The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-20

Constance Collier was dialetic Kent
ish wench who, on running into sight,
threw her heavy shoes back to hit
churi who had tried to kiss her. she
was so picturesque girl that the artist
set up his easel and sketched her right
there. Accompanying conversation told
her that her antipathy TO men came
of the admonition OF her dead mother,
who had given birth to her out of we'd
lock; and the artist found out that he
was the father of this untutored yet
very wise creature. She was trudging
to London, too, but whether their ways
led them along together thereafter, the
drama stopped too soon to disclose 1t
was like a fragment of powerful melo-
drama.
Mimi Aguglia and her Sicilian COM
rades threw the tragedy of ''Cavalleria
Rusticana" into this matinee as play,
not an opera. Mascagni won an Ital-
ian prize with its musica lscore, as you
ian prize with its musical score, as you
reduce its two acts to one. as the rules
of the contest required, he composed its
most famous number-the intermeZzo
to do away with drop and lift of the
curtain while the villagers are in a
church? The play without music last
ed only twenty-five minutes. l won
describe it, because ] want space
enough for the Actors funds only new
matter in New York in the week before
Christmas; also because / shall write
of Mimi 'Aguglia next week.
AS l have said, the only draught
from current sensualism was for two
minutes of musical farce chorus girls
at the outset: and they were in seemly
long petticoats at that; and a single
seven-minute selection was the limit
of vaudeville. The choice for that fell
on w c. Kelley, who speaks for a Vir-
ginia justice of the peace and the ne
groes, compliments and defendants,
brought before him. / am told that
Kelley was himself a police magistrate
in Norfolk; that in a state political
campaign mis- initiative anecdotes made
him a popular stump speaker; and
that, when more pay per week was Of
fered TO him in vaudeville than he was
getting per month on the bench, he
shifted court to stage. Still having
listened to his m0nologue twice, 1
dreaded another repetition. I asked
myself il il was possible that Daniel
Frohman-.
Have / neglected to tell that Presi-
| dent Daniel Frohman of the Actors
| fund has for years gotten up these mat
inees; and his dictum is such that no.
body fools with him in these affairs?
There are no disappointments. Every
advertised promise is kept Indeed,
places in the bill are asked for enough
of familiar matter to I'LL half a dozen
| afternoons, and the most brightly
starred favorites are willing to study
| new parts, as I have shown. This time
! so coddled a pet of the public as Ethel
| Barrymore was ready to act in a come
delta, but graciously stayed out to
make room for the Sicilian players to
come in.
But I was writing about Kelley. My
| fear of a stale spot in this fresh show
was groundless. His humor was new
| altogether, and it filed seven minutes
with laughter as loud as could be ex-
pected from an audience three-fourths
feminine. A blunder at his entrance
was still funnier. ! sat in the front
row. and so heard the orchestra leader.
Victor Herbert, say to his musicians,
when Keley's time came: "A full
chord in CT Then he stood with his
baton poised while the band of thirty
held ready for his signal to blare for
Kelley. Herbert may have been daZed
from his footlit association of an hour
before with the beauteous Billie Burke.
Anyway, when he sht a figure coming
out from the wing. he waved his baton,
and thirty assorted noises belched forth
in such a chord in G as might have her
aided the approach of a mimic monarch.
The people Strengthened up expectantly.
and then relaxed in merriment. Not
Kelley, the mighty monolOguist, came
into view. but a measly shrimp of a boy
Juggling the table that Kelley was TO
use OF course there was'a second full
chord on c. but it whooped up the
laughter sooner and in another way,
than Kelley wished.