The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-25
"xlrs. Wigs. Tuesday.


 Laughter dominates tears in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. which will appear at the Montgomery Thea tre Tuesday night but there is much genuine merit in the play.
 Two touching scenes unusually well acted give the serious contrast to what might otherwise be called the short and comic annals of the poor There must be something very special in 2 play of this type, which unfaiIingiy entertafns the most biase audiences of the great est cities. Mrs. Wiggs does that and il is the kindly humor and breezy plifi- osophy of the woman who, with q whole family on her back so to speak. finds life not only worth living but ab- soIuteIy enjoyable. Mrs. wiggs is a woman who gives you a belief in hu- man nature after all The books upon which the play is dramatized have been so widely read that all the quaint say ings and sunny philosophy have be- come public property.
 The incarnation of the character something which rarely happens in dra- matized stories-by no means weakens the points, but gives them fresh, new strength and zest and the lines become mora meaningful when spoken in the stage picture.
 The play Is adroitIy staged. The devices which poverty compels In the
 
 care of large family of children strike the feminine side of the theatre-going public on the funny bone at the begin l ming, and even the most .saturnine of bachelors is compelled to laugh. The Character of Mrs. wiggs being natural, enc never in any particular overdrawn. I she commends herself at once to the favor and liking of the house. but the | fun really begins when Mrs. Hazy l makes her entrancs.
 i Helen Lowell displays the genius l If comic sadness in Mis- Hazy's ap- pearance and impersonation. Maybe it | is just a little bit of a caricature, | but it is kept we'll within | the lines and sustained with such l perfect seriousness that 1t becomes pos | itively convincing and necessarily I laughable. She reads her lines with a voice so woe-begone aad enacts the &C., | companying business with method so
 in keeping that Mis- Hazy will never
 be forgotten by anyone who sees her | performance.
 Charles Carter. who was the best of Cy Primes in "The Old Homestead" is
 Mir. Stubbins. which he makes a rich l comedy character. There is a capital 1 drunken scene and the wooing of his dollar wife is hilarlously laughabIe. Annie Fields and Helen Raymond give l capital pictures of characters we all | recognize.
 | Bessie Barriscale, particularly comedy young woman, has the delect- l able and sympathetic role of Lovey Mary, which goes straight to every won ans heart. Master Jack Wilson is Little Tommy and is a loveable young ster. Billy Wiggs and Chris Hazy. with his wooden leg. are real boys Mrs. Wiggs (Mrs. Madge Carr Cook) | gives more than a mere bit of charac- 1 ter work as Mrs. Wiggs. The practi- | cal side of the woman makes her phil osophy convincing. as really the result l of experience. Her cheerfulness seems 1 genuine and nothing in the role appears assumed. There are two scenes. how 1 ever, in which she does something of rarer quality. The meeting with her errant husband is a moment when she | lifts the whole play and in the simply, 1 intense display of the depth of her wo- | mans nature the touch of the artistic | is irresistible and most pathetic. Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" is series of pictures and characters