stage we have to admit
that they haven't fiattered while ex-
plotting her; but why she is peculiarly
irresistible I would like to find out? /
will grant you that my fingers on one
hand are enough to count the Ameri-
| can actresses as perfectly Gibsonesque
as she, If you will grant me that could
go over both hands fingers and both
feets toes without enumerating all who
are, or more, accomplished in their art
than this natural-born spellbinder.
What a book agent she would make
what an insurance solicitor-what a
buncO operator-what a religious re-
Vivalistl
When Clyde Fitch made Ethel a jol-
lier Of press reporters in Captain
Jinks," I thought that her personality
couldn't be staged more aptly, but
Richard Harding Davis goes cleverly
further in Miss Civilization" by max
ing her a jOsher of burglars. This short
play is a comedy written in the way Of
the Davis stOries--with sane pen
dipped in crazy ink.
Don't make a noise,'' says Ethel 10
three burglars, who have broken into d
country house at night; my mother is
sick abed and she mustn't be alarmed.
! You see, mother is not strOng-Iike I
am"
There you perceive, we get the girls
I unconscious "a in
age, followed by the joke Of her receiv-
ing the ruffians politely as though she
had no reason to be afraid of them. The
room is dark, but even those unfamil-
lar with EtheIS voice recognize it, for
Elsie Janis has just mimicked it: so we
at once identify the girl who is very
dimly disclosed. We hear her call up
the crew of a freight train over a
1 phone, tell them that robbers are
| breaking IN, order them to cut loose
/ their locomotive and come to her res
cue, and add calmly that, as her father
! is president of the railway company.
/ they'll lose their jobs if they don't
/ hustle. Yet there is the chance that
they will arrive too late, and we would
! be interested in that uncertainty, but
for another one that presents itself.
/ Ethel has come directly from her bed
room to the dining room, and shall we
/ see her in a nightgOwn when the lights
!
/ know that such a self possessed girl
wouldn't come downstairs to meet even
/ burglars without throwing on a peg
nor, or g kimOnO or a something or
other. When that suspense is over, we
arc amused by the wit with which she
/ detains the robbers and by the humOr
| Of the situation, until the trafnmen
swoop in on her deluded guests.
Don't make a noise" she says to
| the rescuers; my mother is sick abed
and she mustn't be alarmed. You see,
mother is not strOng-like I am
Then she faints limp into mans
arms, thus ending the mostly laughable
/ play as it has begun, with a touching
expression Of a daughters filial love.
| Naturally, discipline is relaxed until
none is felt when volunteers give a
charity entertainment. Ethel Barry
more's brother, Jack, was cast for the
hungry one of the three burglars, and
Davis asked him to please make q, show
of eating heartily while his pals gath
cred the swag and were beguiled by
! their hostess.
"That1I be all right" said the actor;
the matinee begins before my lunch
time and III save up my appetite"
But our piece won't come on till late
! in the afternoon"
"All the better. I'll give you realism
to beat. Hearne's turkey dinner in
Shore Acres And I've told the pro-
erty man he needn't provide any I. e
food. I'll look after the stuff myself"
But, look here, Jack" said Ethel;
don't get SO engTOssed in your realism
/ that you forget your cues"
At the point where the voraciOus
burglar should have taken some cold
ham and a bottle of beer from re-
frigerator. a broad tray, laden with a
choice luncheon from a neighboring
restaurant was handed to him at the
doorway The viands were cold, to be
sure but they ranged from chilled
partridge to salad with appetizers all
around the sides and a bottle Of cham
payne, not beer, in the middle It was
then past o'clock and the actor was
ravenOus. This reads like press
agency fiction, doesn't 1t? And you
are expecting a fanciful climax glori-
tying both Ethel and Jack aren't you?
| But there was no such a thing. The
| sincerity of his eating tickled the
| audience, but t made him neglect
/ cues, as she had dreaded, and he did
nothing to help her out Of the trouble
/ that he caused. Nor did she eXtricate
/ herself and getting no cue to go on