The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-01-24
GREAT DIVIDE
PLEAsEs PATRONS

rank, easily, Wlln lne PRODUCTIONS vi
the great European playwrlghts,-
lbsen. Sardou. Shaw, Pinero. More
has been written of "The Great Di-
vide" than of any other play of recent
years. 1t might justly be-callel the
great play. Undoubtedly, Paducah
has never seen bigger, stronger play,
and the audience that witnessed the
production at The Kentucky last night
was literally carried away with It..
The first act is little short of re
markable in its tenseness and grips
an audience as no scene on the stage
today can, and the second and third
acts are equally as well sustained,
The story is familiar TO the follow
ers of the drama. In the recital the
hearts of two, types representative of
conditions Numerically opposed are
laid bare, and the gradual elevation
of an uncouth character depleted.
Ruth Jordan, left alone with
a ranch, the property of her and her
brother. finds herself beset by three
rufiianly, drunken miners, and to
save herself offers herself to one. OF
them, Stephen Client, If he will take
her under the law. Client buys her
freedom from the others with gold,
and bids her prepare to go with him.
Something better In his nature APP
poals to him, and after Ruth has
bound and dressed a gun wound on
his arm, received in a fight with the
other ruffians after the decision who
is to have the woman. he lays his re-
yolver on the table, in easy reach OF
Ruth, in the expectation. probably the
hope. that she will kill him and re-
lease herself. She does entertain the
thought for one fleeing moment. He
is standing. in deep thought, mind
racked, looking OF, when she jumps
lup with the gun and aims II at him.
Without looking around, he asks
l"Why didn't you shoot?" She re-
plies because he had made II possible
Yor her TO do so. Only life OF mis-
cry could be expected from such a
union. The second act shows Steph
ems house in the Cordilleras, on one
Of the richest mining claims in the
state The sympathies of the audience
are with the man. He has grown to
love the woman more than life Itself
| and his every endeavor is to find
some way to appeal to her, but Ruth
cannot, and does not forget who and
what he is, and how he bought her
as a woman of the street" and her
one idea IS TO make enough money. by
basket and blanket work. to enable
her to return TO him what he paid for
her and secure her release. The mis-
cry deepens: stephen asks why she
can never forget, and she replies that
when she sees him standing before
her he seems to fade away and in his
place she beholds the vision OF the
drunken brute who took her from
lher home. Her brother and his wife
find her here. while they are en- route
east. and divlning that she. Is unhappy
and that there Is some mystery sur
rounding her peculiar and abrupt de-
lparture from the ranch. OF which they
have never had a line of explanation,
Philip returns from the hotel, after
his visit to the house. and asks Ruth
to go with him. stephen asks her 10
decide,-whether she will remain or
lgo. and she elects to go. Lester Lon
ergran, as stephen Client, interprets
the character perfectly. and sustalns
ii admirably, and here the suppressed
lpassion, the mental anguish and the
thought OF the loss of all his hopes
and dreams, which have become 40
beautiful. is splendidly expressed.
The third act is in Mrs. Jordan s
} home in Massachusetts, and the
scene between Stephen and Ruth is
probably the biggest thing in this big
play A child has come. and Ruth
hates It because IL Is his. and he
realizes t. He makes last plea for
himself. which reflects the uplifting.
the great development OF the man s
character. He has absorbed the
good in their union and been reborn.
I"Wrong is wrong; lost Is lost, and
smashed to hell is smashed to hell,
and all the angels working overtime
from now TO the crack OF doom can
not right it, he says, as he makes an
eloquent appeal that they wipe out all
the past and take a fresh start. Grad
ually the woman had realized the
growth of the finer nature of the man,
his worth, and what he has taken from
their union, in contrast TO what she
has and love comes to her.
The company last night was very
excellent one in all essentials. Lester
Lonergan, as Client does fine work,
and Miss Adelaide Nowak, as Ruth
Jordan, gave an admirable rendition
OF the role. She does not measure
up to its possibilities at all times, but
gives evidence of ultimately achiev-
irg It. Miss Lolita Robertson, as
Polly Jordan, the sister-in-law, at all
times gives the relief the strained at
mosphere of the play requires. 1t is
one of the brightest sort of charac-
tiers and Miss Robertson gets all out
fof it there is. The rest of the cast is
uniformly good.
There are times in the course OF