The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-22

| AAGAhs nhA1hk huRAt-fFuAOh NuNNAp AN"C
manfulIy to the occasion and he cried out.
to CluRv. the seducer. within hearing OF the
girl. too. Bastard Stuart as you are would
you palm of your discarded mistress upon
mel" The bOok tells US that these noble
sentiments we're -spat" at CLuRv. and they
we're followed by a blow. The next morn
ing this manly representative OF Saxon
chivalry killed Cluny in "A duel, and went
Off to America without any further atten-
ton to poor little JOY. who just about then
had some slight need of a friend or twO.
And that is the ending which Mr.. Castle
deems artistic" and logical and which
he demands be restored to the play before
the stage versiOn is shown in Berlin. As far
as the book ia concerned. the only logical
and artistic ending is the waste basket.
As far as the play is concerned, Mr.. Pol
locks artistic sense is quite correct, be
cause no doubtless realizes hat not the loss
Of chastity but the loss OF the desire to be
chaste is what matters; that already white
flags are being borne between the opposing
ines in the battle OF the sexes: that truly
civilized men hold it logical rather that all
honor be coin Of gold" than that a BIZ
Onetallic standard prevail; that love which 10
worthy OF the name fOrgiveth all things:
finally, that even in ChristendOm there are
beginning to be real Christians. In the
book Joy continued to love her seducer. That
would be an excuse for the L~iertendnfs
failure TO marry her. But nothing can
excuse his base desertion of her. And
nothing but the most primitive and con-
ventional and fiction fed mind can find any
pleasure in his melodramatic duel with
CIuny. 1t is the act of a cave man, mad
with the selfish lust OF revenge 1t is
barbaric and silly. 1t has nothing TO. do
with the standards Of to-day. The critics
who object to Mr.. PollOck's ending, where
Joy, who has come to lOathe her seducer,
is forgiven by her lover without debate,
and where CIuRy. instead Of being shot
down, 10 permitted by the LieuteRGnt very
sensibly to work out his salvation through
remorse. are ave men critics. They are
pleading for a barbaric standard which
has too long prevailed in the playhouse, the
standard which helped Maeterlinck 10 feel,
after an evening az the theatre, that he had
been spending three hours with his an
OestOrs.
Guy de Maupassant knew better than
this. and nobody has ever accused him
either OF lack Of artistry or undue optimism.
Do you recall the brave little Jewess in
Mile. Fiji" who wal only -une putain"f
She went back to her life OF shame after
her escape from the Prussians' dinner
party. But. we learn at the close, -elle
en- fut tree quelque temps apres par un
patriotic sans p~reiUg6s qui Palma pour sa
belle action, puts layant ensuite ch6rie
pour elle-meme, iepOusa, en- nc n dame
qui Vault autant que beau coup d~'autres."
An, well. Lieutenant DOdd wasn't ~un
patriotic; he was only an American. Some
times there Is a difference. Nevertheless
IL is impossible to escape the conviction
that Mr.. Pollock's ending gives to the play
OF The Secret Orchard" whatever signif-
canoe that drama has, for it is his personal
reaction on the situation, his contribution
OF a criticism Of life' to a work that other
wise is conventional and unreal. In his
earlier play, THE Little Gray Lady, Mr..
Pollock tried to put on the stage a bit Of
life observed at first hand, a story of middle
class life in Washington, among Govern
ment employees. He lacked then the
technical skill he has shown in THE Secret
Orchard" But that earlier play was the
more worth while just because 1t was OBJ
served at first hand. just because it was a
piece Of the authors experience. It is
profoundly to % hoped that in his next
play he will return TO the fOunt of original
inspiration, to himself and not TO any such
trashy, stale and feeble book by another al
The Secret Orchard. Mr.. Pollock is young;
he is one of the growing number Of Ameri-
can young men who are beginning TO get a
hearing on our s~tage-Percy Mackaye,
William De Mile, George Middleton, Owen
johnson, Austin Strong and others. The
DnWf Ia,aIn Mill and AZ naNsxta A~nv,. -
their hands. And il cannot be too urgently
pleaded that they stick TO reality. to life as
they see il: that they follow each his CLEAN
and knuckle under rs little as possible to
the supposed standards OF the box office,
the ideas OF ignorant managers; that they
consent with p<otest to the easy dramati-
zatiOn OF ephemersl fiction. IL isn't in
such fiction that a worthy drama is TO be
found: it is in the life they share and OBJ
serve; still more il ia in their inmOst selves.
But all this while we have said nothing
about JOy's eyes. They must have been
very remarkable eyes, like those Mr.. HIGH
ans once wrote about The hero OF AN
Imaginative Man" married a woman to find
out the deep secret Of her mysterious, I'M
Eathomable eyes. He found IL. IL was that
there wasn't any secret. They were just
eyes. So he was greatly bored, and, being
a Kitchens hero, he went 20 north Africa,
where he fell in love with the Sphinx and
dashed out his brains against the left paw
OF that somewhat u~nIesponsive~ sweetheart.
So CIuRy soothed his conscience during his
conquest of Joy by finding the devil in her
eyes. lin the book it's printed in italics,
but the compositor objects to the bother.I
The Lieutenant, Of the other hand, read
there only sweetness and innocence. Miss
Josephine Victor. who played the part.
compromised on black rings.
MORAL: When you see what you want,
don't make excuses.
WALTER p. EATON.
------~----