The Washington herald., 1908-03-17

Columbia-1'The Travelling Salesman
Mr.. James Forbes. whose play The
Chorus Lady" was a great success. has
not beer able to keep to the mark he
set himself, and The Travelling Sales
man." presented for the first time at
the Columbia Theater last night. before
an audience inclined and predisposed 10
be quite friendly. Is not likely 10 last
very long In its present condition. Such
aif as the play might have from com
petent acting il has the advantage OF.
for its star. Mr.. Thomas W. Ross. works
heroically in the part OF Bob Blake. a
drummer" for feminine suits. and tries
very hard TO make the situation come
to time He is well assisted. too, by a
clever company, notable among which Is
Miss Marion Kerby, new conner TO the
stage, whose work as Beth Elliott was
sincere, appealing, and strong.
II is evident that in THE Travelling
Salesman" Mr. Forbes has made an eff
fort 10 follow up. in a degree, the un-
usualness of 1.-THE Chorus Lady" and SC
far as the first act is concerned, he has
succeeded. The scene is laid in the rail-
way station OF a small country town. and
here meet a lot of the country people
off for the Christmas holidays. These
characters are all well drawn-albeit a
bit exaggerated-and they are most skill
fully brought on and off the stage. but
all this is mere character sketching-
Many OF them do not appear in the play
again and are, therefore, so far as the
action of the comedy is concerned. but
so much waste time. This is particularly
a pity In the case of the two small chill
dren, cleverly introduced and most clev-
erly and entertainingly played.
Beth Elliott, the heroine OF the play. is
the telegraph operator at the station,
and Bob Blake, the drummer, comes TO
town to sell goods. She shares her
Christmas Day luncheon with him and
they fall in love. II turns out that Beth
has a piece of land that Is to be sold for
the taxes; il is so worthless that she is
quite sure that no one will buy it, but
Franklin Royce, the gentlemanly viii
lain has heard that the railroad must
have Beth's land and proposes TO cheat
her out of II. OF course, Bob Blake beats
him to It. saves the land and wins the
nered love story. The trouble is that
II Is spoiled in the telling.
The second act shows poker party
In Bob Blake's rooms at the hotel and
this Is not well done. 1t is too deadly
slow and talky. and the attempt TO work
in a bit Of pathos here and there is
rather ghastly-in a comedy. Then, too.
although the men playing in the game
know nothing of Royce's attempted viii
lainy, they do not protest at all when
they see young Blake plying him with
liquor. glass after glass. until he falls
unconscious on the table. 1t is then that
Bob takes the drunken mans sleigh and
rides across the country to save Beth FL
liOtt's land
There are more Inconsistencies in the
third act-lots of them, but the fata
thing at this juncture is the introduction
OF an entirely new character, quite IN
necessary 10 the theme of the play and
apparently put in so that heroic Be.
may have some one 10 rant at. This
extra character-Bob's employer-like the
children, like Bill Crabb the baggage
man, Mr.. and Mrs. Dawson, and others
never appears again.
In the last act. back in Bob Blake's
room. everything is explained. but the
trouble is that there is so little TO ex-
plain. There is not a complication IL
the comedy that every one In the audi
ence does not feel competent to straight
en- out; there is no suspense; little action
that is dramatic; no climaxes that are
worthy the name.
The best thing about The TraveliL
Salesman" is the dialogue. This is very
bright. snappy. and clever at times
There is, perhaps a little too mucl
swearing, even for a party OF drum
mers," but outside of that there is somt
fun in 1t. But no play can live on dia
logue alone, and there is so much els,
that is lacking in Mr.. Forbes new PLAY
that its chances Of success seem yer!
small indeed HECTOR FULLER.