The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-27
THE MOTOR GIRL"
AND OTHER Girl. S
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

winsome when Elizabeth Brice sings to
US that though a Quakeress is slow,
she can entertain beau when the lights
are dim and iOw-in Philadelphia" NJ
merous demure Quakeresses thereupon
show THAT they can entertain an audi
ence even when the lights are high and
glittering. They go away only in time
TO let Georgia Game sing about being
Queen of the Dairy Lunch" and then
come back with Miss Brice. Songs Oc-
cur as frequently in The Motor Girl
as honeymoon kisses in a tunnel
But the oldest thing about the happy
first night Of the new diversion was the
unlocked hit of il. The operetta
clings closely enough to familiar lines
to make the utmost of its every good
point The best music of its first act
very prudently re-echoes in the finale of
that half of the play so that the en-
TT acte strOllers go out whistling il.
Therefore, It seemed a foregOne cOnclu-
sion that the piece would end to the
tune of the most catchy song I'm its
course. But it did not. Several airs
were repeated, Yet not the one to Il
think I'm old enough to know" most
insidious song to whose own allure Miss
Brice added with a Pauline Hall voice
and Anna Held eyes. The immediate
that I could not make out this slight to
it. l made a point Of ascertaining why.
Simply, it seems, when the farce was
tried a few nights in a college town be
fore its New York production the song
was not in 1t. But after the one singing
Of it-well, I would be willing to wager
a gOOdly sum that Il think I'm old
enough to know" will come under the
wire first when autumn comes to decide
the midsummer song Marathon.
The plot of THE Motor GfrF' ESCAPES
being conventional by only one reason.
1t is too invisible TO be recognizable. 1
do not mean that this new Campbell
Skinner frivOlity IS, like most of its
musical comedy friends and relatives.
plOtless. Indeed, 1t appears to be as full
of plot as a Thanksgiving turkey pro-
verbally is of chestnuts. The difficulty
is to find it. You might come up behind
it, put salt on its tail and grasp it firm
ly. But / am not sure you would be
the gamer. We've all heard a good
many years that where ignorance is
bliss tbs folly to be wise. While The
Motor Girl' is hardly bliss, it is too
agreeable to be tempered with just to
rouse its slumbering plot.
An American girl. who is said to be
wealthy, but proves on sight she is pref
ty, because she is none other than Geor-
gia Caine, is motoring through Holland.
Why? Don't ask me. Doubtless for
perfectly defensible comic opera rea-
sons. Disguised as her absent brother,
she wins a motor race. The deception
as to sex seems TO have been a terrible
crime. Everyone pursues her for it.
Again, don't ask me why. Every time
you think you almost have a cOmpre-
hensive grasp Of the plot all bets are
declared off and sOmeone-or everyone
sings. Mr.. Edwards invariably giFss
them something so airy and pleasanFE
voice that when they stop you find VI
had quite forgotten you were on the
trail OF a plot.
A couple of 'Eerminie' like jaiIbirds
are gathered into the plot as it dances
and ambles along. They, like the mo-
tor girl, are escaping from something.
Their stripes indicate it is Jail, Just as
the heroine's amOrousness of songs and
eyes suggests that she is running from a
tenor. He catches up with her while
the prison does not Overtake the fleeing
comedians, so all ends weil-a happy
conclusion reached in Paris where, nat
urallyi everyone sings and dances more
about 1t.
To say that most people are happiest
when they are sad may be an exag-
geration, but by changing it to most
women" denial is disarmed Grand
mans tenderest memory of girlhOOd is
how she cried over Mathilda Heron as
Camille; mother had just as sweetly
wet a time over the Lady Of the Ca
melias I'm the person of Clara Morris:
and the girl of today is every bit as
fond of the romantic sorrow of the
Margaret Anglin Camille. even though
she may talk Bernard Shaw and Strind-
berg when the lights are up.
A dramatist as successful and ex-
peTienced as Charles T. Darcy might
have been expected to bear this in mind
in writing his latest drama. And when
one finds an actors name coupled with
his as cO-authOr of The Sign of the
Rose" if you have tears you prepare