The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-04-01
THE. 'v|R|'|G;|I|||h|A|N||' IS
TRUE TO LIFE
STORY
Well Known Play Will Come
to Grand Forks on April 10
at Metropolitan.

The Virginian" will be presented ut
the Metropolitan theatre for the second
time on Wednesday, April 10. The
MANY romance lovers in this city who
nave read this powerful story of the
love and evolution of a cowboy have
been awaiting the appearance of its
stage version with something very
much akin to impatience. Perhaps
never since the dawn of the big selling
novel has there been offered to fiction
readers a hero at once SO human, so
manly and so irresistibly lovable as
MIR. Wister's Virginian.
The fact that this hero Is a cowboy
IS not enough to account for the popu-
larity that has created demand for
nearly 100000 copies of the story that
tells about him. We have had the glo-
rfffed cowboy in fiction again and
again, with his sombrero and his wild
antics with six-shooter. The thing
about Mr.. Wister's cowboy that has
appealed SO forcefully is that he is
real. He Is man. He does some
things that society does not sanction
as proper, but his instincts are sound,
his heart fs big, he Is generous and
honorable, and man to be trusted
with woman or anything else. He
has lived the wild, elemental life of his
kind, but he knows and loves the bet
ter way when he sees it.
The one and Overmastering love af-
fair of the Virginian's life comes with
the arrival at Bear Greek of the pretty
school teacher from Vermont Miss
Molly Wood has New England train
ing, and she does not surrender at once
to this handsome young giant who tells
her that he is going to make her love
him. To the end of the story it is a
battle royal between her Puritan pref
udices and his western instincts, and
it is not until he has shown her that
his sense of honor is stronger even
than his love that the girl capitulates.
The surrender comes when the cow
puncher:s one enemy, "Trampas."
makes his play" in the language Of
the west. The gauntlet Is thrown down
and it is understood that IL both men
are In town at sunset one of them must
die. Molly, unable to endure the
thought of her lover killing a man even
in self-defense, begs the Virginian to
fly; but he refuses even when she tells
MIN that she can not marry him II he
Kills his enemy. But when, q few mo-
1AASaASS AeAeSAs 0uO lOdAu6 Cldt
is dead and finds her lover unframed,
her love proves master of her, and, u
woman all over, she falls sobbing into
his arms.
The dramatization has been made by
Mr.. Wister and the late Kirke La
Shelle, and 1t has been their aim to
preserve to the stage as many as pos
sible of the details and values of the
book. The Kirke LaShelle company,
under whose management the play ap-
pears, has been most cautious in the
selection OF the players who are to
represent the well-Mked people of the
story. They have believed wisely that
no single element can enter so potent
ly into the reproduction Of the desired
atmosphere as that of company of
players who can convincingly suggest
the characters as drawn in the book.
Mr.. Wister is enthusiastic with the
work of Dustin Farnum in the title
role. He says that Mr.. Farnum comes
as near living personification of his
hero as anyone could. Others in the
company are Frank Campeau, Bennett
Musson, Frank Vail, Craig Muir, ]. R.
Furlong, Harry Holiday, Frank Nell
son, Mabel Wright, Eleanor Wilton,
Lillian COrbin and Bessie T. Starr