The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13

not from Paris, but from Berlin: ana | don't know, but can fancy. that In the German performances 1t was nauseously nasty.
 However. Clyde Fitch wrote the ver- sion of ''The Blue Mouse for America, and he seems to have determined not to clean the mouse at all of her vep- min sort of vice. but to save the oreat- ure from disgust by having her per sonated by Mabel Harrison Why7 Firstly because Clyde Fitch requires a model on which to place his theatri- cal guises. and secondly because Mabel has a baby-coo innocence In looks and action. Mabel was headlining in vaudeville with her husband. Joseph Howard. and I guess 1t took rousing salary, besides a lawsuit over broken contract. to shift her into the comedy. especially as the Shuberts wouldn't make a star~of her. Anyway. there Mabel ia playing a shameless wanton. bedevfiiing tie railway president as his secretary's wife in his office receiving him and other men in her flat. and all the while sincerely begging the score tary to be affectionate with her. She declares that her temperament demands soul kissing. but the secretary doesn't take to 1t kindly, and so. when the president Is with them. she holds the secretary up for kisses like highway man with a wayfarer. Harry connor and Jameson Lee Finney adroitiy avoid offense as the two men. but 1t Is Fitch.s selection of Mabel Harrison for the Blue Mouse. and not any modiri- cation of the comedy's matter, that takes out it's flavor of iewdness and renders It palatabie to people who don't subject their theatrical viands to the pure food laws severe tests
 The street and sidewalk at Columbus Circle. a mile further up Broadway than the Tenderloin streak, were blocked by people who could and couldn't get in to see the first New York performance of "The Queen Of the Moulin Rouge" Word had come from Tits week each in Washington ana Phiiadelphia that 1t was such a biazon- ry of girls as no New York know-all could afford to miss. Paul Potter, ' globe-trotter. had sent the play over from Paris; and he. you may remem. Der, made the hypnotic drama of @rrii- by:', so I wonder if it was he who ex- ported two dancers who--to my mind-- are unforgettable interpretations Here in NewNYork we have pairs of outcasts consisting of a big. lazy, coarseiy handsome ioAfer and strangely love bound girl. who sufferD his brutality and EuDQQTLN uAEit out Ot AaCh 4eN1%sA - earnings Tn Paris such couples are ccmmoner and more singular than here. svengaIi didn't hold Trilby by mesmeric spell and thrall more abnor- mally than some of these Frenchmen do their cccottes. That aspect oe love profaned ts depicted in this new play by A pair pallid with brandy and absinthe. if not with opium.
 The man is made up for coarse brute. the girl for a degraded beauty. and they dance in pantomimic illus traticn of the power than can be at tained by a master over a lost girl They waltz together. He yerks her 10 his breast, and circles. round and round. She slips away. hurt by his grip, and would run away. He doesn't call her back, nor so to fetch her, but Raxea ffercely into her shifty eyes like Svengau into Trilby's. She yields tc his hypnotic domination and Is again in his arms---on his breast--to be whiried roughly, caressed savageIy and turned topsy-turvy acrobatically. until her frock is rumpled and her hair tousled. Her big eyes stare helplessiy into his, her white face takes on a look Of terrorized rapture, and she sub mlts to his fierce fondiing in pitifui helplessness.
 There Ia story in 'Trhe Moulin RouRs;" an Asiatic prince is spreeing in Paris; his sweetheart. learning that she resembles a notorious siren, as- surnes to be that creature and figures in his a1l-night orgies with his friends and their feminine companions. The Moulin Rouge ia no longer visited by Americans in Paris. and 1t is not shown in this play. the principal blaze of royster being the House with the Green Shutters. a gambling hell with wine, women and song to lure victims. The biggest impropriety comes of police raid on this place.
 Four of the girls are put into cells with grated doors that leave the tn- mates in full view. 4 matron searches each handsomely dressed prisoner and in the process strips off gown and pet ticoats, corsets and lingerie. even shoes and ockings--everything except small chenaise and a big Rat while sentinel paces to and fro, in front of the cells, singing in deep bass about the aoIemnity of official duty, The naatrons carry away the garments The denuded girls stay posed a minute for close scrutiny under spotlights- Then they take from their hats flutn- mory that turns out to be skirts. eacoues, stockings and slippers, so that the act of taking off clothes Is fol- lowed by one of putting on.
 There are other exploits of indecency. such as Iascivious dances, that can't be described in print; but you compre- hend--dor't you,--that here is the wickedest of the stage shows.
 Franklin Tvies