Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-08

AUsD&QI there to hear the election re-
Y turns. All the theaters did big
business on election night and the players
found themselves interrupted from time TO
time by the announcement that squedunk
or Podunk had gone a certain number Of
votes for a certain candidate, and the APP
plause was so mixed that it was impossi-
bic to tell ~ the player or the telegraph
operator was the one intended, or 10 It was
merely the expression OF glee at the ap-
parent success OF a favored candidate. But
That matters not; 1t was, a gala night at
the theaters, and after they had turned
out their lights the crowds went out and
Joined the crowds on the street around the
newspaper offices and watched the picture
shows and the stereopticon bulletins. This
merely goes to show what a good-natured
animal the public is and how cheerfuhy'
he takes his amusements. All summer and
fall he was wrought slowly into a frenzy
OF excitement over the approaching cleo
tion and the campaign eliminated in the
exciting finish usually given 10 such af-
fairs. Election day dawned bright and
fair, as the correspondent usually starts.
his report, and the voters hurried away to
pull the party lever, and during the day
talked more or less conhectedly about the
probable outcome and it's general effect ON
the affairs of humanity, But when the
polls had closed and the shades of night
had drawn around the fair village, then
the public hied himself and herself away
ia the theater and there in q. coy. seat
took a double dose Of amusement by watch
ing the actors and listening to the bulle-
tins. Those who stuck to the streets also
had a good time and all "passed off
quietly, a heavy vote. being .polled,' to
again quote the correspondent, Much set
Ting of bets followed. and IL it hadn't been
fer the Nebraska performance the election
would have been forgotten the next day.
o.
But the folks who went to the theater
that night are not likely to soon forget
what they saw there. AT least not those
who went to the Burwoode for they were
treated to another splendid performance
% a fine play. David Belasco is admit
tedly a master of melodrama. He now
atd then approaches a dramatic situation,
but for the most part he avoids this, and
sticks persistently to the melodrama. He
ofce was theatric, and Is still at times,
but this quality shows very little in his
later work. Omaha has had Two fine eX-
smples of his craftsmanship of late, "The
Music Master and 1.-THE Girl of the
Golden West" Not that Mr.. Relasco
wrote the first named play, but few will
question that his staging of THE Music
Master' had more to do with it's success
than Charles Klein's writing of it. In less
capable hands than those Of Belasco, the
piece would have fallen fiat But 9TH
Girl OF the Golden West" is Belasco'S all
the way. He wrote Il and he staged it, and
every bit of business in it is from his
brain. So, If 1t has anything to commend
81 10 the aXtnr nf the world that iQ dina
TO Mr.. Belasco. 1t gives us a picture of a
life that has passed; a rude but picturesque
life. when men were very close to nature,
indeed, and nature was updisturbed in. its
rugged, primitive grandeur. Bret Harts
and others have given us descriptions OF
these men, and Belasco has to some de-
gree visualized the type. 1t is nearly i'm
possible to present them on the stage az
they actually existed around the roaring
placer diggings OF the golden west in that
far off day of AZ. We sing the songs and
read the stories and try to fix the picture
in our minds, but we have. neither the
background nor foreground. These men
came and spent their brief day and disap-
peared. They left TO deep impress on any,
thing. Their lives were toilsome, their
pleasures were primitive, their joys were
evanescent, and Mr.. Belasco is probably as
dCCuIdlt III Ills pTtstIldllun OF the cnhTdC-
ters as any one else. There is no one to
dispute him. and this being the case, his
offer must be accepted.
Now and then a point projects on which
some thread Of criticism might reasonably
be lodged, but 1t was not one of these
seized upon by a contemporary who OBJ
jected that the Girl might not appreciate
Dante. 1t is altogether likely that from
a purely aesthetic point Of view the Girl
did not appreciate Dante, but she showed
in many ways that she had a mind in
whose virgin soil had already terminated
the seeds of artistic conception. Her
speech about the mountains, Of her ride
down the valley, of her reveries in front Of
the little mission church, all indicate the
budding imagination. 1t is easy to believe
that not very far back in her ancestry were
men and women of at least comparative
culture, Her description of her mother. in
her devotion to her father shows conclu-
slvely that her mother was OF the true
sort OF woman, and it Is not improbable
that out of these should come a girl who
even In her ignorance could formulate
something of a notion of the beautiful
thoughts Of Dante, 1t is one of the great
est privileges, probably, of ignorance, that
the lovely things of the world appeal first
TO the mind that Is unsullled by the har-
row of enlightenment. 10. the poor In
dian, whose untutored mind" saw 600 in
the clouds and heard him I'm the wind, -
was Of this sort, and so was the girl.
Ii Is much more pleasant to contemplate
Miss Elliott as the Girl than as Olga Hoff-
man. Madame Hoffman was the product
OF ultra culture. In a certain sense. a type
Of, our highest civilized development and,
unfortunately, stll actuated by the print.
tive passions that led her into ways OF
reeklessness and wrong. The Girl, on the
other hand, is without culture and devoid
of refinement-the rough product of a
rough time, and yet her nature CLOVIS with
the pure fire of true and innate nobleness
that has Away endeared the real woman
to ank She is not subtle In any OF
her ways, nor involved In her nature,
Frank and open in her walk and converse.
ton, genuine In her feeling Of camaraderie
with the rude men about her. she ex.
emplifies perfectly the goodness of sim.
plicity. and Miss Elliott gives to this char.
aoter an even more satisfactory touch thar
she lavished on Olga Hoffman.