The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-04

actor ana his thsatrie kssnnsss saw dramatio tension In . son setting Are to q min owned by his actual father in d strike caused by his putativs father. In that complication ths scheme of the. play works out with force The son is the loved lover of his real fathers niece. No one in the play saNs an Irish serving woman. whose mouth the author keeps shut until the time chosen by him to open it. knows that the sweethearts are cousins. The audience Is taken Into his confidence. though, and guesses what the upshot will be-the mar riage of the young cousins-but wheth- CT this consanguinity in wedlock be- gets freaklsh offspring can't we'll be shown In the play. No more in mimic than In real life is nursery discern- ed close behind the altar.
 when you are an underslze actor, yet don't desire to be comic com edian, what can you do about your lack of height for serious roles9 If you are a boss of productions, you may do what Edward H. Southern does have no man In his company taller than himself. no woman whose top- knot comes above the tips of his ears. and grades down the furniture to give stature by comparison. William Nor rsi, who starts starring in Father and Son" as the supposed father. Is a little man. while the son, the sweet tall; and hts device to save himself from belittlement dramatically as well as physically is to be white. His hair Is white his hat and summer suit are white. and almost white is hla pale face. Recent usage keeps the stage rather dark during serious passages, and so the whitened Norris contrives A. at bigger companions in their dark cloth ing, However that doesn't qualify Norris, who has been a dapper. alert, active comedian. to act dbverttngly q quiet, apathetic. motionles hut loaua- clous old village oracle. What Dem man Thompson might do with 'Fath- CT and Son. Is left to be guessed at. t Is withdrswn at the end of iss
 Next. 'sThe offenders" Klif King. 1t would seem, was just as firmly set on a moral regeneration Gin four acts and half) as owen Conway, whom. recently described as a sinner saved In the person of Arnold Daly sn3 in the play of "1he Regeneration" oweA's cousin in type Is Robert Edeson as Klif personally handsome and his- trionteatly admirable, even before he scrapes on the woeful but not unple. turesQue prison grime in which he 1 first appears in the drawing room of a l very noble charity worker married to a very ignoble political boss. That ls
 we are assured of their extremes of virtue and vice. but we see little of | either. That is the peculiarlty, to | use kind word. Of The Ofrenders:" l written with more of good promise | than accomplishment by a new drama. I tist. Elmer Blaney Harris. The evils | of chtld labor provide his large and l political subject. but he makes the mistake of keeping 1t until the last | act, all in the actors mouths Instead | of in the audience's view. Kllf dashes into daFkened drawing room, slugs a Japanese butler to unconsciousness 1 and Is discovered by a charitable lady | of the house. That is a jiffy-quIek start for the drama Judging by her immediately compassionate actions. this Helen North Street Ia at heart the ennobling Mamie Rose of '@rhe Re- l generation" For 1t appeaFs that in a soctalistic melodFama, d Mamie Ross 1 by any other name would act as sweet. She returns to Klif the revolver he has robbed her of. taking her money
 during the scunle. and defends him
 from his eaptors when he Is revealed as an escaped convict. This inevltabIy
 lHads to Klifs regeneration. as psr.
 Sistently, if hardly as lucid, as Owens
 further down the street of taeatvea. Il After thuuHarids of words. our first
 actual experienee with the cliia labor 1 problem. the avowed purpose of the
 play, comes in the third act. KItf King brings a young girl to a aotori. ous rest&ufaHt to use her as an ex-
 ample of the abuse of young girls, employed daytimes in factories Klif
 nov regenerated. is careful to convey the right idea about this Maudie. and has her loosen her hair, for the look
 of youth, and even remove her loHg skirts, to be more convincing in a short pettteoat Then he hides with her in
 an adjoining room, and bores a peek hole in the door to spy on the wicked political boss. who comes in with the ohild-employing mill owner and his wife. A little of refined repartee en- sues, touching on the wtfe's interest in cocktails end other spirituous drinks. Unfortunately. the wicked politician pays for this refreshment.
 for with his change he receives two thousand dollar bills, Q brihe to pro- tect the resort in its harboring of girls under age. The spying Xiii breaks in and accuses him. And from
 then the scene works up and up with wordy intensity to illustrate the awful consternation resultant from a man taking excess change for a drink check. The cocktail wife. the mill
 owner the skirtless girl of fourteen, the ex-conViet. the wicked politician and the philanthropie wife all become
 embroiled in this awful case of a
 waiter giving excess change. Finally
 the police become entangled, too. Then
 it Is that Xiii King-his noble eyes
 shifting between the high minded
 Mamie Rose sort of lady and that part of stageland where The Regeneration
 showed Owen Conway beginning in sin and ending in handcuffs-holds out his
 wrists for the manacleS. It used to be
 that eyes ss largely noble as Robert
 Edeson's and Arnold Daly's were rolled
 beautifully heavenward only as little
 Eva dies, or as the brave soldier boy
 thinks of his mother; but now com
 plete ocular perfection comes only as
 the handcuffs arc clasped upon the
 regenerate.
 Lula Glaser is a puzzle of parentage
 In Mile. Mischiaf''; also, whether she
 is son or a daughter. The audience
 knows she is a reckless Vienna girl
 an artists model who makes a wagsl
 that she will get into a military bar. rack and stay there a day without hel sex being discovered. That suggestl Parisian farce; but Viennese stage sensuality Is Trustworthy, too, and Lula gets ample opportunity to be- well, piquaut, She takes on the namt and clothes of a young flop overdue for Austrian military service. reports at the barrack for duty and goei through a sequence of predIcaments As A raw recruit she is to be batheS