The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-04

that Sir Henry Irving had cultivated
 his mannerisms as means of distin- gushing his performances. and as proof the fact was cited that in some
 roles he put them off. while in social life, even when making after-dinner speeches, he betrayed no trace of them.
 Tt means success for an actor" said my friend, "when the caricaturists and
 the burlesquers take him up. Our Mansfeld's first boost came when fun
 was made of his affectations. Mrs.
 Fiske knew she was on her way when
 her peculiarities were attacked by stage
 humorists Mrs. Carter felt sure of
 herself when they began to pull her red
 hair"
 Nevertheless, the younger Irving does not ape his fathers singularties, nor disclose any of his own. There is q similarity between the two Irvings in
 the intellectual face and the commando ing figure; also, in some tones of the smoother voice and gestures of the
 more graceful pantomime; bat there is never any of the well-remembered gro- tesquery of gait and speech. Henry B.. Is versatile, too-rather more so than his father, I think. The first half of "Mauricette" Is light comedy. with the faithless husband more amusing than
 deplorable--a volatile, shallow, humor- ous type of the gay Parisian. It is not until he brings his licentious pro- clivities into his own household. and makes his loyal wife and the innocent girl the sufferers from them, that he | becomes hateful and detestible. Be- fore that Irving is very proficient farceur.
 Prefatory to "Mauricette" In the bill l is "Markheim," esteemed by many ad- mirers of Robert Louis Stevenson's eth- ical tales as worthier than "Dr. Jekyll : and Mir. Hyde" Markheim goes to the shop of a dealer to whom he has sold
 many stolen articles, but this time his crrand Is to murder and plunder. Hav- | ing killed the man, he begins to ransack ! the place for his hoard of money. Now. l Markheim is no common criminal, but 1 has a cultured mind and susceptible conscience. and when, suddenly. the | weight of his awful deed depresses him, he filings himself across counter ! in remorseful agony. Upon lifting his | head he sees a man. confronting him. l All of the room save the two faces is dark. Those white visages are il- lumined so adroitly that the lighting | falls on nothing else. its source is not discernible, and so its effect is super ! natural. Stevenson calls the visitor a spirit You are left to guess whether 1 it is the Hyde to a Jekyll in Markheim' S | Faust. He tells the murderer of his peril argues that it would be futile as well as foolish to abandon the job 1 half done, assures the wavering wretch i that nothing can save him from crim-
 inal career and offers to tell him where
 the hidden mOnuey Is. There Is d rap at the door,
 That is the servant, says the spirit.
 Let her in and kill her. That is your
 only way"
 ''I reject your aid says Markhem,
 now resolute; let me alone"
 The spirit disappears. The servant
 enters.
 Go to the police," Markheim says. T have killed your master" Quite as weird as Sir Henry in "The Bells" is Henry B. in "Markheim. .' Alongside those plays of London make I am ashamed to place. as New
 Yorks most remarkable output of the week. The Day Before" and Nam selle Champagne" an entertainment
 based on the Thaw White homicide. The
 little theatre once known as Mrs. Os- borne's playhouse, where Harry Thaw
 and Stanford White picked out Evelyn
 Nesbit from the row of showgirls sub
 mitted to wealthy profiigates for admi-
 ration, was reaponed for this enterprise. The expectation was that the house
 could be made bawdier than before by
 exploiting the tragedy which had got i it's start there.
 l Thaw, White and Evelyn, by name. as well as imitation, were the char l acters in '"rhe Day Before" Thaw was represented as having married Ev- 1 elyn away from White, and hubby and
 wifey were trying to be good together; but White was determined that Evelyn 1 should go back to him and be bad i again. The triune scenes offensive ] ness was made ridiculous by an actress
 weighing in at 200 pounds to imper-
 senate the 100 pounds of Evelyn's aes-
 thetic and etheral beauty. with the
 bulk threatening to burst the confines
 of the tiny stage with emotional phe-