Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-18

If was a human and very loVaple
version of the familiar suftragette
tvpe which Miss Florence Reed gave
us in her local debut at the BelaSco
Monday evening when Jerome ~. 1e,
romes enduring comedy, MISS hopps,
opened the stock companys curre ii !
week. One may imagine Miss Reed
Instrumentation very far removed from
Mr.. Jerome's own conception OF the
character, as it certainly diners faul-
callv from the role as enacted by MISS
Annie Russell, who gave what Ialrly
may be termed the authoritative Eng
1ish nroduction some half dozen years
ago. And how many auditors last
night recognized in the Jaunty ana
dominant heroine of stormily sunny
courtship the modern successor TO
Katherine the shrew? Yet such was
certainly the original inspiration OF
Mr. Jerome as the text of his play
bears witness.
For this Katherine, as Miss Reed met
anorphoses her, tames her Wooer even
while she is tanned by him. and herein,
perhaps, lies the subtle Americaniza-
ton to which the new Belasco leading
lady has subjected the English drama.
BY the same token, Miss Reed does not
scruble to eVnce, very early In the
play manifest liking for the athletic
young chap who bets an old chum he
will kiss her in month, and then 1nds
an idle wager become very serious
affair indeed. In fact, the woman s
rights motive gradually is suppressed
after the opening scenes, and the ele-
ment of a sweet, piquant romance of a
very modern girl and a quite old-fash-
toned man becomes the ruling one. 1t
is thus almost a new play which was
presented last night, and an audience
to which one or the other of former
of Miss Hobbs" must have
been familiar attested the wisdom of
this dramatic doctoring very visibly
AS for Mr.. Jerome, he is very far away
and is supposed to have a philosophic
sense of humor.
"She Stops to Conquer"
Consistently from the first act, in
which she makes the appointment to
discreetly fiirt with the man she thinks
is her friends husband, in a quiXotic
effort to reveal mere mans perfidy, to
the pretty proposal and acceptance at
the conclusion, Miss Reed is the same
winsome impulsive, high tempered
creature whose love is awakened only
when the man who knows and loves
her compels her to cook him a meal in
the cabin of his yacht. Her capture"
Is not INSTANTANEOUS. one tOuA loCS .
when her tanner" tells her
she is good girl" A moment later
her wrath flashed into fame at his
views of the sphere of woman. There is
no hint in Miss Reeds Characterization
that Miss Hobbs abandons her suffrage
views when she wins for her fiance his
bet by herself falling into his arms.
One may even fancy her converting
him to a belief in votes for women"
before the honeymoon is spent. Yet
her suffering is so very real that she
wins our sympathy even when our
reason tells us Kingsearl is right and
she amusingly wrong.
Mr.. Stones entrance in the first act
left something to be desired in spon-
taneity and the gayety an old friend
would naturally feel at meeting a long
schoolmate. Later and espe-
cially in the grotesque scene of the en-
forced love making, he showed admir-
able comprehension of the requirements
Of his role. He delivered his fine lines
on the sanctity of motherhood-lines
typical of Mr.. Jerome in his rare, seri-
Gus moments-in just the offhand and
yet earnest, way the playwright evil
IDENTIFY conceived them.
Wife Too Lachrymose
The domestic woes of the Kingsearls,
Minor, were just a little too broadly