The Washington herald., 1908-05-26
The BeInsco-aCaste.y

The play presented by Guy Standing
and company. at the Belasco Theater last
night, was Caste" a pretty little drama
Of love. social distinctions. and the good.
which. after all. Is about equally dis
tributed In the different strata OF man.
kind Hon. George d'Alroy, captain in
the English army. and descendant OF a
Crusading knight, falls in love with
Esther Eccles. daughter of a drunken
loafer, springing directly from the lower
class OF society. and forced by the i'm
providence and idleness Of her father 10
earn her living by means Of the ballet
In spite Of the remonstrance Of his
friend. Capt Hawtree. d'Alroy marries
the girl; is promptly repudiated by his
aristocratic mother. and is suddenly or
dered of 10 India. and news comes Of
his death IN the Sepoy rebellion. A son
Is born TO the widow and she is again
reduced to penury by her father who
dissipates the money left by her husband
for her maintenance. The wife acts
throughout in manner worthy of "the
daughter OF an hundred earls," and at
this critical moment the husband re-
turns. having escaped by some miracle.
and the mother relents, while old friends
are found to be true as steel. and thus
all ends happily. The action runs along
road full Of interesting episodes, and is
very entertaining. but the chief endeavor
of the playwright is 10 show the abso-
lutte fallacy of the caste idea when de-
tached from social system and applied
TO individuals, and showing that nobility
of character may lie beneath the plum
ber's overalls. or be concealed by the
glittering uniform of the noble soldier
While the principals. Miss Dorothy
Hammond and 1Ir. Standing present
the characters of the hero and heroine
with the usual pleasing fidelity. the
great interest OF the play, as regards
both vividnesS OF delneation and power
in impressing the lessons Of the play,
falls TO the lot Of a group OF eharae-
ter actors. Mr.. Martin Sabine is seen
at his very best as Capt Hawtree. the
dandified and somewhat affected officer
who. however, beneath this mask car
ried all Of the very best requisites OF
true manhood. This portrayal Is ex-
tremely pleasing. and gives evidence OF
intelligent conception and skill in de-
picting. Mr.. Frank Craven appears as
Samuel Gerridge, a plumber and repre-
sentative Of the honest British work
man. who. upon critical occasions. rises
as fully equal to the emergency as any
peer of the realm. His work in the pres
ent instance Is inimitaole
Then comes George CASTOR, a great
favorite, with his expectation of the
role of old Eccles. the disgracefully sod
den parent of the heroine Mr.. Castor
puts plenty OF life into the character.
recalling many old frauds which we
have met in real life, and he certainly
injects comedy enough TO please the au-
dience and prevent the character from
becoming altogether repulsve Miss Vira
Stowe plays the part of Polly Eccles.
the exuberant sister. with great vivac-
ity and Miss Alice Butler another great
favorite with Washington audiences. an
pears in the role OF Marqulse de St.
Maur, mother of the hero, an aristo-
cratic old lady with decided penchant
for reciting at length from Froisslarts
Chronicles, particularly where any pass
age occurs which might relate TO any
ancestor OF herself or husband.
The play is well staged and. barring
a few tri1ing accidents accruing from
first nights performance the drama
was well produced. On Friday evening
the performance will be in the nature Of
benefit for the box-office staff