Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-11-01

:
acknowledgements, Hale studebaker
Captain Hodges. ...t.....,... EhrI wilson
George SeIwyn. Julius Hartman
James Van RENSSELAER,. Carr henfy
Arthur Bake. .....,,....stred behuchhmp
Austin Iatchow ....4......... Frank Wilton
members OF the varsity crew.
Mike O'fIara, doorkeeper. .Johp W. burton
butler. ..........,........ .At Nunninshhih
Old Clothes Man. .............Fr Frank Turner
Program boy. .........''...'.' Iaisiey N0om
Evelyn Kenyon. .............. 'blhnche lisbl
mrs. fAenyoh' .'''''''''' -, liz, rrass,o.
Marion Thorne. ........ Lowell Alice IhyloF
Edith Sinclair. ................ Margo buffet
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
It takes a woman playwright TO In
flict the third degree OF unutterabie
anguish upon a character. Historic
martyrs frequently have been aston
ishingly cheerful about it, even In the
face of the rack and the stake. But
the martyrs with which the feminine
instinct at times has endowed the
drama are forced to have a sad, sad
time of 1t. They are not allowed to
enjoy their martyrdom, for that pleas
IRE is reserved for the fashioner. Nor
is the author herself essentially cruel
In her attitude. She merely has a
mysterious and extravagant capacity
for pity. She likes a good cry as do
her fair auditors, some OF whom are
won't 20 throng the Burbank of Sun
day afternoon.
There are several good cries In
"Brown of Harvard" which Rida john
son Young wrote with excellent intent.
For IL tells the story of a good fellow
who almost wrecked his prospects OF
love and happiness by bearing the sin
OF >his fiancee's brother. In the end
things are righted, so far as may be,
and the young cad for whom the sacri-
flee was made consents to marry the
girl he has wronged. But in the
meantime. by a sort of dramatic ieger-
demain this young woman has been
caught in the rooms of the hero, who
bears the stigma of suspicion until the
hoy for whom he has made the effort
admits his duplicity and does what
he can TO a.end matters
II all happens in Harvard study
rooros. under Harvard oaks and about
the old river on which so many strug-
giles for boating supremacy have been
fought out. One of these brings the
plays narrative to a dramatic focus
by the introduction of plot to keep
the stroke oar out OF race with
rival crew from England. The plotter
is a Harvard man who is betting
against his own college. His tool is
the young cad to save whom from the
consequences of his own folly all the
action OF the play proceeds. The young
woman whom the latter has wronged
10 TIC SiolSi VI lit SUNNI val IL 0NGi /
disclosure the youngster pays her
money to leave town. forging the name
OF Tom Brown, the long suffering hero
When her brother, the stroke of the
team is informed OF her flight on the
eve of the race he refuses TO row and
departs In search of her. Tom Brown
goes in in his place. and, of course
wins.
The brother discovers that Browns
name is signed to the check he finds
his sister cashing on the eve of her
departure, He returns and a fight Is
narrowly averted. Finally, Brown and
the penitent youngster have a brief
scene of denunciation and contrition
and the outcome is tolerably happy
Brown marries the sister of the man
whose honor he has saved and that
individual agrees to wed the woman
he has been ready to abandon.
1t Is not altogether a pleasant play,
although cleverly written as to dia-
logue and exciting enough. Ones i'm
agin-.tion is taxed more than once to
discover why a straight, frank expla-
nation should not have been made In
the beginning, or why the youth whose
wanton dalliance caused the trouble
should not have been brought to book
Immediately. Again and again a little
frankness would have solved the diff
Guilty, and one finds II hard to admire
heroes who don't try sanely TO find a
way out of heroism into the ordinary
paths OF common humanity.
Still the realistic acid must NOT be
permitted to burn too deep into a ro-
mantle play. The playwright must be
selective, and since Mrs. Young Sc
lected so sad and at moments even
sniveling theme perhaps. we must
not blame her for elabora&ing it to her
own satisfaction. There were palliatlne
features a-plenty' in the acting. chief
of which was the nonchalant and care
free manliness with which Mr.. Beasley
endued the hero. He kept brave
heart up to the last act, and then he
really wasn't ruffed. He merely took
off his coat and offered to fight the
roomful to prove he was the same
chap they had always known him for
It wasn't necessary. They took his
word for it.
The careful work of Mr.. Hartford as
the stroke oar, poor student sensi-
lively resentful of the snubs of his
richer classmates, suggests subtle de-
= feet in the play by its very fidelity to
the obvious intention of the author
BY the disposition of plot and charac-
ters we get the idea that the sufferings
of the stroke and his sister are of
trihing consequence. The inference as
that their poverty forbids our lavish
ing upon them the same pity which the
author exacts for her hero. 1t is a DELI
jcate but real impression OF a caste
feeling quite different from any cur
rent in former ages or even In actual
life today-the notion that the poor
cannot suffer as much as the rich be-
cause they are poor, and so accustomed
to il, based on the peculiar and very
prevalent theory that wealth refnes
the soul and makes 1t worthy of adj
miration and solicitous of affection. II
this spirit obtains at Harvard the play
is a faithful picture of it's life. Per-
hans Harvard men can tell.
The acting was almost uniformly in
telligent and painstaking, the work of
Mr. Mestayer Mr.. Stockbridge, Mr..
Trask. Miss Hail and Miss Taylor
rneriting spec-SF note. Mr.. Pierson did