The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-26

down the meiOdrama of gunplay and
knife Juggling, Broadway takes it up
with enthusiasm. There were cries of
bravo from men. and spatting of
glOred hands by women. when the
wolf villain, having seized the lamb
girl, and about to drag her away to
his den, was faced by the mastiff
hero.
II shall take her." the wolf bowls.
You shall not" the mastiff barks.
If it came to a fight then and there
between the wolf and the mastiff, the
lamb would be devoured: but, just as
in a hundred half-dollar melodramas,
so On this two-dollar example. gun
is poked into the scene, the girl
changes hands from villain to hero.
and the curtain falls.
You are not to conclude, please, that
THE Wolf would be rejected in the
Bowery as obsolete, and is accepted in
Broadway simply because it Is novel
ty there: for it would take grip on
any audience anywhere, and all. be-
cause it presents directly, forcibly,
fundamentally. but not exaggerat-
lively, the case of a girl who will be
destroyed or rescued according as the
struggle between the bad lover and
the good lover shall terminate. The
author was shrewd to delay the de-
Oh, my, but it is a fight TO the finish.
The mastiff, having taken the lamb
away from the wolf, has started with
her for the safety of civilization. He
has reached portage on the Bear
river when the pursuing beast is
heard. The scene has the illusion of
a primeval forest at night. The tired
lamb is laid down to rest. The dim
ness increases until only faint out
~ oil la
and William Courtenay, who play the
wolf and the mastiff. are counterparts
in size, shape and voice. the spec
tators can't discern which is which.
Their weapons are knives. They Crap
pie and wrestle, tunble down and
struggle I'D. thrust and parry, emit ex-
CARNATIONS of excitement. rage and
pain, ana from across the footlights
that don't illunine no one can per
ceive how the duel is going. Don't you
imagine what an interest of suspense
is raised? Is the dear little lamb
going to be saved or lost? AT length
a mortal groan is heard. and one of
the combatants falls fiat, while the
other stands erect; but who is the
victor? He strikes a match to be sure
that the vanquished one is dead. and it
shines in his own face, letting the au-
dience see that he IS the good mastiff,
while the bad wolf lies slain, the ten
Ger lamb is saved, and the play is
ended with no trivialities TO let down
the effect of Tousing climax.
There once was a young man who,
being in his first year on the stage,
was forced to suppress his ambitious
zeal within the cranfued limits of the
role of a butler, whose sole DUTY was
to enter quietly and announce, Milford,
the carriage waits This he confined
himself TO, with rare self-a bregation,
until the company with which he was
touring reached his native town. Then
he asked the stage manager to let him
enlarge his role by a few lines, so as
to justify the hearty reception that he
was sure his friends would give him.
Having got permission and, also. re-
eeived the expected applause, ne said:
Milford, the carriage waits. But be-
fore you go for your drive / would like
to say that, though only a servant, l
often have pondered, To be or not to
be, that is the question; whether it's
nobler' and so on with Hamlets So
liloquy. Edward Vroom, reappearing
on the New York stage after long
absence-much to be regretted when
the actor in the case is as talented as
he-prepared himself in way not dis
|
You see, Mr.. Vroom wrote THE Luck
of Macgregor" for himself; and for
that he, as the actor, should very
forcibly chastise himself as the
dramatist. After an hour and a half of
childish and obsolete melodrama, the
heroic British captain in THE Luck
of Macgregor," timed and placed in the
New York of revolutionary days, was
once more suspected of being spy for
the Yankees. This should not have
worried him. as he had been arrested
in each preceding act, and had extri
Gated himself by the simple device of
saying something about as dramatic
as, "Oh, look who's herew or Watch,
is the river wet today?" Whereupon
the entire British army. of eight or ten,
had run to right upper entrance and,
scanning the horizon, given Macgregor
chance to free himself. He had never
effected an escape. though, but, being
bad dramatist and a good elocu-
zionist, had taken the opportunity to
spout ten to twenty lines of buncome..
| There were times, so fioWery was Mr..
| Vroom's diction, when 1 could not help
but cock my ears for rhythm and
rhyme in the text.
However, the second act left Mac
gregor with death at hand and a jest
on his lips. To save the gyurl, whose
| father was a Yankee spy, and who
seemed herself to be training 10 follow
in fathers footsteps, our hero had re-
| fused to explain how ''the papers"
came to be on his person. Commanded
| to tell, he retorted, striking an attitude
for statuary: "I'll be hanged if l do"
! (pause and a change of pose) land I'll
| be hanged il / don't"
| In the third act we saw Vroom Mac
gregor before a court-martial, with
death imminent: though. as a matter
of fact, on the first night he had been
court -martialed already in the lobby
and condemned to share the death of
his own unfortunate play. The court
martial in tent at Fort George could
be played as keen buriesque without &
words change. Our hero, attitudiniz-
| ing like the statue of Nathan Hale in
New York's City Hall park, and cling
ing to the, center of the stage until
death should them part, talked and
talked and talked, now sassing the col
onel, and again moving to tears the
British army, now REINFORCED to the
number of twenty. He reminded them,
among other things, that they all had
had mothers. whereupon their grief
knew no bounds. The colonel, indeed,
was so stirred that he added several
I an ~l~-fsB lit he