Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24

1t not even mentioned on
Il the program.
In fact. there has been some
doubt among scientists to whether 1t has
an identity
In all probability it was out frolicing
among the snow drifts regardless of cues
and curtains
1t Is in short. a germ.
Having dramatized almost every other
unlikely subject from a horseshoe to a
hvpodernic outfit Mr.. Gillette, like Alex
ander seeking new worlds to conquer. in
vaded the realms of bacterology. But the
micrube is an insidious and elusive thing.
There are moments when it appears to have
baffied Mr.. Gillette 1t has the scientists.
The auditor feels called upon to discard
his opera glass and take up the microscope.
for despite the pangs of the hero and the
loneliness of the girl. the chief influence in
the drama is the invisible and unmentioned
bacillus tuberculosis.
Outside the doubts which arise in the
development of the love story, there are
some important problems incidentally sug-
gested. Lovable as DR.. Darlington was
he appeared to be taking terrible chances
his neighbors became Ill. they sent over to
his Office where his gentle and charming
ward prescribed such remedies as she had
seen him give out. Yet he was so far
trusted as to be summoned out into the
night on serious and urgent cases. Such
a condition is not for dramatic criticism.
II should command the discipline of a
medical association.
NJ. Gillette's attempt al suicide was not
as thrilling as might have been expected
from a man of his dramatic resourcefulness.
The matter of fact manner in which he
mikes himself a prescription seems COM
monplace in a man who has figured in
lethal episodes involving gas chambers and
deep laid stratgems. Clarice played
by Miss Doro is heroine worthy of bet
ter plot. and the impossible colored house
servant was calculated to throw new COM
plications into these already distressing
race problems. 1t is hard not to like any
thing that an admired author writes or
favorite player presents. The most dis
appointing thing about "Clarice'' is that Gill
lette has anything to do with it.
If "Clarice'' was not sufficiently melo-
dramatic The Love Route was too much
so. The flourish of weapons was so con-
slant that the continual tremolo executed
by the viOlinists was quite excusable. Miss
Odette Tyler. whose wide range of artistic
experience quite justifes her air of con-
fdent equpois, has role which demands
the vigorous emotionalsm of the tragedi-
enne combined with the coy vivacity of the
ingenue. Miss Tyler succeeds in rescuing
a number of scenes from the over-emphasis
u
Bates successful experiment in piquant
profanity in The Girl of the Golden
West has started what threatens to be
an avalanche of similar material. The
quaint and quizzical cuss word has come
to be an institution, but it requires such
delicate handling that its use should be
restricted with the utmost care and discre-
ton. The dialogue of The Love Route is
surprisnS-so surprising, in fact. that it
seems quite natural for a gang of railway
hands to stop work in the middle of rush
job in order to listen to it. The Love
Route" has the advantage of being a west
ern play: the interest which attaches to the
development of our own country is intense
and wholesome. But the excitement which
crowds it is rather too lavish There
ten. twenty, even thirty thrills in every
scene.
The following has been sent out through
the mails on formal stationery and in
elaborate typography:
Mr.. Henry Miller and Miss Margaret
Anglin take pleasure in announcing single
special performance of the 'lOns-awaited
great American play" The Great d.
vide by William Vaughn Moody at the
BelasCO Thcater, Washington, on Monday
evening. March 1. Given in honor of the
cost Of AM. f..fslvn nd
of foreign nations
1t Is good to see players taking their
art thus seriously and hattering to Wash
ington to be thus considered. This single
performance is said to be for the purpose
OF showing the people of this city that
1.-THE Great Divide has lived down it's
past. Its extraordinary success in New
York compels popular interest in it al
though presenting sCant argument in favor
of its moral atmosphere. Such general
wall OF protest went up against il when II
was originally presented that there are
great many people who will glady embrace
the opportunity TO reinspect it. 1t is
privilege which the representatives of the
American people and of foreign nations
will doubtless appreciate. If The Great
Divide" has been altered since it's first
been well done; if 1t has not been altered
the box Office vindication of Broadway
adds interest to the question of it's literary
merits and ethical propriety, without carry
Ing any conviction. In any event, the
sOlicitude as to Washington opinion Is one
which the representatives of this and for
eign nations will and ought to value. A
critical reconsideration of the play will not
Unnecessary. Its mercantile success has
been established. 1t will be quoted high in
the lists of play brokerage for many sea-
sons to come. New York has liked II lavish
ly and its success is one OF the striking cpl
sodes OF recent theatrical history. How
much of this success is due to the splendid
personality OF Margaret AngIin, which was
80 memorably impressed in that beautiful
but unappreciated play, The Eternal
Feminine" how much to the able and in
telligent acting of Mr.. Miller and how
much TO the intrinsic worth of the play
constitutes a problem in artistic proportion
which may as well be at the outset
abandoned one of battling abstruseness
In the meantime this city should again
take off its hat and bow in acknowledgment
OF one of the greatest compliments theatre
cal New York has ever paid it,