The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-27


 mer has presented play of her own make.
 For these reasons I write an ac- count of "A Girls Best Friend, ai- though no New York newspaper has given to 1t a line of consideration. Lottie couldn't for the life of her think of a newer character for herself than A born heiress Kidnapped in in- fancy, brought up in poverty, and nn- ally restored to her heritage. nor couio she hit on a more congenfal theme than that suggested by the adage, "A girEs best friend is her mother" In her cog itation she must have convinced her self that a girls best friend Is not her mother-in- Jaw; for she doesn't nnd her mother until the tip end of the play, and even then doesn't show her at ali: but her mother-in-law raises hobbs for her continuously from we'd ding to divorce. Her young huspanu is tied more by maternal apron strings than connubial bonds, and such q row Is kicked up that, when some one say there never was a. house built DIE enough to hold man with ms W.s and his mother" the parquet appiauoa almost as loudly as the gallery yeus,
 Having put herself into A GIFTS Best Friend" as Jimmy, the ten-thous- andth Kidnapped child brought up m saualor--this time among Virginia DO white trash and cullud fo'k-Mtss MOT timer couldn't consistently turn her plot on anything less time-tried than papers. Those papers are documental proof of her birthright. why ooes Pinkerton detective. sleuthtng Tn the disguise of a tramp to find the lost gitt carry those papers in a pocke. 2. rs tattered coat, instead of leaving them in A safe deposit box? What shy question. So that william. also not on the heiress' trail. may try to get them by murdering the detective; put after whacking him on the head. the intrusion of sheriff compels him 70 drop into a we'll and run away without those papers. The girls hears the oe- tectiye grooming in the well, hauis him up by the bucket and crank. and the wounded man entrusts the papers 10 her, explaining that they are good for a luxurious home and an affiuent mother.
 It is reasonable enough that Miss Mortimer should own fine saddle horse that follows her around for love and sugar, but could 1t be that the poor, abused Jinny-stop without an- other foolish question. The horse has brought the actress in with hurrah entrance. and now he is made to fur 
 the weak detective into the saddle and bids him ride to a physician. The beast makes 6 brisk start. but stops with his tail in sight. and continu- ance of his race for life is sounde by the familiar gpat-a-spat of hoofs on a roadway-that is to say. by a stage hand striking sole-leather with hoI- low metal cups. How we do progress in stagecraft It's only as long ago as IYn1a hxy ha that TVf1lfa aV.x Gillette strove In vain to save that device to himself by patenting it. Now 1t has lost its illusory value through the burlesquers and audiences laugh at the hoof-beats of unseen steeds.
 Those papersi Jimmy knows what they mean to her, and that she must guard them as her life; and Miss Nor timer IS as sure that, for the life of the play. they must be lost and found sev- eral more times; so as Jimmy she stretches herself on bench and goes to sleep with them in her hands on her breast, to make 1t easy for the williams to take them. The sheriff turns vil- lian, too, and demands them-curse you! The first william won't give them up-damnation! Whife they fight, Jimmy wakes up-hush-hush! And when the conquering second vii-
 
 papers Into his coattail, Jimmy picks them from his pocket-applausel That Is as early as o'clock, and those papers have yet a lot of stunts to do before Il. So the authoress of the play can't read as its heroine, and she gets an old negro to teach her how to read those papers. Why doesn't she take them to a magistrate, clergyman. doctor, or even the honest young man who loves her, and wouldn't hesitate about marrying her if he knew her worth of birth, not to mention her cash value? Again idiottc curiosity. Jimmy must marry him, and illustrate the fact that in the lack of her best mamma friend, her mamma-in-law may be her worst enemy, before those papers potency is proven.
 Meanwhile, the horse has come back, riderIess, the detective having fallen off dead; and now. just to keep the equine interest alive. the tortured young wife mounts the beast to ride anywhere away from here. She Is a better equestrian than the detective was, and gets her horse out of sight, tail and all, so dashingly that there is no laughter in the applause. The sheriff brings her back, he in the sad de and she limp across the pommel. Other incidentals keep the action live- ly. For one thing, the sheriff chucks sordid villainy. but becomes such fierce lover of her, that he tries to choke the husband to death; but Jim ny is on the spot. with pistol to shoot him: and while he Is recovering from his wound, the second william, who meanwhile has gone crazy over his murder of the detective, pops one killing bullet into the sheriff and an- other into himself. Before the williams. die, though, careless Jimmy loses those papers once to each of them. But by II o'clock she has learned to spell out the word mother in those same papers. and then she bethinks her that she may as well submit those papers to her wholly trustworthy husband That ends the play with Jimmy snapping her fingers at a girls worst enemy, her and setting out to join a girls best friend. her mother
 Have I poked fun at Lottie Morti- mer,s meIodrama? We'll, 1t has its ab- surdities, and isn't free of knife-jab or gun-pop; but she is 8 clever tragico- and her play is distinctly better than the wild trash that has closed ten New York theatres to melo- dro r,,a hra Y,de,Y ssRowerV"