Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-16
THE CAST


Saul Carleton .......... Monroe Salisbury
Aunt Sallie ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS nez Dean
Dole Clara Williams
FIRST RINK Knight. ........... -. Hopkins
Second Pink Knight. Frank Eaton
Arthur Gordon ............ Ralph Russell
DIR. A1nsIee ................. Oscar Briggs
Mrs. Claire ............... Catherine Carr
BY LEAIUEL PARTON
f"The Master Power is a paper pun
chinello come to life. In the first act
it is a puppet shadow of reality, in the
second it is a dwarf in a giants robe,
vitalized and vivif1ed in the third act in
the expanding fullness of a strong dra-
matte conception. 1t is not a great
play, for two reasons. First, because
its dramatic technique is as weak as
its literary technique is strong, and
secondly because great plays never are
cast in the mould of sectiOnaliSm, race
antipathies or other problems of place
and time, no matter how vital these
problems may be. It deals with the
race question in the south, and the
danger to southern women. No man,
northern or southern, white or black, if
he is man, can fail to be shocked at
the horror it portrayS, or deny the
business of the punishment visited on
the negro. But whether such horrors
are a fit subject for stage presentation
cussion. Hogarth in his pictures of
lechery and vice produced something
Worthtly enduring because of the per-
lection of his artistic technique But
the stage portrayal of the same subjects
would have been inartistic and futile.
because no one could have been found
to defend such conditions. Today no
one can be found to defend the condi-
lions which Mr.. Aliens plays attack
ic
peditiously knocked down, in a manner
at once convincing and moving-if you
have been deluded into believing that
the straw man is real Most decidedly
it is straw mantle mythical north
ern defense of negro outrages-in spite
of the persistent attempts of southern
writer's to place the north in the atti-
tude OF defending the negro in his worst
aspect. The artistic undefpinning of
Mr.. Aliens play gives way with the
realization of this fact-that there is
really no clash-no dramatic antithesis
where it ought to be. A great play
either crystalliZes a great idea or
weights the even balance of public
opinion with an unanswerable argu-
ment. "The Master Power does nei-
Their, as 1t contains no great idea. and
public opinion is not divided on the
question involved. This fact makes the
horror in the third act not only artistic
ally bad, but inexcusable as an offense
against good taste. The question Of
what shall be done with the negro is a.
burning one, but 1t is a question for
soc1ologists, economists, and, perhaps,
pathologists, in the aspect in Which Mr..
Allen shows it, and decidedly not for
ntterateurs and playwrights, unless
they can find in it some clash Of vital
interests, or elucidate some solution
Which cannot be found by ordinary
methods.
After farrago of entirely adventi-
tlous incident, doubtless brought in to
give atmosphere, the theme begins to
unfold at the end of the first act.
Dole, Creole girl, has been sent
north and educated by young south
erner, Arthur Gordon. After her re-
turn to the south she lives as a nurse
and servant in the family of Judge
Claire, an ariStocratic southern planter.
Dole has misunderstood Gordon's. gen.
erosity, believing that he loves her.
Through Saul Carleton, a negro who
has become inflated with dangerous
deas-supposedly northern-she learns
that Judge Claire is her father. Cor
don, weak character, washed in
water color neutrals returns from the
Spanlsh-American war and declares
his dove for his cousin Grace Claire,
Dole's half sister. Judge Claire sane
lions their engagement and the be-
trothal, with the portrayal of the low
able qualities of Grace, is used oppor-
timely in symbolizing the beauty and
charm of southern womanhood, men
aced by the hideous peril personified in
Carleton. Dole, in a splendid climax
of emotional power, tells Gordon of
her love and is repulsed. In the hatred
and bitterness of her disappointment
her savage nature comes to the sur
face and she aids Carleton in his at
tack on Grace. Mrs. Claire, an invalid,
is killed by the shock. Carleton is
caught and lynched and Grace takes
poison and dies as her lover is be-
Seeching her to come to him.
Miss Clara Williams sketches the
character Of Dole faithfully and con-
vincingly. She shows the slumbering
fire of her deep, hidden savage pro-
penSlties, the warning between the two
opposing elements in her personality,
and the final supremacy of the cring-
ing, primitive nature, when confronted
with the retribution following the
crime which she aided Carleton to
commit. Miss Hazel Buckham sue
ceeds admirably in her portrayal of
the fiowerlike charms of Grace Claire's
personality and Oscar Briggs meets all
the demands of his role as DR.. Ainslee.
The staging of the piece is excellently
done in every detail.
Mr. Allen was called to the stage
at the end Of the second act and made
neat little speech in which he
thanked those who have aided in max
ing the play success.
The acting of Miss Julie Herne. in
the sketch, "a Mountain Cinderella. .
stands out as the most artistic feature
of the present bill at the Orpheu1n.
While the sketch is a bit too sanguinely
melodramatic it is made almost thrill
ing by the art of Miss Herne, ably as
sisted by William Pinkham and Charles
Martin. The playlet is a simple little
one-act affair, with the scene showing
the Hutchins' cabin in the Tennessee
mountains. Liz HutchinS, the girl, is
at home, while her mother and sister
are at the county fair. During their
absence Jim Cannon, a moonshiner
visits the cabin, having been wounded
in a brush with his old enemy, Bill
Leary, a deputy. Liz tears up her best
petticoat to bind Jim's wound, after
which he declares his love for her, just
heard on the road. Jim is hidden in a
cupboard. Liz plies Bill with moon
shine, gets the cartridges out of his
revolver, later giving them to Jim,
whose supply of ammunition has be-
come exhausted The badly discounted
Bill is left in the cabin, when the two
lovers elope on his horse for Texas.
The sketch in itself is ordinary, and is
too heavily overloaded with the moon
sinner dialect, but in it Miss Herne