Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-12-25

fascinating by critics and friends.
Playgoers may well be thankful for
this slight popularity of tone, for
were it not for that the present gen.
GRAFTON may not have enjoyed the act
ing of the most delightful coincidence
on the stage. Miss Crosman, at
very early age, was studying for grand
opera. Her voice promised to make
of her one of the great prima donnas
of the day. She studied at home, and
then went to Paris But the girls am
bition carried her beyond the strength
of her tender years, and one day.
while taking a very high note, her
master noticed little break in the
voice-the penalty of demanding too
much of the vocal cords. Throat spe-
cialists were visited, but the little
break in the upper register always re-
NAMED, and the young singer knew
that her ambition to be a great pr1ma
donna would never be realized. That
is why Miss Crosman is now one OF
the brightest luminaries of the dra-
matte stage instead of a singer in
grand opera But when this charming
coincidence receives notes from silly
matinee girls or foolish youths in
which they refer to her fascinating"
little trick in moments of anger or
emotion. she only smiles that smile
of one who has fought the battle of
life and by pluck and courage, has
overcome the difficulties on the road
to success.-Akron, Ohio, Times.
"Fourth Estate" in Chlcaso.-Mon-
day night, Dec. q, at the Grand opera
house, Chicago, direct from its extra
ordinary run of five months at Wal
lacks theatre, New York, THE Fourth
Estate" makes its Chicago appearance.
1t has been acclaimed the great play
of the year. if not of the decade, in
New York, and, written as 1t was by
Joseph Medill Patterson and Harriet
Ford, it is full of the same pungent
wit brilliant satire and realism so
sharp and uncompromising that 1t al
most hurts, as is "a Little Brother of
the Rich" 1t is the soul of news
paper galvanized into the prolific &C
ton and intensity which exists only
III the OlllCe VI d UlS WopdpCi "ANh
the last piece of copy of a big beat"
is being dashed off, when the compost
tors are painting like blOodhOunds for
a bit of it for their Unsuitable linotype
machines and the big presses are pant
ing and rumbling in the basement,
waiting to turn off the hundreds OF
thousands of papers which are the
greatest factors of American life to-
day.
Wheeler Brand. the managing editor,
has been working to show up the rot
tenness of the big corporations, and
the path has led to the doorstep OF
Donald Bartelmy, a United States
Judge, whose decisions favoring GER
tain rascally corporation have been
paid for at so much per decision.
Brand has himself followed Bartelmy
at midnight and seen the judge in con-
ference with the attorneys for the cor
poration and the lobbyists. After this,
Bartelmy has handed down his infa-
nous decision. To prove to the owner
of the Advance, the paper on which
Brand is employed, the corruptness of
Bartelmy. Brand lays a trap. He
charges the judge with Illicit relations
with the trust, and permits himself TO
listen to the suggestion of a $4,000
bribe for the suppression of the story.
When Bartelmy visits the Advance
office, Brand secretes stenographers,
takes down the discriminating CONVEX
sation. and at the climax of the pass
ing of the bride presses a bulb, and
a f1ashlight photograph of the trans
action is taken.
This photograph, reproduced in a
| four-column cut, is made up in the
front page form as the curtain goes
up on the last act. Then the judge
! begins to squirm. He sends his daugh-
| ter Judith. with whom Brand is in love,
| to the composing room to stop the
page She fails Then Nolan, the
owner of the Advance, appears, and,
under pressure of his family, who see
in the Bartelmys the open door to so
| cial position, the proprietor orders
Brand TO kill the story. After nolan
! leaves, Bartelmy, unaware of the own
ers order, comes to make a last plea,
! and the sight of the man moves Brand
| to sudden action. In the presence of
Judith the whole evil life of the judge
! is exposed. and Brand gives the sharp
order to the stereotyper, Cast that
page." adding to Bartelmy, T'You have