The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-04-14
1.-THE THIRD DEGREE."

On next Tuesday evening the Grand
opera house will offer Charles Klein's
greatly discussed new play, THE
Third Degree" which Henry b. Harris
is sending to Brookings. The engage
ment is for one night only.
The cast which Manager Harris will
present in this city is one of peculiar
fitness, having been selected by that
gentleman especially for the strange
yet natural characters in the play.
Fernando Eliscu, well known in New
York for her splendid interpretations
of Yiddish characters in the native
tongue is the leading woman. Last
season Miss Eliscu was leading woman
with Arnold DAILY, the season before
that She was with Minnie Maddern
Fiske. She is said to be admirable
in her present role. Paul Everton of
The Lion and The Mouse" fame heads
the male portion of the cast, with
Margaret Drew, Alfred Moore, f. A.
Eberle, T. l.. Coleman, II. II. Forse-
man, Abner SIMMONS and Ralph Ram
sey in support.
The story of the play is one of COM
polling interest and has to do with
types Of people who are plausible and
interesting and who are involved in an
episode fraught with pain and mys-
terry. The source of the complication
is one of those frightful disasters
that might befall any man in any walk
of life, and, were the issue of his
trouble fortunate or tragic, would
leave its mark upon his soul for ever
A young man, weak, good natured, in
temperate n ConStitutionally incom-
petent, is placed in q conspicuous re-
lation to a case of suicide, the victim
being a man to whom the youth comes
for assistance in an hour of perplexity.
The boy drinks cOpiously from a de-
canter close at hand and falls into a
drunken sleep OF a divan in his
friends apartment. That friend, debt
ridden, threatened with Of
his fraudulent business transactions,
kills himself during the night. When
the alarm is given and the police come
and finu the young man in a dazed,
half frantic condition he is immedi-
ately SUSPECT ID of numbering his
friend and subjected to the form OF
police torture known as the third de-
gree. This ordeal lasts seven hours.
The torture is applied by brutal men,
VINO DTlnS 10 lnelr nOrflDle TASK all
the resources Of their experience I'm
dealing with people of the under
world. They buildoze, browbeat,
threaten and cajole by turns, but their
principle is to shatter the delicately
organized nervous sysem by launching
against it loud tones, menacing gest-
ures and the most daring lies relative
to facts they pretend to know. The
physical and mental being are played
upon in turn and the result is the
body, craving sleep and the mind,
craving surcease from the maddening
din, both give way.
The victim becomes temporarily in.
sane, and in that state confesses to
anything, he then sets to the tran
script of his rawlings a scrawl that
serves as a signature.
The first act d~evelopes the facts
upon which Mr.. Klein's drama is
based and introduces the ~principaI
actors in the tragedy that unfolds 1t
self gracefully and naturally in con
junction with a romance that is al
once absorbing and fascinating. The
real human interest centers in the cir,
wife and her heroic efforts to save the
man of her choice. She is shown In
all her simplicity endeavoring to- in
terest a celebrated lawyer in her
cause, resorting to the most wonderful
woman's methods Of procedure that
could be imagined.