Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-15
THE QUICKSANDS."

Wright Lorimer. an English actor
 with his own company, presented
 The Quicksands" before a small au-
 dience at Polls last evening. The
 play is by Alicia Ramsey and Ru-
 dolph de Cordova, and in many ways
 resembles "The Bells" as played by
 Henry Irving. Lorimer, who has the
 role of Austin. the wayward son,
 after strangling his own child, quar-
 rels with his father, and after a fiery scene oYer the act of the son
 the father is seized with heart trou-
 ble and passes away. As the sleigh
 bells haunted Irving in "The Bells" " so is Austin terrified in ''The Quick sands" for his life is made a hell on earth because of ever hearing the cries of the child that he has stran-
 gled. At length after ten years of misery he has become such wreck
 because of mental anguish that he breathes his last. The first act is one of the best of the four and is perhaps the strongest of the play. Especially emotional is the scene be- 1 tween the father and son when the latter begs for locket which had
 unknown to Austin got in the hands of his father and which had been taken from the neck of the girl, Mary, wrongcd by Austin, and who | is in prison accused of having mur- dered her own child. The girl is the only person that is aware of Austin's guilt until her almost blind father seizes the locket from her neck and going to Sir Austin Ferrars. Aus tins father, asks for mercy for his daughter. who is condemned to death. Sir Austin, the judge. is not interested until he opens the locket and finds that the man who is guilty is his own son. He keeps the locket. sends the girls father away without any hope of her being paTdoned, but immediately Confronts Austin with the locket when he comes home late that night. The scene results in the fathers death. The second act comes after d lapse of ten years. Austin has married and two children grace his home He thinks he is on the road to happiness, when his sis ter Maggie is visited by her lover. George Carnegie, who is no other than Mary's twin brother. but under the name of Carnegie. Austin is struck with terror when he gazes upon the eouTtenance so much like the face of the girl dying in prison for a muTde- committed by him. The last two acts show Austin be- coming a maniac Terrified in his sleep because of the frightful dreams he is afraid to close his eyes and trsmhles at almost every breeze that blows. Tn the third act he gives a splendid piece of acting when Mary's twin brother is relating to him the manner in which she had been treat ed by the he11 that killed her child
 Austin. the twin brother and the for mer's wife are the only persons in the room. ani as the story is told hov the girl died in prison after being there for ten years. Austin can scarcel, listen He sasps- he chokeS- trsmbIeS. turns ghzstlv pale, but the others think EE is tired and i'll. never susBeeting that he is the criminal His acting in the final scene where he rushes from his bed chamber cry ing for help IS thrilling He then gives the scene between himself and father the night the latter died which made the audience thinE of ths slsep-vzIhng scene of Mae beth-- whs1 he is done hs col lzpsssL His makeup in ths last act