The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17
THEA 7RICAL LETTER
 OF FRANKLIN FYLES

chalk face and seeming to frighten and disgust her; vet whenever she starts to run away he sazes with evil eyes Into her scared ones. as you have seen Svengali entrance Trilby in the play. and. she goes back to his arms to be maltreated again for his brutish pleasure. ThisN is meant to Illustrate the strange power held over many Parisian cocQttes by their de- pendent yet singularly dominant lovers Although( repulsive. this pantomimic waltz is fascinating with It's psy- chology. ,s,Ts
 There is a third remarkable dance to tell about. The place on view Is in New York and not stunning re- sort. but that one of the Broadway all-nights restaurants where spend thrifts pay higher prices for food and drink than fs charged at any other in the whole town. The time Is mid- night on New Years eve. The hubbub of the crowd comes in from the street along with the blowing of tin horns. auto honks and steam whistles and the more distant ringing of church bellss for the people are watching the old year out and the new year in. The spacious resort is seen to be crowded-to excess by men and women in the finest clothes and costiest jewelry, as 1t Is annually on this night of especial revelry. Those who occupy the tables have had to engage them weeks be- forehand for dinner earlier in the evening to secure them, for supper late and after ten o'clock no order for any other beverage than champagne is Accepted.
 The musicians are playing. with all their vim the tune that acompanies the assertion, There's a hot time in the old town tonight" and the people are standing up to sing gleefully of the high conviyial temperature. At esRpted 9qERedtspn efSyat vta gBAaYer who heads "a Big compabY in shows that make rounds Of the shstteffs ti6eatfAS. She springs, on her chair and thence to the table. where she gAthkrss her long skirts around her ankles. so as not to sweep off the glasses and dishes and dances among them without breaking anything except the law of decorum. True. her dance has few steps; 1t consists mainly of swaying. whirling and pictorial posing: but 1t Is dexterous as we'll as audaclous and the crowd cheers wildly. What Is the play? Why, it Is no play at all, but q real occurrence on last New Years Eve. And who was the actress? I won't write 1t: for although her spe- cia1 performance was in public place before a crowd of spectators. she wasn't acting professionally.
 Two women who may be named for doing digniied theatrical things un- commercially this week are Mrs Eliz- Abeth Robins for her political drama of "Votes for Women" and Katrina TrRsk for her religious drama of "rhe Small Town of Bethlehem" It was Elizabeth Robins who with Janet Achurch was first to act Ibsen in Lon don. and she brought "Hedda Gabler" to New York, but went back with 1t after one upappreciated perform anee. That was ten years\ ago and Ibsen meant nothing here. She and her husband. Joseph Pennell. were intimates of Whistler, and their bio- graphy of the artist is the subject of lawsuit brought by an heir to for hid the use of his letters. Mrs. Pen- nell is an ardent Suffragette and wrote ',votes for Women" to propagate in a play the doctrine of her sex's equality at the polls. It wasn't acted, but read in a New York theatre by Olga Nethersoie to an audience of Suffra- gettes and a few strangers.