The San Francisco call., 1909-10-22
TULLY'S new PLAY
PLEASES AUDIENCE
COauthor With BeIasco in "The
Rose of the Rancho" Pre-
Sents Western Drama
Ry WALTER ANTHONY

walton Tully's adaptation and drama
tization OF Eleanor Gates novel, Cupid
the Cow Punch" is being presented and
has won undoubted success with trans
bay audiences The staging of the
drama is interesting for many reasons
aside from the attraction Of the play
as such. Tuny has written nothing
since The Rose of the Rancho and
the precise proportion OF credit for its
success has been an indeterminate
quantity between him and David Be-
lssco, ooauthors in the play. Belasco
has never denied the soft impeachment
that the good of The Rose" was his
painting; IL has been said of Tully by
the unfriendly oh, he couldn't write
play by himself. Wait till he tries!"
That Tally is a playwright TO be
reckcned with seriously is amply dem
onstrated in Cupid the Cow Punch y
He VIII get along very well, ina gine.
even without Belascos wizardry. He
has an unusual gift for characterize
ton. His last work is infinitely supe-
rior 10 The Rose" in this regard. All
OF his people but one are real in Cupid
the Cow Punch" You will quickly
recognize them Tully has a pretty
gift for satire and much wit. His dia-
logue is smoothed and his sallies are
ural and rapid. What viii most-sur-
prise those who know his Rose of the
Rancho" however. is his gift for char
acterization and his deft comedy.
The weakness of the present play lies
mainly in acts l and 2. The initial
impulse given TO the story-the depar-
ture Of Macie from the oklahoma
ranch-is not sufficiently vigorous 70
carry his play. far enough out on the
sea of dramatic circumstance. The
agitation is petulant; not sincere.
WEAK POINT IN PLAY
Mscie. 50 the story goes, has returned
10 the ranch after q business college
education She has ideas now about
ambition and careers and grand opera
A physician from New York. spending
his vacation near the ranch, eneour-
ages Macie and introduces her TO Pro-
fessor Berger, a music teacher from
New York. who tells her that she needs
but few Pionths' lessons from him in
order 10 become q great singer. Macie's
father opposes the plan and drives
Alscie further in her determination by
suggesting vaguely what happens
sometimes 10 girls who go away from
home alone. Macie in q three cornered
conversation with her lover, called
Cupid, and her father. thereupon de-
eides She will go. she says. because
you. addressing her father, have
made II necessary There is no Magda
rancor in her attitude nor any frenzy.
She leaves as though TO go next door.
Another weakness discloses itself in
the first act. She goes on the advice
OF the doctor from New York. who but
z few 1aOments before in the action Of
the play is stamped as humbug. He
} is treating a sick boy on the ranch for
a complicated disorder and the infant
IS going into spasms every now and
then until Cupid the COW punch sur
reputiously brings in the neighbor-
hoods preacher, who merely lances the
baby's swollen gums conflict OF
minor episodes such as these bewilder
during the first act and rob It of the
power 10 swing the mind into pleasing
credulity.
HEROINE As WAITRESS
The second act finds Macie in
typical eating house on the railroad
not far from the ranch she has left.
She is going 10 earn money 10 take her
TO New York She says she has saved
about s. so far Cupid, whose affee-
tion for her remains untouched and
who is still loved by her-there is no
suspense as 70 the outcome of their
romance, it's true loves course running
with too great snoothness-arrives at
the little restaurant His faithful cow
boys remind each other that Cupid is
Cupid because he has managed to
marry Of so many of the neighbors;
yet, they say, he can not seem to do
anything at all with his own love
affair. So they concoct scheme and
the balance Of the second act is given
over TO that episode which ends in
Cupid's being wounded in what was to
have been a fake wild west fight.
Nacie is still undeterred in her inten-
tion Of going to New York
Thus the play does not progress. and
the act is mainly devoted to an inter-
esting but needless interruption. Macie
is provided, however, by Cupid with
the money TO go 10 New York. In this
consummation questionable method is
employed Tully introduces what the
cowboys cali "a lunger" His distress
ing cough, narrowing countenance. his
innrmity and weakness. are unWar-
rsnted and unpleasant intrusions. Up
State he is called, and he is dying
Cupid gives him 500 and he gives it to
Macie, telling her that it is his own
money.
THIRD ACT BEST
The third act exhibits Tully at his
best he has Macie in New York sur
rounded by crowd of sycophants
calling themselves "Bohemians" They
have bled the poor. ignorant girl and
PROFESSOR Berger Is plainly stamped as
OF that class of teachers who do not
teach. His. character, however, is not
suspected at all by the doctor, who.
returning to New York. continues 10
honorable way. The physician who did
not know in the first act the differences
between violent malady and swollen
gums thus becomes a character excit-
ing the sympathy of the audience by
reason Of suddenly acquired dignity
and his honorable affection. A scene
of charming humor is contained in this
third act and here, too, Tully shows
his weight as a portrayer of charac-
ter. in spite of his Inconsistent doctor.
Broad yet amiable satire is exhibited
and the types presented-the esthetic
poet with a thirst for beer and most
material stomach; the willowy pianist:
the stout lady who admits that she
once was a great Elsa; the bogus
teacher and other like characters-are
described with true and certain touch.
Macie is going TO sing before the lead
ing impresario. But Cupid. arriving
with news that he has struck oil in his
Oklahoma holdings, sizes UP Macie's
company. and when he learns she has
been bled at bridge by her alleged
friends he denounces them in frank
western style
ENRING To PLAY HAPPY
In the last act Macie is seen at the
professors recital, where the great i'm
pressrio is due. she is told by Berger.
But the great man doesn't come In
stead comes Cupid with a stranger
Macie. broken hearted because her long