The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-22
Neb NOten American Drama
MT Addison New Play In Which Intermarriage Between Jew
 and Gentle Forms the Striking Theme.
BY ANNIE KEN DRIck WALKER.

knows as a writer under a nom de guerre. but upon his return his father makes him partner In his banking house and discourages the idea of any life for his son beyond one of sordid business. #&#
 The passages between the father trained in commercialism. the very en- bodiment of frenzied finance. and the son, contending for the life of the dreamer, the artist, make a striking scene which reaches a climax when the elder Meyer discovers that his son Is seeking to marry a young Gentle woman.
 This young woman has twin brother who is also a student at Columbia, and who becomes involved in some way In which the young Jew, at the apparent sac rifice of his good name, rescues the brother of his sweetheart.
 The father of the Gentle woman is the business rival of the elder Meyer in telephone franchise war, and when he learns that his daughter returns the love of the young Jew the author has made, 1t is said a strong scene into which enters a defense of religious faith of the cen- turies.
 By his nobility of soul the young Jewish lover and dreamer wins his sweetheart and the end takes place amid reconcilia- tions from both sides of the house. And the author does not lose the opportunity 10 make his hero successful author, sat isfying the commercial instinct of his father
 From this outline of MT. Addisons play II will be seen that he has the material for a great religious drama. Whether 1t will take its proper place in dramatic an- nals will depend largely upon the selec- tion of the cast capable of Interpreting 1t upon its spiritual bases.
 But the coming season will soon decide this matter and for the present we oan allow ourselves to be impressed with only what is being said regarding MT. Addi- sons object in writing play which deals with different faiths and ancestries and which would seem to make even the most cherished unmportant where love and self sacrifice are concerned. But in the toler- ant spirit that later dominates the play the question intrudes itself as to who has the wider vision, whose beliefs are more energetic than the other?
 Ut Is at least satifying," writes Miss Frances Griffin, that such play has been written which has for it's object the abolition of prejudice against the Jew.
 I've have had long enough the Jew as portrayed in the Merchant of Venice Whatever Shakespeare may have meant by his portrayal of Shylock 1t is very probable that he never saw a Jew in his uf9, TOT the Jew Ddu Deen SApelleu lioi1i England century or two before Shakes peare was born.
 ''The Jew of social graces and excellence of heart and soul and mind, the Jew of culture and refinement, of unobtrusive ways, of gentle breeding; the Jew of the present day, with his sobriety, hls chasti- ty, reverence for the life, health and property of others-this Is the individual especially to be presented by the drama. Such Jew is found wherever culture, in- telectual living and social graces abound.
 The nineteen centuries have brought at least the knowledge-and a merry way We have travelled to find 1t out-that creeds amount to nothing unless deeds reveal the value of the religion we profess, and that men, whatever their creeds may be, are enough alike in deeds to live harmon iously together.
 "If the drama has through all these ages helped to educate the youth into the be- lief that Shylock Is a typical Jew, let the drama now reverse it's Judgment so that the deep-rooted prejudice against tho Jew may be eradicated and the dislike. ostracism, and persecution be abolished forever, and the real prototype charm the lovers of dramatic scenes.''