The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08


 gested by the desire of the bohemian coterie at Nice, as expressed by q show girl In solo and agreed to by the others. "Oh. but to go to Paris" Marie's Betty Is an American, and so the metropolis whose tricky gaieties she sings of is New York; and the audience sees the points quicker and clearer than the Parisian ones made by the foreigners.
 Again. is Marie CahiIl an actress1 I don't think so. She Is a bully good entertainer; but her share Tn a play always seems to me like a monologue. She speaks to the audience rather than her stage companions; in The Boys and Betty she Is Marie cahill. not Bet ty Barbeau; and her separation from the plot is emphasized by John D. Kel- ierd's contrasting assimilation. Yes, the very legitimate Kellerd. whdee tal- ent has ranged from the half-breed In- dian cadet at West Point in "Cumber- land '61" to a scholarly Prince in Hamlet" is In this musical comedy Of The Boys and Betty" He doesn't sing note, however, nor dance a step. but enacts Betty's cultured flop of a husband with all the dignity of his best artistic endeavor. There is incon- gruity in the coupling of KeIlerd and Marie as the man and wife; yet l don't wish to be understood as disparaging her; for she is in her own way delight ful. though her way is not that of a characterizing actress.
 Eugene Cowles-rsmember himT bas- So profundo, rumbleumbo of the Bos- tonians and singer in excelsIs of brown october ale in Robin Hood"--now he is in The Boys and Betty" His voice isn't what 1t used to be, but he looks handsomer than ever before. because he has a whisker on his chin. It used to be a fancy of mine that the big, brawny. vociferous Cowles had blown most of his chin on in some bass blast; for his otherwise ruggedly symmetri- cal face had well balanced features ex- cept that it was half chlnless; but now In the make up of 8 gray old South ern gentleman, with . moustacha and q goatse, he is picture of handsome dignity-evea though his only solo is about girls, girls. girls" with a row of them chorusing and capering behind him. He personates c Georgian who. impoverished in his youth by the war and enriched in his old aga by a ais- covery of ore on his plantation, is able and willing to capitalize Betty--whom he discovers to be the daughter of c former neighbor and crony--in open ing big 1nery store In Paris.
 That rise in Bstty's fortunes gives a very showy and costly second act to "The Boys and Betty" The apparel here. and at an ensuing garden party Is so very modish that 6 leading Broad way firm brags in the program of having dressed all the girls from hats to gloves, and shoes as we'll as gowns. The hosiery isn't mentioned, As only Hitting glimpses of It were given by the Tapping of long skirts in the dances. This is @ modest show in both sights and sounds-well, excepting the hunlor allotted to Miss Cahill. some of which slants off towards deviltry, al- though she demures 1t in the delivery. She brought out George v. Hobart as the writer of the incessant jOcosity of her role. and Silvia Hsin as composer of the very infectious tunes. have small doubt. though. that the basis of the play Is e French comedy.
 Tn most cases of question tho an swer comes too late. This tina if came too early-about forty years too early. Frederick Paulding calls his new play The Great 0usstion;' the late Dion Boucicault's melodranaa of The Octoroon" is the answer. Mfr. Paulding appears to have q good mem- ory. He is an actor. and memorizing Is an actors business; but instead of confining his to parts to play he has let 1t mislead him into writing a play 10 part with. He unfortunately makes l one of his characters say. This is life. | not a play" while any one who sees | It knows 1t is a play, not life. If it | were not based on such almost impos- | sible fmprobabilities. and expressed in | such insincerely unrealistic language. l his ancient plot might not come to | such disaster. The octoroon," you must know, met The Man of the | Hour" and the result Is "The Great | Question. Mfr. Paulding stirred up | he once liked oomplexity of white girl with taint of negro blood with | -he newly popular type of political | lrama in which honesty finally throt- | les corruption and after mixing we'll | md seasoning with comedy relief" ie serves the composition as a new play. The lily white granddaughter l ,f an octoroon is the daughter of a | Federal judge. who has not judged 1t | visest to marry the mother. So when | le refuses to be bought up by a gang | ,f land-stealing politicians, a double l exposure of his daughter as baatardic | md negro tainted is threatened.
 'All that happens in one of those | ball scenes of The Char ty Ball" kind. between the periods of | he Boucicault melodrama and the 90s graft play Also. the actor-au-
  ,f heredity. not forgetting kind | thought for Shakespeare in a love ,cene carried through with playful | luotations from Romeo and Juliet" At first in the third act. at midnight | liter the ball, tears trickied along the | of a daughters nobility in | that her pride of birth be | ,acriiced Instead of her fathers honor, | md of her rejection of her lover be- | ,ause she feels unworthy of him by | pad ancestry. It is there that Ibsen | s remembered. and brought into the | paulding hall of fame. Conversation | 'alls upon the influence of heredIty, | he lovers finally parting. lest the ne | gro strain be carried out In their chill 1 iren to break out so darkly as to ex- | pose the secret of social blend.
 Don't let those two paragraphs con- l vince you that The Great Question l won't entertain you if you don't de- nand a new and original solution at | he end of a problem play. Tn as ,lever a writing as The Octoroon." 3oucicault dodge dthe racial question y proving that his Ostoroon wasn't 1 m octoroon. Ard that theatrlc genius. laving hit on the idea of crime ac- recorded by a camera. used { in the days of daguerrotypes and .mbrotypes. long before photography endered such thing possible. He vas like his follower. Belasco. in be- ng sedulously reasonable-eXcept when a vital poin. In 8 play was hopes essly false, and then he made no eN-
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