The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
BY FRANKLIN FILES.

l purposes and processes. that nopo you will find the following accounts
 of them readable. ''Springtime | five mems efforts to create neroise with whom one of those mems WIG | may be popularised. Of course, tne husband is the quintets capitansr ;; | That la theatrical businets israer is an Israelite.s dramatic presentation l of the Christian versus Jewish ani- | mosity which extends throughout the civilized world That has been Q dramatic subject for unnumbered plays | from Leah, the Forsaken," down to 1 last springs "The House Next Door," and Meyer and Son." Henri Bernstein, the Israeiite author of aIsrael.. is a Parisian, and natural. | fy makes the French anti-Semluc movement the theme of his play. For l the same Parisian reason. and despite his serious intent to deal dignifiediy with a portentous subject, he makes adultery the gist of his fiction. The Prince of Clar is Jew hater and batter of the most rabij sort. The Jew on whom he concentrates his anta agonfsm is Justin Gutiieb, wealthy banker. The Prince Is lead CT among those Frenchmen who made martyr of Dreyfus, and put the Jew Christian clash into politics. lie deems 1t a duty to force duel upon Gutlieb unless he abtectly quits club to which both belong. The Chris tian's superior skill at fencing will make him sure and safe to kill the Jew; but when they cross rapiers, and the older man bravely awaits mortal thrust, the younger wounds him very slightly and declares himself satisfied. Why this strange change of purpose? The Christian has learned that the Jew he chose for yicarious slaughter Is his father.
 The duel isn't fought in the play, but the cause of its shift from real to mock makes the middle act of the three e powerful forty minutes ot drama. The Princes mother. a proud. Duchess, is agonized by the prospect that her son win kill his father. She begs her long-ago paramour to funk, He will die at his sons hands rather than be a cowardly representative of Judaism. She. implores her son to quail. urging that the duel will make him a murderer; but he declares that the cause of which he Is the champion demands 1t. Her frantic appeals arouse his curiosity as to her motive, however. and long dialogue. written and spoken intensely, leads to the mothers confession to the Count that
  whom he has picked out for slaughter.
 The frenzy of the Prince Is maniacal on learning that he Is half Jew. The actor Is a Graham Browne. from London, and so explosive that few snickered at him; but the many came. at once to his support with applause, A1@tlfss Londoner, Constance Collier, acts the mother excellently; but she Is so obviously Jewess that her assign msnt to the role of the Christian woman seems singular: and her Israelite lover of the by-gone Ifason is personated finely by the anything but Jewish Edwin Arden. That doesn't matter, though, and nothing has been more honestly applauded by New York ers 1T, A long while than this scene of A mother driven by Q son to divulge her shame.
 A friend of the author tells me that he wrote that middle third of "Israef' first, and rapidly. out of his minds fulness of the subject. That was easy. The acts to precede and follow were harder. The play starts in Paris club A half dozen members discuss and approve Prince Glars intenr!on to drive Justin Gutlieb out. while the banker has but one defender; but be- tween the six and the one. the pro and con of boycotting Jews is thor ougfiy gone over. Then the Prince comes in, waylays Gutlieb. and doesn't strike his face with q glove--as usual in stage provocations to duels-but knocks his hat off with cane. The curtain goes down with neither of the plays two women having been seen.
 Probably Bernstein fagged his brain much more over the final act. He had revealed the Israelite father to the Christian son with grievous effect on them and the mother. What Is to become of me?" the son cried In his agony He hated his father, despised his mother and what was left in life for him hut the ridicule of friends and foes alike. Suicide! That seemed to him the logical answer; and the author wrote a suicidal denouement. The sons death was a logical escape from his humiliating predicament; and French audiences don't dislike mortu- ary conclusions; but he may have had a thrifty eye on the American prefer ence for happy wedlock for an out come. Paris saw but one woman in the whole play. the mother, and she in the second act only. In the amend ment for New York. a gentle girl friend of the Prince is introduced to do nothing until he Is about to shoot himself Then she asks him to live because she loves him and he con- sents to live with her as happily as possible.
 There is no denying the Christian antipathy in New York to Jews, nor the Jewish desire to keep separate from Christians; and considering that Jews are liberal supporters of theatres, play dealing wieh the Semitic prob- lem Is a risky venture. I heard some clashes of opinion in "Israel's" first audience. but I think 1t straddies the
 racial fence adroitly.
 Never have I seen such contrariety of opinion as that which was for and against Nell and "Springtime" as at Its start in New York. Nell is Nab el Taliaferro with new name. and
 "Springtime" Is a new play made for ! her so carefully that the process may interest you. Nell was one of sew eral Taliaferro sisters who were trained by their mother for child
 parts. Their small size and naive aiI
 qualified them to defy the Gerry law 1 against performers under 16 unless
 licensed by the Mayor. Nell Is 20 now
 yet might go on playing children; but she is the wife of Frederic Thompson
 who made a fortune with Luna Park,
 at Coney Island. and he has the means of making an adult star actress of her | He did 1t. you remember. with Polly | of the Circus" People had to learn how to pronoune her Taiiaferro name,
 which hindered them in talking about
 her and so It Is changed to Nell.
 To get a suitable play wasn't Sc
 easy. for Nell is so weakly juvenile
 in looks and action. voice and emotion
 that nothing in the least demonstra-
 tive can be given to her to do. As a
 negative object, she Is very lovely