The San Francisco call., 1909-11-01
CLEVER NEAR MAN IS
CHARLES THE FIRST
Performance of Trained Monkey
Delights Sunday Patrons
"a of the Orpheum
Drums of DOOM" Though Well
Acted, Is a Tabloid Drama
6 of Obvious Horrors
Bv WALTER ANTHONY


Charles the First, declared to be the
missing link. the nearman and the or
iginal creature. which q nearly said
''who") had set a pace for all chimpan-
ices, IS all monkey, and the greatest
OF his kind / ever saw. To. paraphrase
a iine from The Drums Of Doom" at
che Orpheum also Charles the First
IS 500 per cent monkey" He carries
brute ssgacity nearly to the very line
81 human Intelligence. and when he
sides the bicycle he has most of US
-svho SIT in the audience beat He strad-
dies the bicycle saddle with: almost as
much native ease as he. could exhibit
climbing trees in west Africa. and he
rides OF. as. securely as though he were
ewinging from limb to limb.
1t is really marvellous act that
Charles she First stars in. Skating
ON rollers is as convenient mode of
motion for him as though he had
srotted off every Saturday afternoon
e. his childhood TO some Simian skat-
ing rink in a far of jungle town
He comes on the stsg at the Or
pheum dressed in the height of fashion
"a chimpsnzee Apollo He hangs his
hat and csne~on a rack, takes seat
az a table and. ringing the bell, orders
dinner, which he consumes with knife
and fork in q fastv but quite familiar
manner. he drinks. wine generously,
lights a cigarette. smokes 1t and en-
plOys the cuspidOre after the fashion
of vulgar man.
QUARRELS WITH WAITER
Then. like other monkeys. he quar-
rels with the waiter over the fee and
gets the worst of the argument After
that come the roller skating exhibit
and the bicycle riding, and then he un-
dresses and goes to bed: But when
he gets his conventional garments of
his monkey self he can not resist a
temptation to jump on the bedraiI and
stretch his four legs IN most COM
fOrtably natural monkey manner
without doubt Charles the First has
the most unique animal turn that the
Orpheum ever staged.
How shall we now introduce The
Drums Of Doom and not fail in respect
10 Minnie Seligman and William Bra M
well who present q Sardouish melo-
drama in one act by Gerald Nilliers
Stuart2 II is like vaudeville to provide
contrasts OF eXtraVagant nature, but
from Charles the First to the com
bination mentioned above would
stretch the Imagination of Darwin's
most fantastic disciple. However. ii
must be acknowledged that the monkey
act wins the honors Of interested at
tenfiOn.
MISS SELIGMAN'S ART
OF Miss seIgman's art it were difh-
cult 10 speak in exaggerated praise.
BramWelTs delineation Of the lawyer
is almost QuiVering with reality, but
the play is an unrelieved burden Of
obvious horrors; narrowing appeal is
Centered on the nerves of the morbid,
and a double catastrophe of an eXecu-
tfon Of a murderer in. the electric chair
and the death OF his wife from a thun-
derbolt out of bodeful sky is the finish
Of an orgy Of the terrible
Mrs Jim KiUbridge. who is 100 per
cent woman" as the lawyer says. and
her husband, the murderer in the play.
who is 100 per cent man. have been
parted because he. Jim, had choked
snan named Muldoon to death He has
been arrested, tried and convicted. The
curtain goes up on the night when he
as to be executed.
But Jim has been the leader in poll
tics in the state. and the governor has
been his product and puppet. The gov
ernOr IS bound to release him on
pardon. and Jim's wife and the lawyer
N j x.
aing a midnight supper. A storm out
side with thunder trimmings suggests
The drums Of doom. Public sentiment
e. against Jim has run so high that there
BIS danger that an audience might SYM
pathize with the crowd outside the
GAN. and 50 Jim's wife tells Jim's law
ser what she had never confessed be-
.f0re-that is that the murdered man
had grossly insulted her, and that was
Ghe reason why Jim killed Muldoon
by choking him. Why had she not told
shat before? II seems she had a past,
Rnd that past would have been dug up
by the prosecution had Jim urged the
mitigation Of the insult TO his wife.
Besides. he relied on the governors
pardon.
sGBEWSOME FINALE
Meantime. noise from outside-shout-
kng and cries-indicate the gathering
tof 2 crowd at the courthouse The
rain and the thunder persist. The
telephone bell rings and Mrs. Jim goes
isuilinsly TO the phone to listen 10
her husbands voice. but not until she
thas clssrEoyantly described the actual 7
tscene At the courthouse. of the march
Ito the chair. the attaching OF the wires.
or the shudder and the death-al of
which hallucination she puts down 10
her excited condition. But 1t proves
true
The governors pardon came too late:
the crowd wouldn't let his messenger
through the fdoors, and re sheriff,
brother OF the murdered MuldOon. pro-
ceeds with the job. Mrs Jim gets this
sover the phone, gasps, rushes to the
window and is Joined TO her husband
st is suggested in a tragic speech from
lthe lawyer-by electricity in the hands
sof God. She is struck by lightning.
The reason for the act lies in Minnie
tSeligman's splendid emotional acting
and in BramwelPs naturalism.
The bounding GordOns are new COM
.ers with clean and well executed ath-
1etc act; the BoOtblack Quartet is only
fair; Hal Godfrey and company have
taken Of their skit Of last week and
1ave substituted a better: Mile. Bianci
tremains beautiful addition to the
fbill. and Keno Walsh and Melrose are
held from last week In their clever
revolving arch stunt. General LaVine,
In his eccentric Juggling turn, is an
other Of the holdovers making excellent
entertainment