The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-17

together they put in their time scrap
ping with great matrimonial realism.
Charley was a sad dog in those days.
He drank like a fish and sent all his
friends, a minister Of the gospel among
them, to perdition with his eternal
why's and what's-the-uses. AS a law
yer, though, he could give Martin Lit
tleton cards and spades. He saved Joe
P%ortugais from the gallows when joe
was as guilty of murder as Lucrezla
Borgla. Then he went down to the
Cote Dorion, where the rlyermcn
knocked him over the head for paying
attention to Suzon, the barlnaid, and
forgot all about 1t
When Charley woke up it was three
years later, and considerable much had
happened in the interval. Charley had
forgotten the brandy habit among
other things. and led a pious life MAX
ink crosses for the church and love
to Rosalie. When he came TO, he dis
covered that Kathleen had married the
man she always wanted to marry, and
that he was accused of a theft that
somebody else had committed. What
he would have done then, ii Mr.. Pres
brey hadn't helped him out, was to
leave for parts unknown and start life
all over again waiting for Kathleen
to release him before he could marry
Rosalie. He arrived at this conclusion
after strenuous converse with the viii
lage clergy, but Mr.. Presbrey came
to his rescue at the last moment, as
aforementioned. and everything was
fine as April sunshine.
If the program had asked us. what
is a good melodrama?" and What is
good acting?'i instead of such abstruse-
nesses as what is life?" etc, We
might have answered with some salts
faction. and we wouldn't have had TO
go any farther than last nights per-
Torrance at the Newark for the an
swer, either. .'The Right of Way is
good melodrama. stirring. picturesque,
finely vigorous, and the work of Guy
Standing and Theodore Roberts is good
acting. You will have to go far to see
better.
AS for the play, Mr.. Presbrey's divls-
ion of it into a series of scenes. instead
Of into acts, reveals that he is fully
conscious of its necessarily eplsodicaI
character. To weld the nov into com
pact drama, is something approaching
impossibility, so long as the details OF
the story are adhered to with such
fidelity as Mr., Presbrey has displayed
But attacking his task in the way he
has. he has done his work well. The
action is everywhere interesting and
sufficiently consecutive to be %intelligi-
Bile without too much explaining by the
way. Some of the situations are boldly
dramatic, as the struggle in the Cote
Darion and Charley's fight for his RICH
to happiness against the able. In NJ
place does the play or the acting over'
step the bounds OF reason into rant.
But we have gone too far without
giving proper mention of the most re
markable thing in the whole play, thu
character of the French-Canadian, Jo'
Fortugais, as Theodore Roberts acts it
You can hardly imagine that this i
acting. 1t is Joe himself in his thick,
cultural speech. his wonderfully tru'
broken French and English, his out
bursts of primitive passion, his ele
mental nobility of SOU. When Joe, oil
his knees before his benefactor, pour
out his grateful heart and speaks TIN
horror of the gallows he had escaped
the audience is moved and gripped n
an audience seldom is. In every detail
not the least in makeup. Mr.. Roberts
embodiment of the character Is perfect