The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-11-03
ADJUSTMENTS

AeT0 is WHAT Jue DaVSupOIt DSlAo'
crat-Leader said Of Mrs. Leslie Car.
ter. who comes to the Grand in Keo.
kuk on Friday evening:
At the Grand opera house Friday
night before d large and fashionable
audience, Mrs. Leslie Carter in her
new play "vasta Herne' fully sustain
ed her reputation as icing one of the
greatest dramatic artists on the Amer
lean stage today.
From first to last Mrs. Carter held
her audience spell bound. When she
first appeared she was given a hearty
ovation and throughout the play she
ELECTED spontaneous outbursts of ap-
plause by her remarkable display of
emotionalism.
From both dramatic and literary
standpoint, the production of .vasta
Herne' as essayed by Mrs. Carter and
an able supporting company, is pro-
nounced success.
"A man, a woman, devil and a
hope are the tools of fiction in hand
bag" is the sentence pronounced by
Mrs. Carter which aptly and concisely
describes the play The production
itself teaches a decisive lesson, dis
playing to the audience an object of
pity seldom observed by tn outer
world--a drug fiend. In the role OF
Vasta Herne, Mrs. Carter is given
ample opportunity to display her re-
markable emotional and interpretative
abilities and she scored decided
triumph in both respects.
A man, whose every sense of re-
finement is destroyed and whose hui
man capabilities are wrecked, is
thrust before the face of vasta Herne.
the young authoress who has been
deriving her Inspiration from dreams
induced by laudanum Vasta Herne,
as she later tells the story herself,
had been poor girl. She was on the
verge of starvation, without a friend
and in misery when Hartley Bellaire,
a publisher, found and ruined her
With shame added to her misery, she
sought death by laudanum. 1t did not
kill but stimulated and gave her the
power to complete the plots which
she had often imperfectly thought in
her normal mind. Then she says sthe
tears Of the world had changed to a
string of pearls and hope flung them
about her neck-and smiled" Her
ability discovered, Bellaire used her
shame to compel her to take more
drugs and write more stories. And
SO she is discovered in the first act,
her realization Of her terrible end
awakened when Charley Andrews in
his horrible condition bursts into her
apartments to find DR.. Dudley Maury,
from who he desires drug.
Maury has taken an interest in
Vasta Herne for herself. He dis
covers her slavery to the drug and
undertakes to help her overcome the
evil, though to her friends he con
fesses that she will need constant
help to prevent her return to its use.
She takes a final draught to write a
story for Bellaire upon his promise
that after that he will bury all the
past That drink is the beginning OF
the end. She hears strange sounds,
and the statute of Budda on his ped
estal in her apartments turns to a
green light before her eyes. After
her book is published she goes to the
home Of friend on the Hudson, los
ing her handbag containing laudanum
on the way. Then she realizes when
without it SO hours how much she has
become enslaved.
DR.. Maury and her friends take her
on a world tour and at Alexandria,
Egypt, Bellaire pursues her and be-
cause she refuses to fly with him
threatened to tell Maury Of her real
shame. She calls Maury and tells
him herself. Maury orders Bellaire to
leave. saying vasta Herne is still to
be his wife. Vasta then declares she
can not drag him down. There Is a
law for women. she says, that once
they are shamed blights their lives
forever. To drive Maury from her she
claims sha has been deceiving him and
taking laudanum all the time. She
pours vial into glass before his
eyes. He leaves in disgust. Then
she hurls the drug to the floor swear
ing she will never return to 1t.
The last act shows her in her
apartments true to her pledge. But
the ghosts of opium haunt her still
and as her physical body weakens,
they pass more weirdly before her
eyes. Maury returns to her. summon.
ed by a message from her maid. He
has come just in time, for she raves
but short period and dies in his
arms.