The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-15

they didn't quite hope, that he would
stay steadfast to his conscientious
criminality TO the end of the play, as
he does in the novel; but Irving and
Sothern at 11:10 have his pious sweet
heart kneel and repeat the Lord
prayer That instantly, Unexpectedly
and unreasonably converts him to
Christianity. The audience hardly
seemed to believe it.
bachelors clergyman is a difficult
lover for playwright to handle. His
piety is expected to impart sanctity
to his courtship He wouldn't surprise
us if he were TO begin to WOO with a
prayer and close the bctrothal with a
benediction. Barrie wrought excellent
comedy out of some old Scotch dea-
cons ado over their young pastors in
fatuation in THE Little Minister" for
a girl who pretended to be wayfar-
ing fortune teller. Thomas popular
lied a young New York preacher in
1.-The Other Girl by giving muscular
ity to his Christianity and having him
conduct exercises that were not re-
ligious with pugilist in boxing gloves.
Fitch created a manly. not mawkish,
rural parsOn in Lovers Lane" So it
can't be said that the problem of
holy man being a carnal man can't be
solved in a play; but an expert is re-
quired if it is to be done well, and
novices shouldn't undertake it.
X x
Not often is the success or failure
of a new play with audiences asserted
in this correspondence, because first
nighters are not determinative, and
qualities of art and literature do not
fix the popularity of a stage compost
ton THE Rector's Garden" how
ever, was brought out too late last
week to be written about for last Sun
days Herald, and it will be taken
away for burial before next Sunday; so
it is not a forecast but a record that
it is fiasco. The rector is a man of
words and not of deeds, and his gar
den is full of weeds although his
talk is very floral. He chatters like
a namby- pamby nincOmpOOp, and only
the manly aspect of Actor Dustin Far
mum saves the Rev. DR.. William Prince
from being a clergyman on whom you
would not be surprised to find panta-
Iettes instead of trousers under his
priestIy frock. There is a wall to this
| rector's flower garden. with a neigh
borly stairway on each side of it, and
by that Blanche Cinchioni gets to play
with the rector in his yard time and
time again. AS the actress of Gin
chioni is the coo-voiced. doll-faced,
softly curvilinear Grace Elliston she
looks like a "Cinch" for short, espe-
ciaIly as the playwright never once
compels the rector to climb over the
wall into her garden
Like Barrie's. Thomas and Fitch's
pulpiteers. Ongley's sets his parish
agog by going for an unsanctified yet
good girl to make his wife of her
However, Ongley's bachelor clergyman
is not quite a conventional doctor of
divinity who seeks surcease from his
divine doctoring by raising posies and
talking POLITICALLY in his back yard. He
used to be a lookout at a faro table
in Helena. and one night with a pal
held up a stagecOach; yet when he
showed that blot on his 'scutcheon to a
committee which offered the bishopric
of Montana to him-Whether Protest
ant, Episcopal or Roman Catholic is not
told-ft served as no bar to his high
office: and as last seen in the play he
was about to go back to the northwest
and be bishop where he had been a
gambler and highwayman. | wonder if
Author Ongley is a member of the
Church and Stage society
X x X
In only one act does the rector get
away from his garden, and then he
goes to his chapel, which contains his
bachelor apartment for Cinchioni to
get caught in. Yes, being an actor,
the author couldn't think of anything
but a woman's visit to a mans pri-
vate room for third-act excitement
And 1t is so dreadfully devilish, this
esca pade of Cinchioni in the Rev. DR..
Princes quartersl She comes back to
the chapel after Sunday service and
finds it empty. She is prompted TO find
out how it feels to preach in a pulpit,
and mounts the stair to this one; but
before she can try her voice there she
hears the rector coming, and tears her
petticoat in Fastening down from the
holy place
Have you any pins?" she, asks.
You'll find some in my study" he
replies
The dialogue doesn't strike you as
dramatic? Wait for the dire outcome.
Cinchioni exits to the rectors own sa-
cred room. And Felix enters the
chapel. Felix is the rector's rival in
love; and he is acted by William
Courtenay. which makes him conse-
quential to New York girls. Very vine-
gar in this play is the usually sugar
Willie. Personating West Point grad
uate, his language is belligerent.
1T seems TO me-" he says. that you
are only one part clergyman to two
parts man of the world" and his peev-
ish manner promises a real hard blow
on the wrist of his adversary.
Felix" responds the rector, fixing
his gaze on the military chap-and now
shall we see the pastor relapse savage
ly into the Montana gambler and high
wayman? He continues: Felix, your
aspect just now is distressingly un-
lovely
That is the most intense juncture in
this play. When in doubt about the
potency of new show. I look at Dia-
mOnd Jim Brady. He sits in the Sec
ond row of the parquet on opening
nights, with gems shining big and
bright at his collar, cuffs and bosom
not only, but in the buttons of his vest,
too, and when he lifts a hand the fin
gers flash diamond white ruby red