The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-17

enough: but will 1t cool offf or will It's red heat rise to white? A chatter pre- cedes the lift of the curtain news- paper composing room Is opened up battery of typesettins machines fills most of the stage. but leaves space for make up tables. copy desks and the night editors den. The hour of going to press is close by front page with the dialogue between the editor and the judge. and the snapshot picture. 's ready for the presses. Brand Is ex- ultant but his seal as socialist has brought heartbreak, too. He and Judge Bartelmy's daughter used to be sweet hearts. Now they are estranged. 1Nt Is the plays love story She comes to plead that for her sake he will not drive her father from the judicial bench. To deny her frantic prayer Is a supreme test of his determination, but he stands it. and hears her de- nounce him as cruelty heartless. Well, that's over. What other obstacle can come in the few minutes before what he deems his duty to the people will have triumphed over his love of Judisn Bartelmy?
 Yes: the judge has promised social ad- vancement to Mrs. and Miss Nolan 1T The Advance does not publish the dia- logue and photograph of the mock bar gain.
 "I'm sorry for you. my boy" Nolan says. ''but this means lot to my wife and daughter. Don't run this page Kill 1t. That's a positive order" As Brand slumps into a chair. limp and aghast, his employer adds kindly: Don't take 1t so hard. Things will look brighter to you tomorrow. Come and talk with rae. Your salary shall be doubled" and he goes out
 The author of "The Fourth Estate" Is Joseph Mediil Patterson. son of The Chicago Tribune's editor and chief owner. and an ardent Socialist. Natur- ally, his depletion of life and work in daily newspaper office is copied from the real things as he has studied them: but although he has had the expert help of Harriett Ford in shaping the play, I am surprised by its bold and strong originality in dramatic effects. Up to the minute before the final cur | tain there Is no hint of what the end will be. Brand suddenly decides. to de- stroy the judge professionally and himself physically, so he sends the forbidden page to the press room. and then says calmly: "I gues sthat is thir- I ty for me-" Only here and there a person in the audience knows that Thirty" in a nwspaper office means that the last copy for the night is in | and that the final form of type may be | hurried to the presses. Brands 'Thir- | ty'' tells but few that he is through with his work and is going to quit life. So when he turns off the light and pistol shot is heard, the climax of suicide is nearly complete sur prise.
 | Not all grim is this showing of an episode in journalism. Fun comes out
 in spots Two humorous characters are Sylvy Nolan, the owners silly young son, who undertakes to get a portrait of his pet showgirl into pa- pas paper. and his chum. Powey, who writes verses to be printed with the sirens picture. Brand says no to them
 but gives the poet chance as a re- porter and tells him to go to the city editor. Where is he?' the new one asks. You're reporter new.' the | editor replies, "see if you can find him." Powey's first assignment is a round of police stations. He returns with a quire of paper written closely with poetic thoughts concerning wo- man who has committed suicide in an evil resort Brand gives him an off, hand lesson by throwing his column of copy into a waste basket and writ ing in its stead: Mary Brown, an in- mate of 8 house in Cherry street. kill led i1erself last night. She was weary
 of a life sof prostitution The crush ed poet picks his disdained manuscript out of the basket and departs
 | That comic incident leads to the last words Of the drama, and they are not spoken Brand. just before orderng the fateful page sent to press. despite Nolans order, takes out the item about Mary Brown and puts what he mentions casually as '.x correction"i in the same page with the big sensa- ton. When the action concludes with his suicidal shot in the dark. the changed item is thrown on the cur tain enlarged and illumined: Wheel CT Brand an inmate of the Advance office, killed himself last night. He was weary of life of prostitution" | The ratio of sobriety to hilarity has been so large during six weeks of the tnew theatrical season that a piece of nonsense Is relished by some of the i, wise men of Gotham and many others.
 won't give. away by naming them any of the intellectual heavyweights
 whom caught gog-eyed, gape-mouth- ed and cock -eared at young fellow | singing to his sweetheart in The Man Who Owns Broadway" that he would l Ego the route" for her. They acted the simple love ballad--a ditty close to
 doggerel-by the manly boy merely chasing the shy glrlie around the
 stage; but the tune was blithe, the dancing lltnes ana the blend UT SenIl- ment and foolery so pretty that it knocked dignity silly. They had to do 1t seven times over, although the star comedian of the show. Raymond Hitch cock, was kept waiting on the scene. He got out of his predicament by join ing in the pursuit of the little maid
 and catching her away from her ar
 dent lover; whereat a pundit here, a financier there and a millionaire yon- der pulled out their laugh stops and
 roared merrily.
 Why" some one said to Hitchcock,
 a few minutes later, you have four
 children in Denver"
 Four" he retorted; why that's a
 sure lie, for I never stayed in Denver
 but one night"
 And that's the nearest to naughty
 that anything comes in this "POpu- larity" of George NJ. sCohan's which.
 by putting in an abundance of songs
 and dances. comedians and girls, has
 transformed into the big extravagan-
 ga of "The Man Who Owns Broad way" The wit and humor are of the Tenderloin, yet none is deplorable. The et-chorus is sirenic. yet the shortest skirt is ankle length. The displaced feminity on the same stage
 was stripped by Anna Held. yet Ray mond Hitchcock's fully draped gay creatures please the town rounders as
 well. besides appealing to better peo- pie. Mind you, I'm not bringing the
 personalities of Anna and Raymond
 into the purely professional question; i;
 what's the use of being wicked on the