Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-08

| tense with the overmastering passion
| of the acting.
Nell comes back and laughs-for the
| first time-at sight of father and child.
Jim locks the door, the atmosphere
| seems charged with evil. She prays,
silently, with her eyes He seizes her
| and as a last recourse she yields her
| self to his caresses only to recoil at the
touch of his lips. AS she falls besids
| him the sound of voices is heard and
| Jim fees.
! Act is in tenement square-grip
| pingly lifelike-with children at play
or wistfully spelling out a society
novel! Two women fight over a man.
One is his wife. The woman of the
rld-Myrtle-looks on in scorn
| at this sample of domesticity. And
again this strange, impelling play tells
us somehow that the sordid life of the
woman who is deserted and wronged
is nobler, even subtly happier. than
that of the indolent, amused demt-
mondaine. That is why Salvation
Nell'' is a moral play, with all its real
| ism of vice and sin. One cannot an
alyze this appeal One only know it is
there.
Major Williams, a small bore re-
formed roue, makes love to Nell and is
rejected. Jim comes in repentanJ.
Nell meets him and again repels his
humbled love making. and as the drums
sound their refrain-hopeless this time
-hte Army band enters and their meet
ing begins. Salvation Nell breaches
her brief sermon-and Mrs. Fiske puts
into it just the due note of personal
pleading-and the band disperses. Jim
weakly moves toward them. There is
joyous cry from Nell. and the cur
| tain goes down slowly on this CONVEX
| sion, wholly accomplished but only
| half realized.
| Holbrook Blinn is comparable only TO
| Tyrone Power in the savage strength
| which he puts into the character of
! Jim Platt In many way last nights
| spellbound audience was his triumph
! even more than Mrs. Fiske's. Perhaps
! she foresaw that his would be the first
! laurels when she accepted the play, AMI
| chose it for its real value, oblivious
of the spotlight and the stars usual
| anxiety to magnetic it. At all events,
she was content TO claim her own only
! in those few great momentS wherein
| the weak woman's strength is pitted
against the mans and sins, and the
weak woman is the conqueror
other notable characterizations were
| Miss Latham's. as the woman who has
bartered all for material security. Chic
! and dehonair-even gay with that curl
| Gus ieVity of her kind-she made us feel
| the hardness, the steely misery of her
life, which she herself was too dead
ened to know, but which rang true In
every glib work and cynical jest Miss
Madison as Maggie gave restrained
picture of the Army lass w. 7. Clarke
| was burly and convincing as the bar
| tender. The woman who played the
| deserted wife in the tenement scene
one misses her name on the program
! was superb.
II was a large, well trained cast. for
which Mrs Fiske deserves the thanks
of every lover of an artistic production.
The presentation on the big Auditorium
stage was all that could be asked.
II is hard to talk of Mrs. Fiske's
acting in Salvation Nell We for
get that she acts at all We cannot
even talk naturally Of the actress. but
of the character One is aware that
the actress was inarticulate often, and
that her choking enunciation, while adj
mirably adapted to the role, carries
realism to dangerously obscure ex-
| IRENE Yet despite all this, sheer
rather Nell-held us firm and fast until
the refrain of those last drum beats,
/ and we knew that the struggle for two
human souls had been won, and the
sun could shine. even upon the palld
lily of the slums.
John Drew opened in Jack Straw
| last night at the Mason. An elaborate
review of this important and palms.
taking production will be printed in
tomorrows Herald. The new bill at the
Orpheum will be accorded later treat
ment, as will "Shore Acres" which
opened at the Belasco last night.
! Herne's lovabie old character of Ma
| thaniel Berry is played by Louis Nor
rison, while the character of the broth
err. Martin Berry, is taken by Dewitt
| c. Jennings. Helen Berry and Sam
Warren are played by Florence Reed
and Richard Vivian. The play is pro-
vided with excellent scenery, and the
realistic lighthouse scene is one Of It's
features.
Lewis S. stone leaves this morning
at 10 o'clock for his three months va
cation in Montana, where he will hunt,
/ fish and recuperate previous to another