The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-02-14


cap devil. AS the action proceeds aIic
Lady Banfoek's predicament takes on
serious aspects, with problem OF rove
and duty for her to solve, the audience
IS astonished TO see that she is now an
emotional artist Of charming iaciiity
and power enough TO thrill When' al
the denouement, she avows her low
class birth and would give up her hign-
class husband-but he won't let her
Who'd dare put James Fentmore
Cooper's Uncas, the last OF the Mohi-
cans, on exhibition in any other pose
than erect on an isolated rock and
straining forward to see something on
yonder? he may be looking for red
rival. a white invader or the approach
Of obliterating civilization. That is the
familiar picture of New York state s
final fighting Indian warrior, and
where's the dramatist so bold as to
monkey with it? The new actable YER
sion of Cooper's tale is pant0mimic,
except for the music that il moves to-
1t occupies half an evening in Broad
way and is called spirit Land" You
soon perceive that Uncas in his familiar
attitude isn't cunning for game, or
looking out for human fight, but is
there to meet band of spook Indians,
VINO Will NdEE MIN " titE AlaEkg As0AAt~
ing Ground of the Mohicans unless he
vanquishes them single-handed-
Uncas must feel sure Of his dead
tribcsmen's honor, else he wouldn't
stand in a spotlight TO invite an arrow
or a bullet from the darkness. He re-
minds me Of David Belasco's japanese
sentry, whose head was inside a Ian
tern with the light shining brightly in
his face. That would, of course, blind
his eyes to an approaching enemy while
exposing him 10 a missile.
why. David" said a friend. "he
couldn't see a thing"
He be blowed." was the dramatic
tricksteT's answer; hes there for the
audience to see him" ,
X K
Cooper told US boys long ago that
Cncas' bestowed squaw was Golden
Arrow: now Louis Werba shows US
that she tried to prevent his hopeless
encounter with the wraiths OF the Mo-
hicans from beyond She is the first
10 respond TO his call from the rock.
They hold silent converse. 1t has been
sale that 2 Frenchman or a Jew would
he struck dumb If his hands were tied.
The dialogue in which Golden Arrow
begs UnCas not TO fight couldn't go on
without their legs as well as arms free
for motions. Wrigglers and twisters,
leapeTs and sprawlers are they indeed,
for the chief is Gertie Meyer of the
Meyer Sisters, one Of whom danced her
self to death at Weber & Fields. and
the squaw Is May Leslie, another dane
ing celebrity. Were not the aboriginal
savages stOlid stoics2 Did the old
time tobacco store images misinform
US? Was Ned Buntisne liar? Gertie
and May make Uncas and Golden Ar
row like jumping jacks shaken in a big
Kaleidoscope. Now they look like COM
bined boxers and wTestlers in a bout,
and now again they seem to be in
transports of mad love.
This unspOken play has beautiful
shifts of forest scenes and at times they
are filled from the ground up TO a
height of six feet or so with the 1.-THE
bodies and timber limbs of girls in va
rious symbolic dances: and / get the
idea that the grim braves turn in death
into graceful girls, that savage rites
give place to sensuous exercises, and
that the influence of the Tenderloin
Indians" are potent with the ghosts
Of the Mohicans.
Chauncey Olcott and Andrew Mack
bring each new play into New York,
hut not far enough in to be nearer than
four miles from that Broadway which
won't welcome Irish comedians. Mack
with sergeant Devil May Care, Is in
BROOKLYN borough. and oicott with
Ragged Robin" is in the Bronx. As
both have travelled half a season with
those plays, you may know what it
cost me a subway trip TO learn-that
Macks devil-may-ear hero, though
Irish, is not heroic in Ireland, but In
Canada. and that the character was In
troduced last autumn by Cyril Scott at
the center of the town. The sergeant is
in mounted police service, away zip in
British Columbia, and he has TOusing
adventures I'm brsvely capturing and
stu more bravely releasing a fugitive
from justice. Mack sings in the midst
Of perils and recommends the dare
devil to his ardent and mostly feminine
admirers.
Olcott is kept in Old Erin by his wife,
for II is she who wrote an Irish legend
into Ragged Robin" for him to MARBLE
and blHrney in. Robin Is d wandering
minstrel Of long ago. and unwittingly
he drinks at a fairy well at the one
minute of the yeas when, as sure as
fate. that draft will we'd him to the
girl who next stakes her thirst there
Likely. as not he has roamed your way
before sloucning into an edge OF Goth
am AS his edge Is eight to ten miles
away from the edge where Mack has
strolled In. there's no danger Of such a
riot Of partisans as took several lives
IN the famous fight over Forrest and
MacreadV