Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-09
The Foreign Stage.
Iai Correspondence of the Star.

LONDON, May 25. 1907.
HOLSTERS, rarebits, plenty of Pilsener beer:
Plenty Of girls to help you drink. with the best of
cheer"
Thus ran ditty that was written in the
old days Of the New York Casino by C. M.
8. Mcclellan, who then called himself
Hugh Morton" 1t was not a particularly
elevating ditty, nor particularly amusing
one but it persisted in running through my
head yesterday l read the story of Nc
Lellans new play outlined by him to
London reviewer.
And what a play! Such drama never
was on sea or land. All about a beautiful
American girl who converts the whole
Standard Oil trust to righteousness. downs
a hydra headed military monster and
does other amazing things. But that is not
the point at present. The point is the ex-
traordinary change that has come over the
author of Leah Kleschna'' and The Belle
of New York" since the days when he was
writing about HOLSTERS and rafebits and
Pilsener beer for the deleetation Of Ten
derloin audiences -
Is the atmosphere of England. where he
has lived of late, to be credited with the
artistic Conversion" of C. NJ. S. Mcclellan?
the time when he wrote THE Belle" which
had mildly religious faver, you remem-
ber And since then the ex-librettist of the
Casino has made very rapid progress in
deed toward the higher thought" Leah
Klesch1a,'' for instance, contained quite
lot of what might be called 'preachiness,
but, like The Belle of New York" it had
the compromising advantage of being
good play, and that. alas. Mr.. McLellan's
late pieces have quite failed to be. There
AZ Tot for mil
which had such a brief career at the Lon
don, Shaftesbury last year. 1t proved a
sort of dramatic tract in a series of tab
leaux, and, If one remembers correctly,
left the rake who was its hero kneeling at
the foot of the cross!
There was McLellan's NELLY Neil" too;
musical comedy, forsooth, and yet so
filled with ''symbolical scenes and talk
about the millennium that it could not be
saved by all the droueries of Joe Coyne
and all the witcheries Of Edna May, and
had a gloomy finish after forced run at
the Aldwych.
No; admirable as are McLellan's efforts
to shake off Hugh Morton" and to write
uplifting stage pieces, those efforts are not
success and he would do better to go
back to his earlier. manner, though not
necessarily to HOLSTERS, rarebits and Pilse-
ner" Much better; but he won't, for
while. anyway He persists in being sym
bolical," and, as already hinted the new
piece on which he is engaged at present Is
the most fearful and wonderful thing that
he has attempted And Judith Zaraine, it's
heroine. is just violet Grey" and Nelly
Neil" over again-fn fact, the heroine who
wants people to follow in the path that
leads to sweet salvation appears to have
obsessed Mcclellan, who can't get away
from 1t.
Let it be admitted however that If the
American dramatist hasn't been cured yet
of writing this kind of play he is no longer
deluded as to it's chances of success. He
foresees that Judith Zarane' will be re-
jected unanimously by. the managers Of
America and England! But he adds that
even If his idea of modern Joan of Arc
converting the Standard Oil Company to
holy resolution Is apparently preposter-
ous,' 1t strikes him as rather pretty" and
50 he is going on with 1t whether or no.
Well, truly this is wonderful thing
that has been imagined by the author Of
The Belle of New York, and If ever it Is
put on the stage there will be a crowd for
the first performance, at all events. Do
not imagine. by the by, that McLellan's
new piece Is in any way plagiarism on
deals with a girl and the Standard Oil
trust. No indeed for this piece goes much
farther than Charles Klein ever dreamed
of-in fact, 1t is difficult to say where it
doesn't go.
This time too, it is literally the whole
Standard Oil organization that "get reig-
ion through a WomanS influence. Nor
does this strike the dramatist as entirely
absurd. Are not American milionaires
already hurting their fortunes into the sea-"
he asked his interviewer land faring forth
| to the simple life?" One hadn't heard of
this. but 1t doesn't matter. Il am not at all
sure" continued the author, that a Judith
Zaraine might not arise among the people
at some crisis of American history and, ap-
plying the torch to the paraffin of the neigh
borhood, start a religious fire which, when
| 1t had burned away, would leave among
| the ashes jewel which would be recog-
| nzed as the long-lost conscience of the
| rational trusts
Think of that, and all done by a girl,
| beautiful. religious, as Mr.. Mcclellan
says, land obsesses, like Joan of Arc (and
| it might be added like the author, too), by
an inspiration for self-sacrifcev'
OF course love plays a big part in this
| drama, but Mcclellan declares that it Is not