The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-06-14

/ Notwithstanding all that when the viii
lain stole the copy. the author was ut
terly bereft. Why didn't he sit right
down and write out the libretto and
score, which he knew so well that he
/ had sung portions TO his child for lul-
labies, and then prove his ownership
/ by the testimony of those whom he had
read and played it to? The playwright
of 1908 and hereafter, believe me, has
to be reasonable TO the utmost. or the
people won't be moved by his work.
A third actress, Beatrice Morgan,
| sets herself forth in a third drama,
For Italy and a Knot of Blue Rib
/ bOn," and she says ii has been writ
/ ten for her. What matters it if an
| English drama bore the title For In
dia and a Bit of Buckle Bent?"
won't contradict a lady. l wouldn't
have dared to in the hearing of an
| audience which acclaimed Beatrice on
| the occasion of her summer transfer
| from a stock company TO vaudeville.
A mob of Beatrices followers fought
to get to the ticket window; many
| bought of peddlers on the sidewalk;
and when she strobe on 10 the stage
/ in the garb of a man, they clapped
| their hands rapturOusly, and some
| laughed in hysteric glee or admira-
/ ton. For their beloved Beatrice had
/ triumphed over her wOmanly curves.
| She looked like a boyish soldier I'M
tanned by campaigning in sunny
Italy, and not anywhere nigh lean
4 from a lack of caramels in army ra
/ tions. She was dated we'll back, TO be
| sure, to a time when Italian military
/ heroes wore wide hats with dropping
/ feathers, jackets gay with gold lace,
| trousers bagging loosely. and leggings
snug as any hosiery; so Beatrice was
as picturesque an Italian gallant as
/ the more celebrated Romeo. The wO-
men and girls bought photographs of
her in the lobby after the show with
/ the fury of shoppers at a bargain sale.
l am glad it isn't important TO give
/ the particulars of this tragedy. Its
action swept along too rapidly and
| turbidly to be followed along the
| streams banks. Only III a boat afioat
could / have kept up with it, Vaguely
l saw Beatrice, as the valiant Empero,
| serve Italy perilOusly as a spy upon
the hated Austrian invaders, save his
/ sweetheart from the ruffianism of the
enemy, rush forth to rescue her broth
er and return to die of a mortal
wound. I gained no knowledge Of
why's or wherefore, but you may take
it from me, as coming from Beatrices
audience, that Beatrices embodiment
of brave unto-death cavalier is
! great
x X x
At another theatre of varieties !
! found Melbourne Mcdowell in a
similarly concentrated piece of roman
| ticism; clother as beautifully, too, and
| filling out his garments with hard
! Drawn as symmetTically as Miss Nor
gan. But before he disclosed himself
! so resplendently as a man of title in
/ some faraway land of fancy, Virginia
] he
/ audience about him. He had grown
/ up a slave. One day her palace burned
/ and she seemed sure to die in the fire
| She begged to be saved. She offered
! a CrescendO of rewards for a hero.
/ Finally she swOre TO marry her res
/ cuer and set him on her throne. Hence
/ the plays title of The Oath Mac
Dowell had loved Virginia long and
| ardently. He dashed through the
| flames and brought her out UNI
! scorched.
| Mcdowell used to play a brave
slave, and Fanny Davenport Mac
Dowell a proud queen in Sardou me-
/ lOdrama written for Bernhard. He;
/ majesty was a widow with a little
| boy, who fell into a den of lions, and
/ she offered to we'd and crown any man
who saved her life. The slave loved
/ the queen. and did her bidding. But
when the deed was done, she sought
/ to reward the hero some other way
/ than cOnnubially. He was an insist
/ ent lover, however, and would accept
none of her offers of wealth, save only
! a title which would qualify him to
/ become her husband. His sturdy pref
/ erence of her TO all else within her
royal power TO give won her love and
1 her finally willing hand. In that long
| drama the valOr was shown, not mar
rated, and so the romance was deVel-
/ Oped effectually. In the short one ii
/ is so suddenly intense that the audi
! ence doesn't get into it's mood, and
there is much tittering. Beatrice
| Morgan is cheered in just such short
and thick play. But she is in a house
/ full of warm friends, while Melbourne
| Mcdowell long an absentee, faces
cool strangers.
Some of the comedians released from
plays at tours end keep on in their
roles apart from the rest of the
stopped show. Within six days I have
gone to twelve vaudeville houses TO
see what new is being put into them
/ for the summer. Much that's fresh
| there is stale TO one familiar with last
winters output of frolic farces. For
/ examples, those Williams Walker and
/ COle-JohnsOn couples of negro come
/ dams were tourists last winter with
/ The ShOo-Fly Regiment" and the
| Bandanna Land" now they are in
| vaudeville with as much of those
plays as can be given within the
/ twenty minutes limit; and along with
each pair are yellow chorus girls
| blending funnily the manners of white
coquettes and black eakewalkers.
| Some of the comedians become mon
OlOgue humorists with stuff" as they
/ call their nonsense, transferred direct
! ly from the farces in which they have
/ been acting. 1t is obtained sometimes
| by paying the owner of the play. and
/ sometimes il was contributed to the
| play by its present user. A case in
point is the MephistO in The Follies
/ of 1908" whose red costume was
/ shaped like a modern genteman's
/ evening suit. and who shared souls