Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-01-14


61 traction each night in the week.
''The virginIan" brought out to the Boyd the
best attendance OF the season for four per-
formances. while woodland on Thurs
day night had a crowd that surpassed
any single performance In point of num-
bers. Never was such jam at the doors
noted as when the audience gathered that
evening. II was simply due to the desire
OF all that they be seated when the curtains
went up, and as a matter of history II
ought to be set down that all were seated
and that there was not a vacant chair In
the theater when the performance began.
The Krug had two OF its strongest attrac-
lions, and did its biggest weeks business
for the season. George Sidney, with Busy
Izky," got more money than he ever did be-
fore. and the Hal Reed piece that finished
the week brought out the blood and thunder
devotees en- masse. At the Orpheum the
big bill was well patronized. and the Bur-
wood did its usual capacity trade all week.
so that altogether the week was most en-
couraging to the managers.
Dustin Farnum is very fortunate this
season in having for a leading woman one
who has a rational conception of the role.
ana who can give II intelligent interpreta-
tiOus molly WOOQ udQ bOfne very well ue-
veloped notions of her own when she went
out west; In fact every woman has when
she first comes into contact with the world.
II she had not been full OF an abiding
faith in her own abilities she would hardly
have started from Bennington to take the
position OF school teacher at Bear Creek.
That she found Wyoming different from
Vermont is also a natural sequence Of con-
ditions, and that she was unable to see
things through the eyes of the people
around her follows just as logically. But
Molly Wood learned her lesson in time. and
as the ways of conventional society dropped
from her, and she came more into SYM
pathy with the primitive manners of those
about her. she learned to appreciate the
sterling qualities of those with whom her
lot was cast. II was but reasonable that
she should come to feel that under GER
tain conditions a man must either kill or
be killed; that running away from a fight
was an admission of cowardice. and that
the law Of meum ct tuum In that country
at that time meant an even break and
nothing more. A man had his free choice,
and when no had chosen, no other man
would say him nay. II he went right all
well; IL he didn't and was caught. he was
hanged. All this Molly Wood came to
know. and she learned to love the country,
its ways, Its people, and-the Virginian.
Miss Conwell makes the unfolding of the
character of Molly. with it's variations in
mood. a delightful study, and seems to
fully realize the possibilities of the part.
1t Is unnecessary here to praise again Mr..
Farnum, Mr.. Campeau or any of the others
whose splendid work make 1.-The virginian"
so fine a play.
We have celebrated the cowboy, the
miner. the engineer and the soldier. The
picturesque charms and peculiar language
OF the man who wears leather breaches and
large six-shooter, whose outdoor life
and untrammeled ways have made him
a large part OF a bygone day in the west
have been duly celebrated In several more
or less accurate stage versions of his ex.
istence. That educated gentlemen Of
strenuous ways and poetic Imagination,
who linked a mans determination to a
woman's fancy. while he spanned gorges.
toppied mountains from their bases,
stretched long highways for commerce and
fought with men and beasts that civiliza-
ton might enter the realm of savagery
has been sung and acted with approximate
propriety. Literature fairly teens with
the efforts made to put the miner properly
before the public, and we have had him in
what the printer-man would call fourteen
colors and "a tint Beginning with Bret
Harte and ending with Paul Armstrong,
he has run his way through a range of
drama almost wide as the possibilities
of the stage and apparently suffers no
diminution Of interest as a result of the
lavish uses made Of him as a central figure
In romance. More general than either OF
these three has been the celebration of the
M Of
some degree Of the elemental qualities OF
this one Individual, and his impression is
on every page or romance. while he lights
literature of all sorts. even staid and sober
Clio devoting the best of her endeavors &c
chronicling his doings and sayings. Poets
have sung in heroic measure or liltins
melody the deeds OF daring and feats OF
arms, and historians have followed ex.
hausting the language to tell OF his accom-.
plishments. Verify. the soldier has nc
occasion to complain that he has not hac
sufficient space in literature.
-
Now comes humber claimant to atten
ton; one who has waited patiently and lon,
for some sort OF recognition. He has beer
sung in homely rhyme by the humber Do
cts. but his deeds, though manifold" hav,
not yet attracted the serious attention O.
those VINO Dy their pens have deifed tn
others. Who will hymn the hymn 10 Agric
ola that shall put him alonside the other
In the category? Is he not an heroic hgure
as he stands in his manly strength, full
muscled. deep chested. with bronzed fac
and wavy hair, an eye as clear as his hear
is clean, living near to nature, O part o
the Divine Symphony OF Life? Why SHOULD
he be ignored. when o hers less worthy hav
been given such full recognition? II no cat
tie had ever been herded on the prairies o
the west, still would the farmer have fur
nished mankind from his herds and hocks
II no gold had eer been dug. still would tn
farmer have fed us from his fields, and hal
grim-visaged War never shown hi
wrtnkled front. still mankind would hav
turned 10 the farmer, for his labor
needed that man may live. And, were
not for the farmer the engineer would neve
have been called upon to achieve those tri
umphs OF his art which stand so proud
as tributes to mans mastery OF natur,
Without the farmer neither cowboy, no
miner. nor engineer, nor soldier. nor an
OF the figures that hll the pages OF litera
ture could exist. From the soil comes a
wealth, and constant communion with ma
ture can not fail to impress a sensitiy