The Washington herald., 1907-11-19
LAST NIGHT AT THE LOCAL PLAYHOUSES

The NatiOnRI-"The Straight Road"
An audience Of fair size gathered at the
National Theatcr last night to see Clyde
Fitch's latest play, "The Straight Road,
presented by Miss Blanche Walsh and her
company. The audience saw worked out
before it the tawdry and touching love
affair OF a bartender and a girl from
the gutter; a play of such absurd and
loose-jointed construction that the au-
thors Of the obvious sensational meIo-
drama that frequent the popular-priced
houses might well be ashamed Of.
Why people should be asked 10 go to
the theater to be edited with the spec
tacle Of lot of drunken men and wo-
men Of the underworld. to have their
ears assailed with language which only
just comes within the limit Of what the
laws allow before it interferes in the
interests of public decency, Is a conun-
drum that Mr. Fitch and Miss Walsh
alone can answer. 1t is not amusing; on
the contrary, It is disgusting. 1t teaches
no lesson; it points no moral. and If it
'adorns a tale" it is tale which should
be told in the pamphlets of charitable
and reformatory institutions: it was not
meant for public circulation.
Considering this alleged drama from its
stage side alone, 1t Is certainly the worst
play. as a play, that Mr. Fitch has ever
put his name to; considering II as an en-
tertainment, it is a grewsome and coarse
failure. For some inexplicable reason
Miss Walsh likes to play the sort of
woman Houston Street Moll is supposed
to be. 1t is a free country and she has a
perfect right TO choose such parts, but
she need not be surprised II a public
which may be always trusted TO be funda-
mentally clean and sound. and to care
for wholesome things. does not care to
follow her along the straight road that
takes them into the society Of MolI and
her companions.
The story Of the play deals with the
efforts Of a Miss Thompson to do rescue
work In the slums. She IS very anxious
to save Houston Street Moll though no
appeal has ever yet moved this drunkard
OF the gutter. Yet says Miss Thomson:
Every one has his or her Achilles heel of good
ness. and she must have woman's soul. or the
germ Of one. buried somewhere beneath all her
curses and waywardness What viii rouse it, On
70 make woman Of her
Which is admirable sentiment. even n
1t is not very good English
The entrance OF Mol is highly eddify-
ing sight She comes in fighting with an
other feminine wreck; tears her hair
of and swears all over the stage. Other
women of the same type are there and a
policeman, and one or two barroom loaf
e-s and a red-faced bartender-a merry
company, The whole thing Is tawdry.
mean, sordid, d;stasteful When Mol is
left alone. Miss Thompson tries to appeal
20 her better nature. and, everything else
falling, she carries I'm a crippled child
and puts it in the arms OF the woman OF
the streets, who falls TO sobbing over Il.
as II the child Were a wonderfully new
thing, and as II she. in her gutter life.
bad not seen every day hundreds of such
Nastaways to whom she had never yet
given a thought.
Miss Thompson has a secretary, a young
man who Is engaged to her. and who is !
instantly recognizable by every one ex-
cept Miss Thompson as the wors. sort |
OF conccited ass. He is much struck |
by Molfs appearance, though she is far ]