The Washington times., 1908-10-06
Initial Performance Is Well
Received at the
Columbia.
Walker WhiteSide and
Chrystal Herne Head
Able Cast.

America is Gods cruciblc, the great
J Melting Pot. where all the races are
melting and reforming. Here you
| stand, Good Folk think I. when 1 see
! them stand at Ellis Island, here you
stand In your fifty groups with your
! fifty languages and histories and your
I fifty bloOd-hatreds and rivalries. But
/ you won't be long like that. Brothers.
( for these are the fires II God you've
I come to-these are the fires of God. A
: hg for your feuds and vendettasI Ger
mans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and
/ Englishmen, Jews and Russlans-into
/ the Crucible with you all God is maxi
/ ing the American
! Not all the spirit Of The Melting Pot
/ is CONCEALED in that one paragraph-not
| all the substance Of the broadly foun-
/ datiOned drama which Mr.. Israel Tang
/ VIII has written and the LiebIer Company
produced at our Columbia Theater last
/ night for the first time on any stage.
/ But the germ OF II is there and IL IS the
germ OF a great thought which this
| playwright, always serious and persua-
sive to plead for his brothers Of the
! Chosen People. has wrought into a dra-
matte fabric Of a power and pathos not
TO be questioned.
A Brilliant Audience.
! A dozen circumstances-sone fortuit-
Gus and some distracting-test the
plays grip last night. The President
| attended and sat facing one Of the
/ leaders Of American Jews. Mr.. simon
! Wolf. Next this latter critic were Sec
| retaries Root and Straus. the latter a
/ Semitic also And across the theater,
in the box near the Executive party.
/ were the Gentle wife Of the author
| and other guests Of Mr.. Isaac solomon.
/ Even Washington might be pardOned for
I dividing its attention between a new
play and such auditors. but last night
/ not only did the great number Of those
present forget these diguitaries, but the
dlgnitarieS Seemed 10 forget themselves.
/ Again, one Of the inuumerable loose
! nesses Of q hrst-night made itself per
Z SiSteut in the form OF door that sWuU e
I open a thousand times. Finally, the
/ very climax of the play was suuGal
/ out by a confusion Of signals which
/ lowered the curtain moment too soon
/ a. the close Of the third OF the four
/ acts.
America Is Gods Crucible
! No one will wonder who sees the play
/ It is the triumph of a theme so large
| and simple that it has the quality Of
] a
/ in 1t are refined away ali the dross OF
! prejudice and oppression. here even the
| Jew may forget his isolation and mix
/ his life with that OF other races 90 make
/ a new Zion which shall be greater than
the Old Judea and a fuIhIlment of
! dreams rarer than those OF the most
| Jealous modern colOuists.
/ The two WrO 1ypify T. all are RUS
! -T NJ a q
| a victim of living memories Of hishlneti.
! the woman g. Gentle, o. the nobility
/ by nature responsive 20 suffering and
! intuitive and reSOluLe IN action. Liberty
t EuIightening the World IS beacon 10
( them both, and the former comes as
/ an orphaned survivor of the Easter
! massacre, the latter as revOluuoulsJ
/ saved through the influence of her
/ father. a Baron. Poverty and wealth.
/ the tentacles OF thousands OF years OF
/ alternating prejudice, the fear that
] mutually they may dr2g each other
| down the discovery that the father OF
! ery AT kishineff. these are the withes
| that would hold them part II would
| be a less distinctive drama thar would
I OvercJme all this restraint and bring
I then together through love alone But
! Mr. Zaugwin not only OvercOmes il
( through love. but opens before his
/ two characters the interfusiCn OF their
] di6e -ences In life Of spiritual and
| racial peace. It IS a true complement
/ TO The Children OF the Ghetto"
A Rival to Warfeld
| For these roles the LiebIer Company
/ has chosen. with that discenment
/ which has given all its productions
/ character. Walker Whiteside and
/ ChrystaI Herne. They do Mr. Yang
Wills play full justice. Mr.. Whiteside.
in a role dangerously parallel to that
Q
/ need not fear at all the Inevitable
! measuring against Mr.. WarieId II this
! seem TO be high praise. it is earned.
! The Iast-named may touch the emotions
/ deeply more often than Mr. WhiJesde,
! but he rarely sounds q note of pathOs so
/ true. so enforced, so penetrating. as
/ that which the immigrant David made
\ 10 ring last night as he recalls TO a
/ Mortified sweetheart and audience the
/ details Of the Kishinen slaughter in
/ words that burn Ike Go. KY s. Here
! is an actor who has been trained in
! every department Of his art, and he
I has never done anything better than
| this impeTsOnatiOn-
! Miss Heme must make compact in
] one personality the deep emotions of a
/ heart Of girlhoOd. In the retrospect
/ is a life Of NihiliSm; before her a real
! lied yearning for romance 1t is fair
! TO say she gave fun sat. JfactIon Lass
I
| was less complete than Mr.. Whiteside' s
| and has much further to develop.
! John Blair, Henry BergC man. Henry
I NOgel, Louise Muldener Louise Won
! Ottinger. Grant Stewart and Molly
! Revel complete the small cast They
] vary in excellence, perhaps IN the order
/ named. Mr.. Blair COntribu ing an i'm
! PRESERVATION Of the Baron which is
/ marked by real dignity and effective
/ Illusion. To Miss Muldener il fell to
: speak many lines of Hebrew and those
| in the audience who understood pro-
/ nOunced her enUnciatiOn fine and her
/ accent excellent.
Nj ZangwilI the Source
But it is Mr.. ZangwiH who gives this
production its wide appeal. rather than
] even so good a company. He has dra-
! matted an idea, while he pleads a cause
( strangely contradictory to certain
earlier stories like Transitional and
! earlier plays like The Children Of the
! Ghetto For his own marriage outside