Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-20
By sIDLE LAWRENCE

6GEN HE WHITE SQUADRON at
tracted several hundred sailors
Il into the Grand opera house
last night Perhaps one-third of the
audience wore naval uniforms, which
was as it should be, 1.-THE White
| Squadron" of course, being naval
melodrama. Once inside, the visitors
from the fleet applauded literally, too,
though they early made up their minds
that the plays author knew very lit
tie about the navy and nothing at all
about Brazil.
You see the fleet visited Rio on its
way down the Atlantic coast. Most of
the men had shore leave there. They
saw one of the most modern and most
magnificent cities in the world. Con-
sequently when the Grand's scenic de-
partment attempted to palm off
medieval street scene in some mediae-
val German village as Rios public
square there was nothing doing so far
as the men behind the guns were con-
cerned. AS one of them remarked to
me after the third act, Even. leath-
er-neck knows better than that" Then
for my landlubberly enlightenment
he added: That's what we call the
marines, you know"
Applaud Patriotic Sentiments
The boys applauded and cheered
the play. They snickered at the for
eign admirals and at the foreign sail
ors, doubtless because the Grand's
costume department had neglected to
take expert advice in fashioning the
uniforms, and they guffawed at the
statement of Horatio Doolittle Fritters
that he'd like to be "a sailor boy, with
nothing to do, sailing round the Horn
and enjoying the moving pictures y
This speech was the hit of the show
with the boys in blue. Probably it
wasn't meant to be funny, but it was
very funny.
Good "FIeet Week" Offering
1.-THE White Squadron was written
about five years before the outbreak of
the Spanish-American war, at time
when the American navy, created by
William c. Whitney, was just begin
ming to be regarded seriously abroad.
1t was played ION the road" for sew
eral seasons and since then has been
presented occasionally in stock in diff
ferent parts of the country. 1t is a
tolerably good popular-priced melo-
drama, and just the thing for fleet
week"
! Florence Barker is a Brazilian girl
! this week. OF course Harry Won Me-
ter, the commander" of the u. S. S.
Chicago, is in love with her, and of
course IH6lr 1ONt dldllS Sillbl Oil ihNli
in all sorts of unpleasant predica-
ments, though Harry is always equal
to the occasion. In the play there Is
political skullduggery in high Brazil
Ian circles; there is plot and counter
plot, battle and murder, and enough
thrills to give any save an acclimated
audience an attack of ague; but the
Grand clientele likes the play. So did
the sailor boys last night, though they
better than the landlubbers appre-
ciated its many absurdities.
A feature of the performance was
George Clancey's song, Sailing
Around the Horn" a new ballad COM
posed by Mrs. Emma NJ. Bartlett and
which already has attained wide pop
ularity. The song made a big hit with
the boys of the fleet, to whom it is
dedicated.
At the Belasco theater 1.-THE Girl OF
the Golden West" tonight enters upon
it's third week. The play has repeated
locally the large success it won in the
east, and Miss Alice Treat Hunt, the
company's new leading woman, has won
many friends through her acting as
the Girl