The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-11-29

A
bride is her own tender sister matters
are complicated. Furthermore. Jana,
our passionate peasant young woman, is
bethrothed to man of her own. So
much for the first act We have the
fiery word. the fast. incessant gestures.
the voluble excitability that numerous
times have been made familiar TO our
stage by swarthv visitors from the
sunny south of Italy. In the second acI
matters-and Aguglia-become furious
She prays to the Virgin TO divest hAr of
the passion for her hrother-in. Ter
strange unhappiness has exCi,1G he
concern OF her parents. of her unSuS-
pecting sister, of many of the villagers.
Then comes the moment which made
half London hot under its waistcoats
with admiration and the other half hot
under its cellars with disgust. Parents,
sister, doctor, a priest have visited
Jana to sympathize with her upon her
strange melancholia. Then the man in
the case arrives. She endeavOrs to be
calm about him. and prays to the Viz
gin to help her TO regard him placidly:
, but suddenly she grips violently hold of
him and kisses him furiously. There
upon Madame Aguglia gives a marvel
lous exhibition of gurgling. gasping,
writhing. 1t goes beyond anything ever
seen before on the American stage. She
!
floor, emitting the while choking grunts
and gasps Of animal agony. And at the
end fashionably dressed folk, some of
whom may understand good Italian, but
pretty safely could not follow the ST.
Gillian dialect, cheered while Italians
who packed the galleries fairly shrieked
their appreciation.
After Madame Aguglia had thrown
kisses of thanks and crossed herself in
Ill l. -
further for her to go in the next and
last act. The Italian author and act
Ors had left just enough to the imagina-
ton to have carried the story on to a
just rage of the girls betrothed lover
against her brother-in-law. AS Ethel
Barrymore said to the matron who
characterized Faust" as such a
sweet opera: But do you know what
happens between the third and fourth
acts?" Well, in Malta" Jana's be-
trothed is in a fury. He proposes to
fight the brother-in-law. They chase
each other about the stage. wild-eyed.
while gesticulating peasants endeavor
to divert them. One peacemaker is
barber. From his pocket the murder
Ously jealous man draws razor, with
which he cuts his rivals throat. Gen
eral horror. screams. CONSERVATION.
Blood gushes. The Aguglia writhes
some more on the floor. And white
glOved hands clap for art.
X X
Mary Gibbs Spooner is somewhat un-
like Mimi Aguglia. Mary is the mother
of Brooklyn's pet Spooners, Edna May
and Cecil and she conducted q Brook
lyn stock company with them in it.
Lately, the daughters went starring. A
fortnight ago, the mothers theatre
burned. What should the dear old lady
do? Ullie Akerstrom, for a long, long
while d maker of plays for her own use.
suggested that Mother Spooner take to
the road after Edna May and Cecil in
New England piece that Ullie just cut
out, pasted together and named Aunt
Cynthy's Homestead" BY a singular
chance the venture would bring to mind
Denman Thompson in THE Old Home
stead" for Cynthy, like Uncle Josh,
would come from her old homestead to
search New York for a strayed young
member of the family: also. like Neil
Burgess Aunt Abigail in THE County
Fair" Cynthy would drive into a coun-
ty fair with a live horse. Ullie is not
original Why take risks? The thea
ire to be used was nearer the Bowery
than Broadway. So a railway company
sends a villain to buy the old home
stead trickily. He has a mistress who
turns on him vengefully, thwarts his
rascality, saves Cynthy's iDnOcent but
maligned niece from his clutches, and
clears the girls true lover from the ig-
nOmy Of Imprisonment for the villains
own crime. Sure stuff, that.
X
SAre hit. too. Mother Spooner doesn't
have to make up her smiling pudge of
face for a genial Yankee old maid;
nor change her plump figure by putting
rustic gowns on it; and her tones are
no different as an actress from those of
her familiar speeches to the Brooklyn
branch of the Church and Stage society.
Really. she is lot of Josh Whitcomb
and Abigail Prue amaigamated in Aunt
Cynthy. Ullie Aberstrom, too, is funny
as Floppy Jane from the poorhouse,
and there's a regulation set of down
east types. The dOin's begin with par
ty 10 celebrate Cynthy's birthday: next
she is sporty with the b'gOshes at the
fair: and when she comes TO town, she !
is as funny as Josh or Abigail ever were
with her gawl<ing in city drawing
room. Here's one of her sure-pop mer-
riments- 4 think the skirts real pref
ty," she says. when a woman in a dec
ollete gown asks her opinion of it, but
/ hain't seen the waist yit." She has
sent her boy nephew out on catching
him peeping at what she took for a lack
of bodice through q fan; but now she
slips away herself. TO return with her
own corsage turned down to be in the
mode. Then the boy comes back with
his shirt and coat off. leaving his vest
to expose his arms and bosom sirailarly.
Almost as violent as the tragedy Of
Malta is the comedy of Aunt Gym
thy's Homestead"
*
The stale subject of international
marriage for money is freshened de-
lightfully with fun in The Stronger
Sex and THE Patriot" plays which
Annie Russell and William Collier bring
to town. Then. too, although the wealth
is American. il isn't used to buy titles
in wedlock, which is a Keller to New
York audiences tired of seeing our
daughters of Republicans and Demo-
Gratis give themselves and their millions
TO impoverished foreign aristocrats. An
MES heiress lets a lazy English younger
son win her love, and fool her to believe
he loves her. At a reception after the
wedding, while changing her bridal
gown for a touring dress. she sees him
kiss his sweetheart and hears him say
he has married for money only. Then
some old stage stuff is thrown in for a
climax of the first act She tells him