The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-05-06

years on the stage, who have had am
pie opportunity to learn the tricks of
their trade, and who have no excuse
Tor being ignorant of theatric craft.
are able To put together effectual PLAYS
l doht say they should be expected to
write good literature: that is not in
GUIDED in the accomplishments of their
cailing; but should they lack judgment
as TO what Will and what won't interest
audiences? Four plays by actors are
the Week output of new theatrical
material in New York I would be
sorry II 1t were my duty to award a
Ieather medal to the worst of them for
the decision would be very hard to
make and the only way out of the diff
nculty would be to cut the prize into
quarters, so that it might be distributed
Lnparually for equal WOrthlessness
Two OF these plays are presented at
theatres bearing the names of Wallack
and Daily, and still are temples of dra-
matte art; yet 1.-The District Leader"
ana Cousin Louisa" are so devoid of
merit as the less pretentiOuS Mon
tana' and THE Man of Her Choice
But II compelled to give the leather
! medal to one of the four actor-au-
thors, 1 would hand il to Frederick
Pauldins because he is superfne
actor who began thirty years ago with
an astonishing similarity to Edwin
Booth in the Booth repertory has had
a great amount of experience as a di-
rector of stock companies in hundreds
of plays. and therefore has a special
claim on the BOBBY prize for Cousin
Louisa" although that is the least bad
among the four maIadroit compositions.
The only tolerable new thing in it is
Mary Van Buren,, q surely beautiful
and probably clever actress; but can't
] be sure about her ability, for she has
never been on a New York stage be-
! fore, and the chara cter in which she
/ is introduced would defy Bernhardt
and Rejane, if they were one composite
! actress, TO do anything with it's emo
( ton or its POPULARITY.
Cousin Louisa is both a grass widow
/ and sod WidOW-Separated by divorce
| from her first husband and by death
/ from her second. The gOne-forever one
| bequeathed three millions to her on
/ condition that she shall not ren1arry
/ within a year. he and the still-alive
! one become lovers again. but he. dis
dams the wealth of his successor and
/ predecessor. and won't wed the grass
! sod widow while she keeps It. But no
| little thing like that battles her renewed
/ ardor. She times the marriage in the
| forenoon. because the year Of prohibit
! ton Will expire by the afternoon. SO as
! to deprive herself of the three mil
! lions and qualify herself as a penniIess
/ bride. That is put forward in all seri-
/ BUSINESS as the deeply emotional ele-
ment Of the play.
Five other millions are involved in
! the complications that are meant to
! be jocular. They have been entrusted
| to Louisa for apportionment among five
/ Of her dead husbands relatives In ac-
! cordance with her own estimate of
| those persons w0rthiness. Stage money
| is so plentiful in the foolery of farces
! that probably no playwright could
make il seem to much account in the
! sedate half of a comedy. But an old
! stager like Paulding shouldn't have
! failed to assemble a lot of funny things
| for Louisa and the FIVE possible heirs
/ 10 do while she. without her identity
! being suspected makes a visit of in
! spectiOn in their household and fools
| them into betrayalS of their virtues and
| vices Details are needless. The fail
ure is told by writing that the audi
| ence laughed but not often 4 { what was
meant to be laughable.
Joseph E. Howard wrote not only the
words of THE District Leader" but
| also the music, and he acted in it, too.
| 1t is a guess that he served in fourth
capacity, that of the plays financier.
! But this actor-aUthOr-cOm angel
could not be accused of hugging his
! own material. The evening was half
done before q tall, goOd-loOking. we'll
dI essed man strolled into view. If Mr..
| Towards friends in the audience had
not identified him with applause.
strangers wouldn't have known that
! the six feet of man that grew straight
up from a pair of muStard-cOlOr spatS
was more than merely one in the stage
crowd. It was almost at the end of
his play that he gave himself some
! thing TO do. The scene was Union
square. with autumnal foliage in front,
sky-scraping buildings behind, and Mr..
Howard among the loungers on the
park benches. He slipped casually and
| agreeably into such a song as he is
noted for making. It was about a Big
! Banshee, and he sang it with a Chaun-
cey Olcott brogue. Presently he was
still more like Olcott with little child
wound around his neck.
SO short was THE District Leader
that, although it started after eight
thirty. it was all over by ten-thirty,
with the theatre closed up and the ref
ugees removed to safety. Announce
ments had said that Mr.. Howard in
tended to revive the -Harrigan and
Hart form of entertainment, but it
would have been truer to say that he
was cutting and fitting on the George
Cohan pattern. With a Tom Lewis
sort of unknown" a scene in China
town. a melodramatic plot and man
ner of song and chorus interpretations
THE District Leader was like a mis-
guided dress rehearsal of Little John
ny Jones' CohSn's fault Of over-plot-
ting was copied and aggravated so
badly that Howard alone can know
what the piece is about, and may be
he doesn't.
Things began to happen in an up
town hotel the night before an election.
A political conspiracy was prepared.
and a disguised newspaper reporter
partially frustrated il. An elaborately
evening-dressed adventures popped up
with the assertion that she had been
married and deserted two years be-
fore by Tammany candidate for Of
fee. On second thought, I apologize
for calling the lady an adventures.
tOnty her clothes were adventurous.
She had a scheming look but it turned
out that she really had mislaid a hus-
band IN Denver, and he reSembled the
fair and square politician so closely,
being in point Of fact his long-lost and
morally astray brother that the same