Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-17
ON BROWN
A FINE CHAP
HARVARD COMEDY PROVES A
RARE TREAT
PRESENTS INTIMATE PICTURE
OF VARSITY LIFE
Play Serves to Introduce Characters
Familiar to All College Men,
Whether from Cambridge
or Elsewhere
BY sIDLE LAWRENCE


'I don't ask you to be diplomatic: mere
ly Rooseveltlan." This was the instruc-
ton Tom Brown Of Harvard gave to his
friend, "Tubby' Anderson at the Mason
last night; and Tubby made good IN
strenuous Roosevelt fashion. 1t was his
task to get out of the way chap who
was monopollzing the girl Brown had
marked for his own. He tried first the
Dear Maria form of diplomacy, and, that
falling, called in "the gang who very
promptly picked up the butter-in and
carried him bodily off the stage, all of
which gave Henry Woodruff, in the role
of Brown, opportunity to make love in
about as amusing a fashion as the thing
ever has been done-before an audience.
1t is easy to account for the popularity
of Brown of Harvard" The play comes
to the college man like delightful remin-
iscence; and to the Harvard man like a
brief return not to his alma mater alone,
but to the undergraduate life in which he
once had a part Here are presented the
old familiar scenes, the yard, the Weld
Boat club, Browns room, presumably IN
Beck hall, and distant vistas of other
spots dear to Harvard recollection.
Here is the freshman, Il tender shrub
with luxuriant green foliage; the sopho-
more, the Junior and the senior, collect
ively subdivided into digs" 'muckers
and their better favored though less In
dustrious antitheses. Here is the 'fusser,
the college squire of danes; the eqicure
in the making, with marvellous capaclty
for hot buckwheats and hot dogs; the
glee club men; the crew and all the rest
of them. They are not native to Harvard
alone. these types, for in truth there is
nothing in the play save the scenery
that would be out of place if made to do
duty under other than the crimson col
ors Hence it is that Brown of Har-
yard" appeals irresistibly to college men
wherever they may have matrlculated;
while to the others it presents hignly
interesting and intimate picture of an i'm
portant phase of American life.
So far as the story of the play is con-
cerned. it is rather commonplace, but the
story doesn't much matter There is one,
and it's a story of love that roesn't run
smoothly; though the love element is at
all times subordinated to varsity activf-
ties.
Pink and White Oarsmen
There are some few details in the stag
ing of the play that might well be I'M
proved; one that could be improved so
easily you wonder why it has not been
done. The college man who has ever
seen an eight pumped out at the end of
a gruelling race knows the men do not
come leaping up the boat house steps
after their victory, untanned by the sun
and as dry as when they entered their
shell, but they do those very things on
the stage. They are we'll musc.ed chaps,
these youngsters, but pink and white as
upon their first day on the river.
So far as the acting is concerned, there
isn't an actor in the company. They're
simply a crowd of undergrads, living their
own life, in their own way. They don't
act. They don't have to.
Henry Woodruff, who created the role
of Brown and who still is playing 1t, is
said to be a Harvard man. If he isn't
he ought to have Deen. Handicapped by
q voice that plays him sad tricks at times
Mr.. Woodruff still gives us a picture of
the college man that is about as real as
1t we'll could be.
He is very likable chap this Brown
of Harvard, chap with the happy fac
ulty of detecting joke even in the most
dolorous of situations. His good humor
is unfailing, You readily understand his
popularity, and you would like nothing
better than seat upon his table with
pipe and stein, land a good song ringing
clear"
Then, there's the girl, played by Miss
Helena Byrne. Miss Byrne is to be much
praised for what she doesn't do and for
the delightfully."- apologetic way in which
she laughs at Browns unique style of
wooing, when she really would have en-
joyed good cry much better AS for
the fellows, they're just plain boy, a
weakling, a rascal and a stroke oar"
who is of another type and. almost. of
another social world.
There are many good lines in Brown
of Harvard Here's a bit of that
youngsters philosophy, expounded in re-
ply to taunting remark from one of his
friends: "She's woman, isn't she? WE'LL
IL / look cheap she won't be able to re-
sist the bargain" And another one:
when a woman's self-nnade she keeps
quiet about 1t. She doesn't want any
body to get onto her curves" The pre-
science of the undergrad in these two
speeches needs no further exposition.