New-York tribune., 1910-09-21
THE DRAMA
"The Deserters" Produced at
the Hudson Theatre.

the Hudson Theatre.
Melodrama roars and sobs in 44th street
n1eIodrama so crammed with the qualities
and capacities of that ever-admired form
of entertainment that it boils over in the
first act nay. before the first act. For
there is a prologue or Incident" which
heads the long procession of events. and in
this division. before the curtain has been
UP three minutes. the fatal shot is fired
and the man is killed For dramatic pur-
poses he is killed twice. in a manner OF
speaking. First the hero knocks him down
and, believing he has killed the man, es-
capes into the night. A melo-dramatic hero
flying from the guilt OF his own innocence
never by any chance escapes into the day
light. Hero is a lieutenant in the army
The knocked down man is his captain
The captain has been making love TO an
other lieutenant's wife The hero loves
the lady too. but the captain had the pref
erence The hero having escaped, the
knocked down man recoNers and embraces
the lady again. Enter the injured hus-
band shooting Good shot. Captain villain
dies this time The lady and the hus-
band talk it over and resolve to fix the
crime upon lieutenant hero. who, as re-
lated, has escaped into the night. II is a
Kansas night.
The hero. having esca ped. becomes, Of
course. q deserter. The government sends
q detective from Washington to Kansas to
track the deserter to his secret lair. The
detective is a real lady, who loves her work
and has a heart of adamant. of course you
know that she will find the deserter and fall
in love with him. But she doesn't know
that he was loaded. That is to say. she
does. She knows that he drunk when
he shot the man that he didn't shoot, but
she is ignorant of the fact that murder
has been done. Therefore no one can doubt
that she is a competent detective. Has she
not in her prettiest way vowed that she
will track men for all crimes but murder?
She believes that anybody who comes to a
violent death deserves his fate. Straight
way she is told that the escaped hero Is
wanted merely for desertion. She will do
him good She will find him and bring him
back Simple lady.
Miss Detective is next seen in San Fran
cisco in z cheap saloon where doubtful and
undoubted charact drink beer and whis-
kew and listen TO the good old songs of
youth and home. Miss Detective sings to
them and they drink all the harder Miss
Detective has a new costume, spick and
span and Just in from the fancy dress shop.
It NAV be Spanish. She deports herself
detective in melodrama would The sim
Dle citizens of San Francisco do not sus-
pect her. Naturally they would not. De
tective" is written all over her, but the
world knows that Frisco is guileless. Miss
Detective is disguised so thoroughly that
YOU cannot fail to recognize her as soon as
she enters. The hero now appears. Every
thing changes. even the piano. Hero takes
the place of the real pianist at the real
piano. When the real pianist played. his in
strument Welded tinny, wheeZy sounds But
hero brings forth notes of quite another
quality Somebody is playing another piano
in the wings while hero makes believe
Memo of stage mana ger: Another piano
for next performance. This one gives the
thing away."O But the deserter has been
tr-r-r-r-acked 10 his secret lair. He falls in
love with the detective and she with him.
But she loves her work. does the lady
detective and she gives her lover up to
the ninions of the army. This occurrence,
which has never happened before. and is
entirely original for stage purposes befalls
al the lady detectives apartment Miss
Detective tells her fond one that she loves
him. but that the minions will get him
whether he watches out or not. Then he
reveals the tender truth. Il a muir
Cerer" SAYS he Then I love you all the
more says she. and I will not give you
up" She bids the base minions depart
This is not the man" SAYS she. 81 am
the man." says he. And he gives himself
up. And she falls shrieking and pounding
at the door saying things which sound like
swear words.
Everybody is in Kansas again for the
last act And the sweet detective puts
everything right there, proves the hero's
innocence by asking d few simple ques-
tions which the simple military officers at
the army post had never thought of ask
ing And all ends as you knew it would
at the beginning Lieutenant Hero's inno-
cence could have been established early in
the game had not il been necessary to
show that Miss Detective was also
deser1er, a deserter from the work she
loved because she wished not TO give her
fond one over to the minons when she
learned that he accused of murder.
And so the reason for naming the play in
the plural is established TO the satisfaction
of all searching minds The audience had
all the grief it yearned for. It was en-
raptured The gentle public dearly loves
great art. this mighty mirroring of nature
Miss Helen Ware was the detective She
was the hero. and a first rate hero he was.
Mr. Frederick Truesdell a tp-top
colonel for this kind Of fighting. Every
body in the cast very good. although
the destinations of the erring lady for
whom the man in the incident was killed
left much to the imagination. The Bowery
never had s melodrama more enchanting
than this touching work in 44th street.
Improba bility perched upon the heights
and waved banners Throbs. thrills and
tears shook and flooded the dear earth
The simple souls of the Tenderoin tren-
bled before great truths. So moving is gi
gsntic ina gination and matchless art
A. ".
CAST OF THE DESERTERS.
N THE INCIDENT.
James craig second lieutenant. .Ornne Csldara
Captain JOHN Harrison. John Charles
pIs1cbe Msrstou ...-....... IOtta Lintklicum
George Marston first lieutenant Howard han