The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-09

mans mlnstrelsy putting aside the
first night audiences senseless rap
lures. and trying to base a Judgment
on popular merritt is a march and drill
OF soldiers. Many dancers have been
employed variously in the show and
now they are mustered for a military
manual and evolution. Old Irish airs
only are played for these tactics and
snatcheS of them are sung, while vari-
colored lights are thrown on a night
sky and tumbling waterfall Pish and
tush and pshaw? To be sure. 1t is
putting out childish toys to amusc
grown folk; but that is the Belasco
method of enthralling the great ma
Jority; and on seeing Irish dignified
old judge clap his hands at this make
believe troop singing. marching and
juggling their muss<ets to THE Irish
Minstrel and The Wearing of the
| Green" / got an insight of this Conan
vogue. He doesn't aim at-and he
couldn't hit if he did-anything higher
than the average of taste.
X * x
Have you observed that in Conan
plays the young men are all COhans
in their dancing, and even the girls are
Cohans with limitations of his antics?
He seems to have determined not to
let his MINISTRIES acquire any of his
mannerisms; so he hired dance mas
/ ter. and none of the abundant dancing
shows the slightest suggestion of him.
And to see his Vows of boy wenches
dance buck. wing and clog is to realize
the contrasting grace of the modern
| show girls of the stage. OF course FL
| tinge is exceptional with his counter
felt of ferhininity. I described his at the
advent in vaudeville. In the transfer
or his exceeding prettineSs to min
| streiSy its blonde perfection is not
| blackened. and, besides. his guises of
a city belle and a seashore bather, he
gives a Salome dance. 1t isn't a bur-
lesque, but the Egyptian exhibition I'M
all fidelity. with legs almost as bare
as his arms. and full measure of SEN
suouS pantomime.
Don't you wish I could stop writing
| about Salomes? I'd like to. But how
| can /? Two more of her are put on
view this week by Lolita Faust and
ting to estimate each new Salome by
Nher area of bare surface. Lolita and
Eva are rated high by that standard
with Lolita topmost. To be literal
about Lotta's exploit need to tell
| that. positively. her only obscurine
garment is a pair of breeches so brief
that they stop at her waist and hips
The Veriest gauZe of a draDery doesn't
hide her legs at all. and she is bare
foot. while her torso, hung in front
with strings of pearls, is absolutely
nude at the back. Isn't some of this
skin textile? Not a scrap of ii except
the spaces I have specified. That fact
is text. but I won't do any preach
ing.
The producer of THE Convict" sub |
titled From Society and Riches to
Prison and Shame" had seen one of
thost military drills that have gone
1 from circus to vaudeville; and when
the exhibition ended with the scaling
of a high wall by a system of aero
batic mutual aid. he said to himself
These fellows might be convicts es-
Gaping from a prison." Then he added
Hush" and looked around scared lest |
he had spoken out loud. Not until a
dress rehearsal of the resultant play. |
two days before its public perform
ance. did anyone but he. the actor of
the hero and the eight acrobats know |
the principal episode. 1t was a secret /
worth guarding. for it turned the new
est and next to the. biggest of the Easr
Side theatres into a pandemonium Of
rapturOus phrenZy.
Dick Thurston had been convicted Of ,
the Villains own crime-of course; and .
he was at Sing Sing waiting to sit in
the electric chair: but his sweetheart
true brought files in a cake: and he
and eight other prisoners opened their
cell doors. overcame the guards and
made their way to a high-walled yard.
The prisons full force of guards witt
rifles dashed into the enclosure. Did '
hope that the officers of the law and
Justice would stop the jailbirds' flight"
Well. no: for there was the innocent
Dick. you know, with Alice waiting
him down by the river: and hadn't he
made the eight other convicts swear to
lead honest lives if he set them free?
* X *
If you wish to enjoy crude melO-
drama. it won't do to be too darned
knowing else you'll miss the surprise
I vitiated my interest of suspense by
asking myself when these eight spe-
cialists appeared in the first act as n
squad at drill in a New York armory:
How can the manager figure out
profit in carrying them along on the
tour of a cheap melodrama?" and
then guessing the answer: They'll
serve a purpose later" So. when
recognized the convicts as the chaps
of the drill saw the wall thu seemed
to bar their escape. and reminded my
self that the scaling of just such a
wall had been Topped off their exhibit
ton drill-why, probably / was the
only spectator in two thousand who
wasn't amazed when the eight fellows.
i'm prison stripes instead of zouave uni
lOIIlS EiSIdSStu Will ltdDS, SNiuSS,
scrambles and other athletic feats to
the top Of the wall Some of the ex
element I saved for myself. though.
by resolutely wondering how the ninth
mantle hero, Dick-would get I'D
there with the eight. A rifle fusillade
by the guards hasn't hit any one: but
now a poor wretch gives cry, clasps
a hand to his side. and tumbles from
the wallis top. clutches wildly at jut-
ting stones. and strikes the ground as
though lifeless.
The hero, oh, he is there: and by
lifting his insensible comrade to the
height of his arms. he passes him up
TO the lower end of a dangling human
chain. which hauls him UP. That
leaves Dick alone below. Why isn't
he punctured instantly by dozen bull
let's? All. there is an author looking
out for him. He sees TO it that the
cartridges are exhausted just now.
But the brutal guards will use their
guns for clubs and beat the life out of
him. Will they? The actor is up to
the wall scaling stunt himself. Wrest
ling his WaV thrOuPh his ANTAGONISTS |