Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-25

suggests frequent t-empsramental acct
dents. Then you ask m~aliciously II he
imagines that American audiences will ao-
cept such a cold-blooded portrayal OF
marital backsuding.
He is undoubtedly amazed at the sug-
gestion.
why, honestly, l never thought of such
q thing. You mean that women in America,
that u Of the smart, social whirl, expect
their husbands 70 be faithful to them1"
You nod in your best Star and Stripes
manner.
why, that's awfully interesting; OF
course we expect the wives to DO faithful,
naturally. but we are not along as far as
you are. or further along, which is it,
However, 1 don't think you can look
askance for you have an easy divorce law,
which really balances those questions"
In the Matter of
Having In mind the rumor that as a
popular bachelor Mr.. Vaughan is much In
demand at social functions, you ask re-
gardinE his rather remarkable knowledge
Of feminine nature, which in Penelope
IL portrayed to the point Of making you
wonder IL the fable concerning the impos-
sibility Of understanding the sex is TO con-
tinue.
He agrees that this polite and pleasant
fiction is relegated 70 the limbo OF last
years hats. Women Aro so different from
men; they are Of the same clay; they have
the same passions, the same emotions. the
same principles or lack Of principles, 50 ]
say give 'em the vote. 1 intended Pene-
lope' as a lesson. showing young wives
how to treat their husbands, for as a
bachelor 1 feel that 1 have a perfect right
not only to have radical ideas about the
marriage state, but also to express them.
It's the only time a man can, and he ought
TO make the best of his halcyon days,
chr"
Mr.. Vaughan Hospitality presses upon
you sanitary cigarettes with cotton at the
mouth, which absorbs the nicotine and
ideas. You are forced to decline, although
he assures you that he don't mind ash on
his carpet not a bit
Doctor Gets His.
One of the most amusing bits Of "Pene-
LOPEZ is the peek. behind the veil in the
Doctors office, where a strange array Of
patients are shown and the comedy of
which eliminates when, having treated a
fussy old woman on whom he has counted
for a fat fee and whose continued visits
has prompted Penelope to buy another
Paris hat he learns that she is a Doctors
widow, and according to the unwritten
law of his profession he cannot accept any
payment for his services. The author ad-
mits that the play has not made him SO
popular with the profession that he is
prompted to break a leg to show how
cheaply 1t can be reset, but life. ever COM
pensatory, had tipped him off to the
Christian Scientists as a promising con-
vert.
THE real reason why 1 selected a doc
tors office as the mise en- scene was this:
One has to keep ones finger on the pulse
Of public demand in playwriting, as in
other professions, and the popular bent at
present among English people shows a
decided reaction against the continual
portrayal of the lives of the aristocracy.
Over here we have decided distinctions OF
class, which 1 understand you also have In
America, but don't admit. We have, for
instance, our upper middle classes, our
middle classes and our lower middle
classes, with about thirteen subdivisions,
and everybody is relegated according to the
obvious symptoms. Theatergoers say now
that they want to see the lives of people
who are not admitted by card to the state
balls at Buckingham palace; they want
the intimate revelation Of domestic doings
of the Bayswater people, whom one OF our
popular ~dramatists. John Galsworthy, in
PRODUCES very convincingly. Bayswater
means nothing to you as an American, to
an Englishman 1t would mean at once the
class Of people whom he knows about as
merchants on a small scale, professional
men who have not risen beyond the mark
of mediocrity; 1t is absolutely distinct in
its suggestion and certainly does offer a
promising field.
advantage of An AFistOoracy.
Blu l think the reason the arlstocratic
class has been drawn on SO frequently
is not because the playwright has any
special affiliations with it or has confined
his studies there to the exclusion OF other
classes. 1t is merely because 1t Is the only
class available for his needs. People like
garden parties, they like 5 O'Clock tea
crowds, they like the picturesque and the
environment which appeals to their aes-
thetic sense, and in consequence when you
use that environment you must people it
with hat class that you would naturally
find there. You can't take a business man,
a man who is stock broking In the city,
a barrister working out a legal complica-
ton in the courts, forcibly remove him.
put him in regulation dress and place
him in a garden party, or dancing at
tendanc at an afternoon bazaar, now.
can you? If you want to take a man into
the country or to a smart function In
order to work out your story, you have TO
look for that man among the only class
who are always at your beck and call.
You cannot find such a man except in the
leisure class, and l believe that is un-
doubtedly the reason why he has been a
bit overworked. The doctors office seemed
to me a very possible compromise, and
having selected it for the reason given.
the comedy came as a matter OF course.
You have to have so much more snow
of evidence on the stage than in real life.
The motive OF action must be a hundred
fold more reasonable. In ones daily ex
istence he will do the most absurd things.
act absolutely on the impulse of the mo-
ment. follow a mood. a caprice, no matter
what may happen, but you can't do that
on the stage and be convincing, for your
audience will not realize the emotion of
the moment you portray and the hap
hazard results, without logic or cOnsecu-
tiveness, hat ensue. In Mr.. Bernard
Shaw's play TIL DEVILS Disciple there
is a case in point, and the reason the