Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-15

= .ervant ......... Robert Bond
Jack BrOOkAeld ...,.....,..'. 'John mason
Lew Ellinger ...-.......' 'howhru @ SCI
Tom Denning ...-...'.'. Preston ~ 1870 80
Harvey a servant .,,........W w. ii. sauler
MRS Alice Campbell, Jacks sister. nh Nh
- Miss Belle Howell Bonn
AErs HELEN YYhipple CIay's mother. .....
Miss Amelia Gardner
Viola Campbell, Jacks sister. -.;:..::.
,........ -. Miss Charlotte Ives
Clay Whippie ............ Clinton Preston
ST-arl, 4srdmuth ..... Albert Andruss
Justice Prentice ............. .kuss Mhytal
Justice Henderson ..-........ n L. si ha.'vn
Butler, Colonel Bayley wv. II. Butterhed
Mr.. Emmett, a reporter ......W. H. sadler
ny w. HERBERT BLAKE
The star of 1.-The Witching Hour" is
not John Mason, nor Miss Amelia
Gardner, nor yet Russ Whytal all OF
whom contribute in nearly equal meas
ire to it's success. The star Of "The
witching Hour is not a player, but
playwright, almost the only living
American whom one can conservative
ly brevet a dramatist. And in the sue
cessfuI production of his latest play
Augustus Thomas not only has earned
that title. but has proved himself
magician as well-a magician who
works his own whimsical will with us
as truly as ever did Keller or Herr
man in a more obvious, if less subtle,
fashion.
There is such a thing as mental in
fuence Men have always believed in
it. under some name or other-seek it
in teIepathy, hypnotism, or the baleful
glare of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner,
as you choose. But no responsible
playwright since Paul Potter has
thought seriously of staging it, be-
,-aSnonsfbla TIaVuripht in
Guiding the adapter of "Trilby," has
ever taken the trouble to trace it to its
source. Thomas did. He found it's
source In the plain, old-fashioned word,
character. And he made that word
the rigid backbone of THE Witching
Hour" We learn this, little by little,
all the way through the drama which
is being presented at the Auditorium
this week, but we are made certain
of it in the last act, wherein all but
one of the characters-and she the
hopeless slave of prejudice-feel the
impress of the character of Jack
Brookfield, reformed gambler, for good.
And Brookfield himself frankly traces
his own inward rejuvenation to the
character of the stately and sweet
souled old Justice Prentice, whose
suave hypnotic influence is the dom
inant factor in the entire action.
IEeIlllC0 10 lll0 SUI l VI JQu6t oil lutdI-
istic young lawyer must figure to him
self as the true Bayard of the Ameri-
can legal system. After knowing Prem
tice / shall never care to make the
acquaintance of a real supreme court
1urist. He might approximate Prentice.
He could not incarnate him. For Prem
tice Is an ideal, and such ideals are too
true to take human form among us in
the twentieth century There is a love
affair in Prentice's past-'the delicate
odor of mignonette" in the midnight
atmosphere of his books and his mus
ings. Another won the woman. Prem
tice has only the medallion and the
memory. And one can feel the reality
of that memory in his mien and
gracious presence as he enters the
gambling house Of Jack Brookfield,
gambler to ask the price of a picture
in the latter's varied collection. Brook
field IS brusque, and aloof, and kind at
heart. He, too, has lost the woman he
loves, because he has refused tol
abandon the game that he calls chance,
by which ne has won hollow fortune.
The woman has married, her husband
has died, and she meets Brookfeld
again. Both talk over the past, but
each of adamant on the mooted point
From Prentice Brookfield learns with
interest of the power generally known
as hypnotic, which he possesses. The
lesson comes none too soon. A moment
later the young fiance of Broolifields s
niece, crazed by the sight of a cats
eye jewel for which he has an heredi-
tary horror, kills the friend who laugh
ingly bangles it in his face, to see him
squirm Hardmuth, assistant prose-
cutor and the rival in love of the
slayer, spurs on the prosecution of the
youth and he is sentenced to die. To
save him his mother the stubborn
sweetheart of Brookheld's aching
memory, comes to Justice Prentices s
apartments with Brookfield and the
boys fancee. She shows on old letter
to the jurist, which proves her the
daughter of the girl Of his memory
the woman Of the medallion and the
mignonette. The justice recoils at her
plea, but listens at length when he
learns that the hereditary taint which
caused the killing was the same which
prompted him to fight a youthful duel
for the woman he lost-the grand
mother Of the accused boy.
A new trial is obtained. BY mental
influence we are made to believe that
Brookfield controls the mind of a single
juror. (Why could he not as easily
have controlled the twelve?) At the
same time he causes a newspaper to
publish his charge that the malignant
prosecutor procured the murder of a
recent gOvernor-elect, whose death has
been a mystery. Thus he prevents the
nomination of the prosecutor for gov
ernor. safeguarding the boys life In
the event of an appeal for a pardon
At the same time it is pointed out that
the combined indignation of thousands
of readers against the attorney will
suhconsciously infame the minds Of
the jury against him, and so In favor
of the prisoner. 1t does. The boy is
freed.
But he is not cured. His disease is
double He still fears the cats eye
He still hates Hardmuth, the baffed
and exposed prosecutor. To vanquish
the fear Brookheld pretends to tor
ment the youth with the cats eye, lat
er showing him the deception. He sue
ceeds. In like manner Brookfield sends
the young man and his sweetheart to
conduct the prosecutor himself to the
gamblers rooms-now no longer the
shrine of chance, but Of certainty.
In their absence Brookfield tests an
old suspicion by discovering that he
can call at will the cards in a fellow
players hand, proving to himself that
all his former luck was simply the
result of superior mental power. Here
is the climax in Jack Brookheld's life
as Mr.. Mason very penetratingly plays
the role Until then he has been serv-
ing others Now he saves himself
When Hardmuth enters in the con-
duct Of his bitter enemy, now sane and
rational, Brookheld conniyes at his
escape, tustifying himself in a way
which is the acme Of the playwright's