Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-03-23

n lew YORK, March Is Most peO
\t rle believe the average profess
| sionai critic to be a sour indi'
yldual who delights IN condemn
lug whatever Is presented Tor his in
spectIon. This Is far from bfns lh'
truth; indeed. the ordinary reviewer Is
SO afraid OF being thought acrimonious
thu he draads being compelled 20 write
unfaY0rably of performance quite
aware Of the facs that ! have been COM
planning Of play after play during th'
past lnouth entered upon last week
With + prayer thar there might b.
something which could praise III terms
OF unstlnied enthusiasm, The sched-
ule looked promising. There was The
spoilers" by Rex Beach, whom | knew
to be an Amazingly vlrlle and clever
man, Surely, anyone who could live
through five years in Alaska and come
home to deliver such an afterdtnneT
speech as | heard Mr. Beach make at
the Friars supper to Mare kIaW must
be able to produce Il drama % startling
merit ] went to the New YORK thea
tEI NlNu an H-NllStltllll NAilIat VA lfAS ANNe
and an eager pencil IN my hand.
'All We who have tears 10 shed pre-.
pare to shed them now Never was
hopeful young critic so bitterly dissp'
pointed Never was such stretch be-
tween the promise and The fulIllrncnt,
"rrhe Spoilers is the decentralization OF a
mig htmare: one long, lnbroken dellTium
OF rearing, tearing. sIlortlng melodrama.
Perfectly Impossible heroes and hero
Ines rambled on and off the stage, MAX
Ing desperate efforts not 10 exercise a
particle at that human Intelligence
which would have cleared up the plot
in Two shakes Of a lamb's tail. Men
fought each other over tables and
chairs, and a perfect lady from the
tffele east had strenuous 1--WE minutes
with a lus,fsll gentleman during which
A telephone was ripped from the wall,
a desk Violently upset, window
smashed. and the gentleman himself
stretched half unconscious upon " sofa.
There Were asides and sollodules and
papers and long-lost brothers. There
was, In fact, everything In the world
but calm and conference. MIR. Beach,
talking before the curtain, said that
the history of every new country Is
cast I'M the mold of melodrama-' Its
pisy that this particular history wasn't
cast In the fire before II reached Broad
way.
AS fay as could make ont, the story
concerned a primitive man called Roy
Glenister. and the perfect lady hfore-
said. whose name was Helen Chester,
Roy was going TO Alaska on n ship
called the Santa Maria. but tarrled 10
knock down five or six sailors who
didn't want Helen to get aboard be-
cause she had been on a vessel several
OF whose passengers had smallpox a
little thing Hike that didn't keep Roy
from falling In love wlth her on the
spot, much to the distress OF a dance
hall fairy yclept Cherry Malotte. Miss
Mslorte loved Roy, and told him 80
Whenever she got y chance Helen was
carrying certain papers TO her uncle,
Judge Stillman, at Nome Those pa
pens were TO empower the villain TO
Jump Gienlster's claim but Roy dtdp't
know thar. so he tried to kiss the
LADY. and she nearly pushed him into
the bass VOL,
Judge Stllman got busy as soon as
he received the papers Alexander
Mcnamara ard he promptly took pos
session of GlenisteT's mine, the Midas,
and began working II for their own
profit SiepistOr said he was going to
kill Nc Mannara, He said 1t 10 times In
every act but always when he started
10 do II Helen arrived on the scene and
had The fight declared A draw, No acid
ever developed invisible ink as Helen
developed the yellow streak I'm Glenister-
T-hs rest Of the play consisted OF threats
To Kill Mcnamara and failures to do H.
with variations The principal varia ton
WAC Helens remarkable exhibition OF
when, without any mustache
to deceive you. she discovered that a
genial gambler with whom she had
been trottlng about for two acts was
her brother. Or maybe she hadn't been
trot;tng about with him. That just &C.
CURED to me- There were so many
things to think about at The Spoilers"
that details ESCAPED me
In act two Glenister tried 10 kill Nc
Namara in At OF jealous rage at an
attorneys office. In act three the at
l. mpt was made In an awful den OF
vice. where scarlet women danced
"RIng-Around-a r osey'' ana som ething
that looked like London Bridge is Fall
Ing Down. Both times Helen inter.
Tered, Consequently Mcnamara called
out tho milltla and, In act four. was
Just having Roy arrested when Helen
arrived with the papers She had
got them In a hand to- hand. catch-as-
CatCh-can contest with the lustful gem
tlcinsn already mentioned Then the
villains were marched on 10 prison. the
hero and the heroine fell Into each 9TH
ors arms and the orchestra played The
Midland Beach March
There are 81 actors In the presenting
company and | should feel called upol
to mention them Individually II they
had been half as numerous and twice
rs good. AS Il is. Ralph Stuart IL the
eng member OF the cast who deserves
r.Gch credit. THE Spoilers was an in
terestlng book, but It's drama tlsation