The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-21
THEA TRICAL LETTER
 OF FRANKLIN FHES

with Mary as it's principal spouter. It IS not much of moving drama. Most of the time 1t Is motionless while the suffrage cause is discussed.
 As expected, the act that Frohman would have bought-the middle one of three-is theatrically the most effect ual. It consists of a Sunday mass meeting of Suffragettes in Trafalgar Square. London. The base of the Nell son column is in view. and Is utilized as platform for oratory, but the fig ure of the naval hero Is up out of sight in the flies. I don't recall any Mare Anthony in Julius Ceasar" who faced a rabble better characterized than this one in Trafalgar Square. Various types of Londons populace of today are shown. I take 1t to be a photophono- graphic reproduction. The crowd is divided into three parts; those who are with the speakers. those who are against them, and those who don't l care cuss, but are out for fun only. A slouchy woman with an East End accent, and a smart woman with the speech of the West End, address the pleople in pleas for unrestricted suf- frage, and are supported by their ad- herents. against the interrupting ridi cule of real dissenters and reckless guyers. A male orator talks back de- fantly to his badgerers and an in- cipient riot Is stopped by the police. This Is an informatory showing of sort of form that we don't have in America.
 A fourth spellbinder is Mary Shaw. The initial audience is made up of vari- ous women's clubs. and societies. It Is a singular assemblage. The theatric first -nighters have gone to see Clyde | Fitch's "The Bachelor" Those here look like sedate people at a lecture in terspersed by a gay people from. the opera Women are in ratio of about five to one man. Styles are mixed, if not blended Dozens of millionaire matrons are in the boxes gorgeously apparelled. Hundreds of women in the parquet look true the spring fashion plates. There are, also, defiants of the modes, ranging from tolerable girls with oharmingly boyish tAldencies to women ugly with their disregard of the charms of their sex. Such house. full or distinctive people l have not seen before.
 Mary Shaw is a sincere Suffragette don't wish you to doubt yet she garbs herself modlshly, and asserts a star actress's right to the center of the stage. with all the rest of 1t sub servient. while she addresses the meet ing. The rabble, hith herto insulting in- terruptive. becomes silently attentive. in the earlier portion of the play, it was hinted vaguely that Mary, when an unfriendly maiden, was the loser to an aristocratic winner of her heart. This fellow, a member of Parliament, relegating her to his past. is the pres ent iance of a nice young girl.
 The old rounder's new girl wants to go to the Trafalgar Square meeting, and the member of Parliament takes her There she listens to Mary Shaw's s glib gab and joins the women's cru sade to reach the poll. The effect on the aristocrat is different; for when Mary gets denunciatory of seducers, and piteous in telling of their victims, he writhes with fear lest she expose his long ago mistreatment of her. That makes climax for the scene. with the man speaking behind his be- trothed and she uncovering him to join Mary at the rostrum. Subsequently. he declares that Mary has won him over to the cause of votes for women. and that he will become champion Of the Suffragettes. What he will do with his excess of sweethearts-wheth- CT he will marry the old one. or the new one-either, neither, or possibly both-is left to be guessed at.
 Clyde Fitchs play, The Bachelor, is so gentle and cooing that you simply can't write a harsh word about it; and its lover Is Charles Cherry. Any New york girl from nine years old to nine- ty can tell you that Cherry Is an em- bodiment of all masculin beauty and nobility The leading actress Is Ruth Mayclif, whom no one at all has to point out as adorably sweet and pret- ty And when I add the Information that there isn't an even half-villain to ruffle the lovely calm, and that the happy ending" virtually occurs in the first scene, you easily can see that '"rhe Bachelor" is the perfect candy | I mean play-for-girls to eat. Every working girl should swallow It. Taken neatly between the thumb and second l finger and nibbled slowly. she will find 1t very sweet and tasty. Yet this play transports us immediately into the commercial world by showing two in- huential financiers discussing at length the comparative charms of their stenographers. Other girls in the building are touched upon. and. incl dentally. business. Our handsome | Cherry hero praises his amanuensis especially for her vivacity and freedom from restraint about the office. Pres ently We learn that her dash and go, and the slang which she saves up for her employer. are not easily acquired. In short, she is not what she seems
  but Millie. the belle of the ball. The family fortune having burned to ashes in the San Francisco earthquake. she. noble girl. has come to New York to work in support of her mother and to send her younger brother through col lege.
 It is the bumtious boy who tells the confirmed bachelor these things. with the further information that the steno- grapher loves him madly. He feels 1t his duty to ask her to marry him. Her delighted consent changes to proud rejection. though. when she learns that he spoke only through kindlIness. Her feeling reverses It. self. you will hardly be surprised to hear, when the bachelors coldness warns to ardor. That Is all there is of the plot. and virtually all of the in cidents of "The Bachelor" It runs along smoothly. except when. now and then, 1t stops running entirely and stands gently still. It eEcites no nerv- ous apprehension as to It's outcome It might have been written by George M Conan on a scenario by Bertha M Clay. That is, most of 1t might. Much rnarrfpaant fa rnada of fha