The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-28

LIE EAAhtns IA6 GtnpttcB tnC TsAfS - them aimie9sly. yet kills one.
 This man Is a civiliah.. the German commandant says. and has no right to fight. Fly the Jaw of war he must die. Take him outSand shoot him:"
 | Very weIi." is John Bulls response. as he takes his place in a file Of sol- dfers and marches out'
 A minute later tells that he has died In his futile defense of his home. That is not the tag of the piay. Du Maurier is chiefly a boomer for the British army. He seeks to convince his people, and their government. that their militia would be Of no account whatever in the event of a war. SO as to force an increase of appropriations for the regular military establishment Of course. his assumption that Germa- ny. quite unexpected and unprepared for, even in a fog and strike, might land a surprise party on the coast of England. in the form of an army of invasion. Is preposterous. And then. too, don't know how 1t was as to the English militia filling out the British army for South Africa; but surely our National Guard responded adequately to the call for Cuban ser vice. All that aside, the play Is an don't wonder that 1t has raised a po- litical turmoil in England. Its en- tertaininE value in America depends on those ot us who keep alert to Brit ish conditions, and can appreciate Du Maurier's wild exposition of them.
 The return of Bertha Gallard to Stageland and The Return of Eve" are not quite coordinate; for the first We see of Bertha in the new play IS not as an Eve going back to Eden. but coming out In New York. sne has quit her Paradise in the noun tains of Virginias where no apples or evil knowledge grow, and where she has been reared in the sylvan inno- cence of ignorance of what the first Eve tempted the first Adam to find out about. Now she comes to town as an exhibit in whimsical human cul- ture. She doesn't know even the idioms of the Smart Set into which she has broken. much less Its manners and customs: and its corsets ana shoes hurt her beyond endurance; so at a dinner dance that she gives to get acquainted with city folk she doesn't wear an apron of fig leaves: but loose. filmy, ungirdled white fabric Is seemingly her only garment: and her feet and ankles Hitter bare in a swirl of light gossamer when she gives wildly active dance instead of the mere waltz that the music be- longs 10.
 Bertha Gallard came into thea srical view some years ago with the bound | of an elastic young woman. with much | beauty and some ability, and soon bounced back into private life. Last year she fell out with David Belasco over ner agreement to become the he- doine in The Rose of the Ranch" and now she has shifted herself to more singular drama. Odd. indeed, Is The | Return of Eve" Audacious, too. and offensive to some though absorbing to others. It sets forth a problem. | Can a boy and giri. really of no kin at all, but brought up to believe they | hearts with a love that yearns for l wedlock?
 Gabriel d'Annunzio, the iniquitous | Italian writer accredited as the affin- live comrade in art of Eleanora Duse, made her. as the blind girl in "The Dead City," amorously desired by her | own brother. who knows she is his | sister. The small portion of New York that went to see that performed in a foreign language was shocked by the dreadful exposition of carnal passion. The tragedy was rated as e deplora- ble compliance by Duse with d'An- nunzio's degenerate stroke for notori- ety. celebrity and possibly fame-or inramy.
 Lee Wilson Dodd. scion of Standard oil millionairism and recent graduate at Yale. does not present exactly that problem Instead, he creates an Adam and an Eve. taken in infancy from q foundling asylum by an experimental ethnologist. and reared in a primitive paradise somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia. He lets them be- lieve they are the progeny of the same father and mother. The outcome Is ukN H., the very real New York, where Eve Is introduced Eve Is an heiress to half the wealth of tAe dead scientist. AS embodied by Miss Gallard. she is 2 creature vital with impulsive desire for earthly pleasures. especially to love and to be loved. She squanders her money in lavishly entertaining her new acguaintances. and permits geod-snouSh young fellow to woo her with a prospect of winning her yet all the while her love has been left behind her with Adam in Eden :; and when he comes to New York. with his heart aching for her, there Is an abundance of emotion: for neither has any inkling that they are not closely related by birth. and they are actually miserable with the sort of love they feel but don't comprehend. Eve returns from her New York
 
 amuse the audience-to the calm of tn e Virginia Eden. There the secret that the lovers are of unrelated paren tage Is revealed to them, and the story ends with betrothal Miss Gallards act ing is charmingly admirable in both the foolery and the pathos of her role. Broadway gets In the cast two of the satisfactory actorss of heroes who a. bound throughout the country in Ioca- tad stock romDanlAs and tourina nlavH but infrequently get into Broadway. The names of Lester Lonergan and Richard Buhler get along proficiently l as the Eden and the Gotham rival lovers of the modern Eve. our round- CTS elate themselves on the discovery of talent which the rest of the coun- try knows well. Young Dodds play deserves. I think, higher estimate than 1t gets; for 1t Is original. singu- lar and facile; and genius alone could have made 1t a masterpieca. Is the Newlyweds' baby among your acquaintances? If he is, you are quail flied to wonder what sort of a hero a play can hope to get out of an infan- tile toddler whose only words are Dada, dada" Considering that 1t has taken five craftsmen to make the farce of The Newlyweds and Their Baby" and two composers to set it to music. your wonder may rather grow than diminish. The show starts .o off with a rattiing dash-bang party given by the Newiyweds in honor of bestowing the name of Napoleon upon their precious baby. For a time the cooing couple and their baby are true in look and spirit to George MoMan- us's funny pictures. Mrs. Newlywed, pretty beneath a preposterous mass of red curls and pufts and pompadours,