Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-04
ADJUSTMENTS
Columbia.

There is class Of drama which might
be called the frontage school. The more
disagreeable some people find it the more
others appear to like it. The pay New
York" may find in the infinite variety
of taste which a metropolis contains
enough patronage to sustain it. Its ar
rafgnment of the vices of big city in
dicates zeal rather than information.
which fact is entirely to the authors
credit.
The playwright's insight into human
nature and events is not close, but he
is very much impressed by what he has
seen and heard of and is bent on shar-
the courage or inclination to see life
as it Is" Many young man who has
started for New York has gotten off at
Jersey City.
The play is by the same writer who
produced The Fighting Hope and 1.-The
Handwriting on the WALL" neither of
which found much thoughtful indorse-
ment. The present determination of the
author to be as bad as he can be is
equaled only by the desperation Of the
small boy who concluded that nobody
loved him and swallowed a fuzzy cater
pillar.
The affectionate guardian who seeks
TO curb wayward youth was charmingly
presented in when We Were Twenty
One" In this play the object Of the
guardians care suffers from moral
bhght-a sort of Ibsenitis which renders
MIN an unspeakable criminal The second
act. which borrows Sardou's favorite ex.
pedient Of discovering the heroine as the
slayer OF a. member of her lovers family
works up through an excellent third de-
gree scene to a climax that is undeniably
strong. 1t gives promise Of q technical
facility deserving of more wholesome
themes and of better style of express
sion. The third and last act presents
abnormal nf yIo
doubts his love for good woman be-
cause Of his clinging affection for his
secret and tnhuman offspring. whom in
decency She was obliged to kill as she
would an attacking rattlesnake. 1t makes
most unmanly hero of the lover, and
the pleadings OF the woman rob her OF
the pride which should have been hers in
the consciousness of right.
The characters are debased types
throughout About the only crime which
IS not employed In the plot mechanism
Is making counterfeit money, which was
PROBABLY deemed too innocent by compari-
son for the purposes of this enterprise
Some good acting contributed to make
the Presentation shocking rather than
absurd. Mary Shaw applied her fine tai.
ents to the portraiture of a woman of
such extreme vulgarity that the intimate
association with man Of the hero's
assumed refinement seems preposterous;
Laura Nelson Hall handles the emotion
~>AASAA. ~ siiS pAAuSlpdi lcIilHln0 role WIN
convincing effect: Mortimer Weldon en-
acts the part Of the ungovernable boy
with high-strung emphasis, and Frank
craven gives picture of an intensely
ordinary young man. a type of slow
-witted obstinacy' that is the most novel
and original creation Of the play. The
role of the low-minded father and high
minded lover is SO irreconcilable in its
complexities that Mr. Orrin johnson is
entitled TO great credit for making as
much of 1t as he did.
A report has been permitted to circu-
late to the effect that Mr.. Al Woods. the
producing manager. is so sure of the
plays excellence that he will commit
suicide If 1t Is not a success. If sue
cess consists of the production of a work
which minds of reasonable cleanliness
can follow without offense, Mr.. Woods
friends should keep him carefully and
constantly surrounded. Though New
York. may Lack in appeal to artistic In
terest. 1t is entitled % the most serious
and intelligent scientific consideration as
a symptom.