Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-08
CLEVER COMEDY A
SAVING GRACE IN
GRAND MELODRAMA
ALICE LEWIS ACTS WELL IN
LESS NOISY ROLE
Inconsistencies of Plot Too Patent
Even for MeIodramatic License
Mar Conscientious COM
pany's Work
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE

"a Girl of the Streets" the Mortimer
melodrama which the Grand stock COM
pany is presenting this week, is packed
too full of inconsistencies even for its
kind Clever comedy work by Carl
Birch, Miss Gertrude Claire and Miss
Alice Lewis is the best recommendation
to be given the play, even with all due
allowance made for melodramatlc
license. The good people in this tangle
of veal and woe outnumber the bad
about two to one. Only two of the
villains are out and out fiends, and
yet they overaWe the majority very
much as a small, compact political ma
chine will mesmerize the preponderat-
ing vote of decent men.
This defect is the more apparent lu-
asmuch as the best of the Mortimer
plays already given at the Grand are
fairly rational as to construction and
development. 1t is a dangerous thing
to set a standard and then depart
from it.
Robert Leonard, the new heavy"
lacks the debOnair and jaunty air
which made Chester Stevens the ideal
villain, but he is athletic enough to give
better account of himself in the
melees which he can't escape than did
Mr.. Stevens. Alice Lewis tried hard to
get out of the TOpsy-yellOw kid style Of
infant she has been impersOnating the
last month, and succeeded measurably
we'll although a few mannerisms ClunS
to her speech and gestures. Miss Mar
jOrie Dalton has become so stepped in
sorrow from successive appearances in
roles of the oppressed that she fOrgets
TO speak distinctly at times. Miss
Grace RauWorth acts with spirit, but
had too much bloom on her cheeks in
the first act for a starving accomplice
Of Villainy. Mr.. Webb played in that
,fg,I7 0rfrr If
work a definite interest and appeal In
the most ordinary sort of vehicle.
George Field and Franklyn Hall are al
ways dependable, and Mrs. Frank
Frayne repeats her impersonation OF
aged deviltry with marvellous patience.
AS a casual observer l should say
that the Grand management would do
well TO abandon the Mortimer plays for
a time in favor of a slightly different
type of melodrama. There has been a
sameness to the plots of the last four
weeks vehicles that a melodrama
crowd is as quick as any other to per-
ceiye. A dash Of the cleanest of the
Lincoln j. Carter plays, followed by one
of Kremer's best and Weirdest, would
rot come amiss after the Princess COM
pany concludes its appearance in THE
Rounders' a week from Sunday night.
Fred Dunham, a member of the Ser
geant Kitty chorus fractured ms
shoulder blade i'm a collision with the
curb while riding in Percy Bronson's
new automobile, but IS not expected to
be permanently diabled. by the injury.
Members of the Texas Bankers asso-
citation, who arrived yesterday and are
the guests Of the Los Angeles Clearing
:. = X = = = = !.
not a question for a day, nor a week,
nor a year, for one city or country;
but it is the question for all time and
for every man. It is the standard for
the Individual for society, for bust
ness, for politics, and for religion
"I believe that our young people are
more ready to accept this test and ap-
ply it to life now than they have ever
been before.
1.-The future of this great movement
is in Gods hands, as all the glorious
past has been.
I'VE believe in it, and pledge our
selves to it's advancement. We seek
the sympathetic corporation Of every
pastor and Christian worker that it's
faults may be minimized, its virtues
magnified, and its possibilities real
lied. so that all the youth of all our
churches shall be in training for the
Kings business in order that his king
dom may come and his win be done
in earth as it is in heaven"