The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-07

herself as student and reappear as Q Iyoung fellow from government school for fighters. More than half the even ing. she hides her sex under the blue cloth ani silt trimmings of naval cadet.
 while the Fair Co-Ed is sportive bogus military beau. outrivaliing with her better looks and jauntier clothes her fellow students among the girls visiting at commencement time. one or the boys supplies . needed chaperon for a group of merry maidens by dis- iguising himself in petticoats. The comedian is Harry Clarke. go slim and lnimble that he makes a right comely young matron, although too antic for chaperoning decorousiy. So much or fthe amusement in this show is Q fresh
 ening of the old nonsense of man
 woman and woman-man. Elsies tcurves are not yet broadened by the fiat of age; she seems by nature to pc
 . tomboy hoyden: and if she would sacrifice her girlish length of hair she would be counterfeit boy to pass flor genuine reasonably for the purpose lof play. When actresses shift from |skirts to trousera. their legs usually wont get manly; their feet either lstride too far apart or mince too close together; but Elsie makes her walking land dancing members behave like those lof a vigorously antic young man. lClarkes chapefon. too, Is not seant in lcapering grace. As the music ts by lGustav Luders. wlso has heard and not lforgettsn the tunes of more celebrated composers. the dancing Is well worth the cost of looking at 1t.
 Familiar old American college songs Iare sung In profusion and they set the lmen in the audience buzzing and tap- ping the tunes through a revival Of lreal and pretendei collegiate memories. IThe police magistrate known as Bat ltery Dan Finn sat at one side of me. with rounder nfcIknarned Spruce Mc- ISiick, who let his tongue and feet go
 fla time with 'Upidee" and Seeing Nell Home"
 ''They remind you of your school days, chr" said Battery Dan.
 Indeed they do" responded Spruce l1feSlick
 "The hasies they do." said Battery
 Dan. though he didn't go with the
 biblical revisers in the newer word for
 hell: "sure it's 'Garryowen' and The yiwearing of the Green that would carry
 you back to the schoolhouse in County Glare. Cora, look at thati"
 The object of ejaculation was Bena Hoffman. The houseful of spectators
 Twas astonisfed, too, for Bena was n
 |stranger The program had to be
 Isearched for her name. There are two
 ways to introduce talent on the New
 York staRe--~to flare it beforehand with
 Itrumpets of heraidry and to keep mum
 and let the people discover 1t for them
 selves. The latter method was applied
 to Bena Hoffman. Not till she danced
 lamazingly on the first night of "The Fair CoaEd." did the aasemblage know Isha was Timber wonder. an agile mar : lvei and Q creature to be tossed. ewtried l Iand kiung like wefghtiess semhiance : Iof a Rirl by d staIwart man In . waltz , Iat the college commenceEnent ball. Did } Ishe shadow Elsie Janis to an eclipsey ! Ioh, no. As told you, Elsie nearly got Ialonw without her admired but very familiar limitations. The play was al- most oyer when Bena made her smash : and that's what stage folks now call . Ia big hit Did Elsie let it go at that7 { Ghe. lid not but struck out with her ] fmpersonations of six strongly in- ldtvidual players. woru-out in manner. ? but renewed quoting from recent roles t land thereby she got the evenings final { lapplause.
 1 It looked like big night that night Livery few years a tide of immodesty < strilSes the New York stage. increases { In irnproprIety as each new production E vies with its unbiushing rival and 1 generally culminRtes in 6, clash with , line police. sapho of the caloric tenn ] perament and Mrs. Warren Of the in-
 famous profession were ladies Of ex- } perience from bad pasts. Alter them the vicious flood subsided. The new ] foundation has floated the gyrations known with small reason as ''salome" dances, a mass of wicked songs, some ] gaily French extravaganzas. several exceIlently strong but harshly brutal dramas; and finally, the genius Of lWilde and Strauss and the beauty Of ] Mary Garden in the unbelievable ] sSaIome." After all those things comes ; sThe Girl from Reofors. It was
 promised to ''the limit" in indecency.
 Preliminary circulars were such -as I
 have never seen issued by an American
 theatre of any grade to advertise a
 play. The outside of the folder show
 led a waiter leering up at large tray - (which he carried and on which, in the
 midst of lobster sat a flashily dressed : lgirl, while printed beneath was the ex-
 lplanatton: "A spicy salad with very
 little dressing" On opening the sheet
 one found pictures of nearly nude women smoking cigarettes. while men
 lpeeped at them. New York heard from
 Trenton that second performance for
 lpractice was prohibited and therefore
 rushed the roun1ers to see tt In Broad ! lway. Admission cost as much as sf0 to SIS if bought of pedlars on the istreet. At o'clock the police had to Iltake control of a mob so huge that ticket holders had to fight 10 get their IIbedraggled remnants to their seats.
 Based on the belief that some hus- bands lead double lives" is the pur- bort of what Paul Potter. the adapter lof the French farce, said to the first New York audience. "and that the saint tIof the rural home may be the Lothario of the city, Mir Potter hesitated to in- | Iltroduce this comedy to community where he believed. in his innocence. | lthat married men of double lives were tlpractically unknown. but as many re- lcent law suits have tended to prove lthe contrary the management has now decided to produce this play tngthe hope lthat it will serve as warning to American husbands. and strengthen the
 hands of matrons and maids. who are
 battling for the purity of the American home"
 Ani now what was the~play that cost that audience much money and dis tcomfort to see? It was. in a word. any | of the mixed-identities. four-doors Parisian farces that you have seen.
 about the only novelty being that 1t
 was in four acts Instead of three. The tIGirl of Rector's Is the wife of an American diplomat from Battle Creek,
 stationed in the orient He spends one month a year with his wife in Michi- | gan She passing the rest of her time
 ion Broadway with lover who is tired lof her. but to whom she makes gifts
 land of whom she begs with nAuseatiEg Ifreauency for kisses On the beauty spot