The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-14

EellSneO as JOlIy JoKinR, the intrusion
 by Sir Peter, the wife's retreat behind | the screen and the Husbands pathetic
 talk to the roue about leaving all his
 estate to his misbehaving wife, were
 laughed at without a pause: and the | breaking in of Charles Surface, with his near to exposure of the hidden
 wife, sent the merriment up to a con-
 vulsive pitch. Yes, here was a house.
 ful of ten-to-fifty -cent matinee people taxing Sheridan comedy as a good. big moneys worth of farce. Argue from that premise as you please. Last evening"" said Mildred Holland, the Lady Teazle, at a curtain call after | the preceding act many of the ladies
 thought the screen scene-which you are to see next-ended the play. It
 does not. l wish you. my dear friends. wouldn't begin to put on your hats be- Tore the screen scene Is over. nor go out until the whole play Is done. This
 IS famous masterpiece. and I want you to see the whole of It." Mindful of that instruction, the wo- men sat the comedy out; but 1t took all
 that Mildred Holland could do-and | she Is skilled actress of much expe- rlence-to sober up her audience when | the screen was thrown down and the shamed and sorry Lady Teazle was revealed to her husband. Up to this time the comedy had been given with no disregard of the traditional man. ner excepting Mosess caricature of a Jew, and few congregations to force the run; but now the star actress came to point where all the historic Lady Teazles had stopped the laughter short on. to maintain silent gravity to the | fall of the curtain. She knew that off [ Broadway, in an extension of the Bow cry, something extraordinary must be | done. To make the lady quietly con- l In nf I'm, | dignity, wouldn't give the desired | change from noise to silence. So. the l screen being down, she fell stagger-
 ingly toward Sir Peter, made piteous 1 gestures, gave some anguished gasps
 and gurgles. sharply shifted her man.
 ner from that of old comedy on stilts | to new emotional drama fat-footed, ! and made an exit that almost salted
 the tears of laughter to tears of sym
 pathetic grief
 Tn the only chophouse left In New
 York from the many that used to sell
 cookery from a grill only. in the old 1 English manner. are walls hung thick
 with time-yellowed prints of by-gone
 actors in stage guises, and one shows Lester Wallack as Charles Surface, with
 a moustache and side whiskers. After l seeing "The School for Scandal" per-
 formed on the Bowery side of town
 with general correctness, I vent to I
 the once adulterated and still revered
 Wallack's refusal to sacrifice his per sonal beard as a New York beau In | professional obedience to the demands
 of a clean-s -shaven London gallant in Lady Teazles set. Note that, you carp CTS at modern stage doings. Why. only | 6 dozen years ago, Guy Standing was playing in Lord and Lady Algy." 8 fellow who put on for fancy dress | ball the costume of London young 1 gentleman of Sheridan's time. but | wouldn't cut of his moustache. That was made the point of a joke. The | screen scene of The School for Scan- dal" was given at charity matinee. Standing was Joseph Surface, and he wore his suitable clothes from the cur rent play: but he wouldn't give up his | moustache to art and Joseph with | hair on his lip was ridiculed by the critics. The actor cited the crime of Wallack's whiskers in extenuation of his own misdemeanor of moustache Lester Wallack's vogue didn't last his lifetime, and memorable perform ance of Hamlet" by Booth, Barrett Modjeska and other celebrities raised $25.0O0 for him. In the theatre that still bears his name. an entertainment this week yielded $3,000 to his aged and impoverished widow. Mrs. Wal lack is a sister of Sir John Millais, the English painter, and has never been an actress. The program had ten min utes lH Shakespeare. with Eleanor Rob- sons' Juliet In the balcony and Will liam Faversham's Romeo in the garden below. The rest of the afternoon was filled by extracts from current plays and familiar short pieces, the only new matter being "On a One Night Stand" written by George V. Hobart. acted by Thomas Wise and Douglas Fairbanks. and calculated by it's high pressure of A@ aFatt ttaNnI oF audience composed two-thirds of the- atrical people. You can't turn on the current of grief. pain or any kind of misery too strong for players liking. Proof of that peculiarity in the inhab- itants of Stageland was this dramatic brevity and the uproar of applause It got.
 Tom Wise Is an all-round comedian in either way you take 1t; but ordinar- ily he tries to provoke laughter only; and when he was discovered abed. his bulk bulging the coverlet to the con figuration of mountain in the mid dle of a plain. there was a disposition to be merry. But instantly we found out that he was very sick man-a dying actor-whose comrades would have to go right on from this one night stand to the next and leave him behind Fairbanks was Wlses young protege and chum; and he had lured
  the road with him. The gist of the play was the old actors pleading with the young actor-'twixt moaning and some cursing over his own unweicom@ such a wrong to a fondly foolish maid, The eIopers were to'meet in ten min utes to go to a train. Wise forged note of good bye to the girl from Fairbanks, saying he had been kidding her, and had no notion of taking her away; and having sent the missive un- known to the matinee idol. undertook to detain him until there would be no more time to catch the train without her
 "I'm all in," he said, but don't send for any damned doctor-Im past his heIp: nor for any cussed parson--he'd be no good: but I would like 1t my dear boy, If you'd do few lines of prayer for me"
 "rd make a mess of it. old man." the youngster replied. brokenly: its iong while since I've prayed and I've forgotten how"
 "Oh, he'll, but there's one prayer your mother taught you that you'n never forget. Say. Now l lay me and I'll go to sleep for keeps"
 The young actor knelt at the bed side and repeated the first prayer of childhood. The old man shut his eyes. At the Amen the bell of the ready train was heard outside. As the cur tain fell we knew that Wise was dead and that Fairbanks would not destroy the girl
 Is there no fresh blot of immodesty o, tho uaak's theatrical 'scutrnaon?