Los Angeles herald., 1908-12-06
In the Spotlight

IN HE man who has stood upon the
edge of chasm in the southwest
H and looked out across an i'm
mensity of SCARED, excoriated rock
the man who has seen this and won
dered at it, has been moved by its
awesome touch of the inscrutable, its
reach up to some deep hidden vast of
spiritual meaning. The colors are burnt
and nat and uncompromising; there
are no neutrals, no softened distances
walls and wastes of dead, burnt UNI
Der. a sweep of raw sienna, and a
flare of pitiIess blue sky. This picture,
in the second act of THE Great Df-
vide" gives not only the scenic but
the spiritual atmosphere of the play
the awesone touch of the inscrutable.
The plot unfolds inexorably; the lines
of cleavage are as sharp as the breaks
in the walls of basalt and trap rock;
the weaving of the design is as inevt-
table as the falling of darkness over
the waste.
"The Great Divide lies between the
man and the woman. The woman
crosses it when she is made to look
through the eyes of the man into the
depths which have been yelled to her
by her training and ancestry.
The wonder of it is that Lewis s.
Stone and his company have given a
performance equal in almost every re-
spect to the original Henry Miller pro-
duction. There is no better stock COM
pany playing in America today.
The first production of divorce" in
Washington last week is an event not
only of dramatic but of sociological
interest. The author of the play, Paul
Bourget, the French academician.
makes in it strong protest against
the dissolution of the marriage tie.
NeitZche Sudermann and Ibsen, in
their attack on the marriage relation
or rather what they consider the
hypocrisy of certain marriage relations
have crystallized the views of the So
called naturalist thinkers, and in the
opinion of more conservative persons
their teachings are dangerous in the
extreme and inin1ical too beloved
bromide 1.-THE foundations Of society"
They have built on the dead level of
life, and the result of their work has
been a reaction against the heroic and
romantic. Your verdict on the ethical
aspect of the question will depend upon
whether you think the woman in
Ghosts should have run away with
the preacher, or not, but you cannot
question the high purpose of these men,
and YOU must admit that they are mas
ters of literary technic. The import
ance of Paul Bourgeois play lies in the
fact that the hard pressed conserva-
tives have at last found a champion,
and that the issue is becoming more
clearly drawn between the hedonists
and the champions of conventional
morality.
During the rainstorm of Wednesday
an old woman entered the foyer Of
Hamburger's Majestic theater and said
she had come for lone of those UNI
breilas" Joe Montrose, in the box Of
fice looked at her for a moment and
then told her smilingly that If she saw
any umbrellas around to help herself.
A long line was waiting for tickets for
"Just Out of College" AS soon as the
space was cleared the old woman was
at the window again.
'sI'd like one with a straight handle,
she said.
pardon me-" said Mr.. Montrose, 'but
/ don't quite get you; this is not a de-
partment store"
why, you said you were giving away
umbrellas" was the indignant reply.
when did we say it,"
I'm the papers,"
A quick search through recent clip
pings brought to light a paragraph
headed Take Your Choice" 1t told OF
a number OF umbrellas having been left
at the theater during the week pre-
vious, and that they had been collected
and left in the box Office. 1t was
worded ambiguously, and the old
woman had concluded that umbrellas
were being given away at the box Of
flee. She turned away with a disap-
pointed look. drawing her shawl about
her and started toward the door. The
rain was falling in torrents.
''Wait a minute said Mr.. Montrose.
Il was only fooling. We're giving UNI
brellas away, all right. / think there's
some left. We keep them back in the
wings. He left the theater hurriedly
through a rear exit, and after a run