The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-19
BY FRANYLIN FILES.

BY FRANYLIN FILES.
 New York. Sept. iS--This Is the widows week here dramatically NO new play has a maiden heroine. Three widows instead make much ado for wooers In "A Widows Might. The Revellers" and An American Widow" Two of these beloved widows are act ed expertly by Ida Conquest and Grace Fillxins. The third is exhibited beau tffully by Lillian Russell They say that Lillian says she can't acth Any way, IL Is so. But ever since she went on the stage at is sweet. until now at whatever age she Is and not yet in the least sour. she has been without rivalry as Americas most beautiful woman of the theatres.
 She used to sing with a finely cult ured voice of rare soprano quality. IL is curious fact that during all her vocal time no attempt to make star singer of her was successful. She got high salaries and the managers no remuneration. It was not until within three years that. as an exhibit of hu- man beauty. in plays setting her forth to do hardly anything else than show herself in modish gowns, she-nas kent going profitably in tours criss-crosstng the whole country.
 Any play for the beauteous Lillian Is problem play necessarily. The problem isn't by the author. hut for him. How shall he put her into action which, although all of 1t that if difn- cult is done by others; yet may make her seem to do star actress's portion of 1t? Edmund Day solves 1t in The Widows Might" by giving to her four cronies of her dead husband as trus- tees of her estate. and making all of them suitors for her hand in second marriage. A scoundreI steals the es- tsrx share the loss among themselves, and let her know nothing of 1t. They can't divide her into quarter-sections as Joint wife, though. and their rivalry in courship becomes quarrelsome.
 Now. four dogs may fight over e single bone, and in furious commotion the bone may be so tossed and tum- bled that. being the object of interest anyway. 1t looks as active as the dogs. l thought of that when she stood at the center of the stage. mute and moveless, while the four actors mads farcical turbulence around her.
 shows to Advantage.
 Here Is one of Days ways of ren. dering her a fine sight. The stage is set with ornate architecture for the hallway of the widows house. long stairway leads to the story above. A ball is in progress. welI-dressed peo-
 
 tron is personated by Liliian's sister. Susan westford, and a comely girl by her niece, Helen Ross. pair or spooners sit on the lower steps and talk about the hostess. While they extoi her. Lillian appears at the top of the stairway in decoilete gown, slowly and silently descends in step to the music of waltz in the adjacent drawing room, and until she gets all v1v0v fn hA ~hnt they keep on in rapturous praise or her ioveliness A bold expedient, yet safe. for although Lillian has been on view during one act already, she now gets new applause at this ingeniously prolonged and, pictorial entrance in re- spiendent attire. YN1w
 Very faulty Is this play Day writes with a blunt pen, and his hu- nor is dull. but he exploits Lillian Russell we'll. At the plays beginning, the title would be spelled .'The Wi dow's Mite" from the fact that her -Four lovers call their secret contribu- tons mites" for her: but at the cli- max "The Widows Might" is right. Tor there she regains her fortune and uses 1t nightly to save them from ruination in Wall Street. The author Again makes the beauty look like a spirited actress. It Is one of those : familiar scenes in a brokers office Frantic men run in and out, read the tickers tapes aloud and shout their hopes and fears. The time for the ex. changes to close is near, Can inc widow, by buying the assailed stock. lift its price to hundred before the clock strikes? Now. all Broadway knows Lillian to be a horse-race de- votee; so 1t aniuses the people here when. in the phrases of the track. in- stead of the street and handlin0 vha tape>iike reins. she urges the stock to win as though it were a racing horse and she jockey on It's back.