Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-06
nY w. HERBERT BLAKE

o1ts the dogs nature to kill, and 1t
WOULD be brutal to beat him for it,
saws Edna Earl to st. Elmo as the
latter lifts an avenging manu- oNel
Rover the sheep butcher. or course
Rover gets off scot free, even as ..le
enslavement of st. Elmo 10 beauty
begins. e.,.,,;sbas
Fdna's compassionate logic furnishes
the kew TO the novel Of Augusta Evans
Wilson. whose dramatic version pTlghI-
ened the Burbank stage yesterday
afternoon with the brilliant blaze OF
Genuine melodrama. St. Elmo Kills
the Young hypocrite who has Wrohgeu
his cousin and robbed him or ms Idlll'
1t happens in duel when helps 70
appease our instincts of justice WIN
the glamour of romance. sun the oouy
looks grewsome enough, there on the
stretcher. and we wonder how far the
code duello can blind us to the tact
that murder is murder. And then
comes the episode of Rover. Its the
dogs (beggng st. Elmo's pardon) ma
ture to kill. Why beat MN. we
seem to hear the playwright ask the
question. Edna Earl answers 1t by
saving yes to St. Elmo's proposal IN
the last act. At the same time she
saves St. Elmo from a remorsetul
suicide by the grave OF the man he
has killed.
II is the triumph Of sentimentality-
q triumph in which every human being
who sees the play rejoices quite as
irrationallv as the old clergyman VINO
forglves his sons slayer. This ruff
fianlv Rochester has been Transformed
into a gentleman-almost saint. A
woman novelist has performed this
miracle. and an audience of women has
acclaimed it true. 1t would be an un-
gallant skcptic who should dare to
question it.
OF course, Mr. Beasley's ST. Elmo Is
not half so bad a chap as the human
tiger who snarls through the pages OF
Mrs. Wilson's novel. Only his man
ners are savage. His words have a
Pvronic bitterness at times, but the
Beasley smile extracts the sting. /
could not believe that he had really
killed Murray Hammond in the duel,
and honestly expected to see that
faithless dandy turn up, safe and
sound. i'm the last act thanks to the
,are Of the kindly villagers. Mr.. Mes
tayer did appear, I understand, ana
sat In the front orchestra row to the
end, with the cheerful sensation of
viewing his own tombstone, 1t was
an excellent advertisement for the
play-and a sincere one.
Perhaps ii y a mistake to quarrel
with dramatic seutimentalism-unl
one be an ingrained reallst. Certainly
that splendidly acted scene outside the
old church went straight TO the heart.
If the motif of the play were not so
passionately moral II would be easier
to dissect its fallacies. As 1t is, to
condemn st. Elmo to suicide seems a
heartless and gratuitous thing. We
are heartily glad when Edna stays his
finger as it presses the trigger.
Besides Mr.. Beasley's earnest and
temperamental acting, there are sew
oral excellent type portrayals-Miss
Oberle as the chatty neighbor, Miss
Landau's blacksmith. Mr.. Mestayer
played appealinsly the few moments
of life which his stage self was ac-
corded, winning even more sympa thy
than the strict merits of the char
acter. as afterward unfolded, would
seem to have intended. Miss Hall did
one Of her best Juveniles Of recent
memory q s Edna. Miss Taylor, as st.
Elmo's cousin, whom he alternately
bullled and tautalized, dressed be
witchiugly and acted well. Her per
sistenJ difficulty as an actress is that
of varying her tones sufficiently to de-
note the changes of emotion. 1t some
times produces a sameness of effect
which hampers her versatility of meth
cd Mr. Burton was the almost inhu-
manly fnrgiying father of the duel vic
tim. Even the merclful gospel which