The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-02-13

New York Feb. u-Three dramas In
New York this season have had builders
of bridges for heroes. To be explicit, the
lovers are civil engineers who plan
bridges and see to their construction. In
the latest of these compositions, None
SO Blind" ernest Poole, author. and
John Mason, star actor, q gain Of pictur-
esaue location is obtained by making the
hero a bold bridger Of gorges hard 10
span, and the transfer of the mans young
wife from Eastern culture 20 Western
wildness causes the plays essential mis-
understanding. for her affinity with
congenial poet convinces the husband
and the audience, too-that she is at heart
untrue to her marriage vows. So here
is one more OF those cases OF two being
good company and three a bad crowd.
The oddly in None So Blind is that
John Mason persOnates a man who for
nine months has been blind, but he re-
gains his vision. and then pretends awhile
10 be stil sightleSs. so that he may watch
unexpectedly what's going on around
him A blind man recovering his sight.
and using il 20 watch the conduct or a
wife and her sweetheart suggests a
French farce. In Pools's drama no fun
but much heartaohe comes OF ii. The
poet tempts the wife IN the husbands
presence. believing he can't see them;
and they imagine that their words belle
their actions 10 him. Yet all the time he
sees whatever they do. and Is deceived
only In ascribing a wrong motive 10 them.
The husband responds 10 a call for that
duty which women expect every man TO
dom fiction, at any rate-which Is 10
forgive his wife, whatever transgFession
she may confess and regret. The bridge
makers wife has no gross liaison with
the verse-maker, yet while helping the
blind engineer in the drawing of his plans.
coIlaborates heart and soul with her
sweetheart in his poems. Neither the audi
ence nor the husband, when he sees that
her actions belle her words, has any doubt
that she means to elope. John Mason
makes him just the noble sort of chap TO
attribute her misbehavior to unconge- /
niality with him and affinity with the 9TH |
er fellow. SO he not only forgives her. |
but bids her TO go back to New York with |
his unfair rival and be happy.
DenmHn Thompson I'm Vaudeville.
Hired by The washington Herald to
write about nothing else than new /
things I'm new shows I stil may give an /
account of Denman Thompson in Joshua /
WhitcOmb" for although no play in |
Broadway is older none is newer either, |
and Thompson shifts his familiar farmer /
from lovable humor 10 sad pathos. The /
jolly old Josh. who for third of a cen
not now hale nor hearty, but so decrepit /
that he can't do much else in his accus- !
toned way than smile blandly. His voice /
is so weak that he can with difficulty /
make il carry throughout the theater, and !
the effort Of acting at all tires him so
quickly that he has cut the play down to
half an hour This is Thompson's in
deed farewell tour, and no one expects
1t to extend beyond New York, Philadel-
phia. and Boston. In view of the million |
that ought To be his fortune. why does he
work any more? The answer is that his /
bad luck in investments. and his inveter-
ate taking Of chances to lose, have not !
left him rich enough 10 refuse an offer Of
many thousands in vaudeville
II was thirty-fve years ago, in Tony
Pastors variety show that Denman
Thompson, low comedian from the old
time kind of resident stock companies,
offered a qUarter-hour sketch entitled,
Josh Whitcomb." 4 genial rustic stood
with eyes and mouth open in front of
Grace Church. He had his boots BACKED
by a saucy urchin, gave a dime to a little
beggar girl, some advice TO drunkard,
and laugh TO a bunko man Then he
ran after an engine to a fire. That was i'm !
a front scene. after which the stage was
opened up for a Fifth avenue parlor,
where Uncle Josh told the news of
Swanzy TO his city relatives. and took of
his hurting boots To dance I'm a quadriIIe
That was the farcical brevlty which when
enlarged by passages from life on Josh's
farm. became '"The Old Homestead"
The new Joshua Whitcomb' starts Ike
the old one. but the tourist from New
Hampshire doesn't visit his city cousins,
nor take the audience 70 his country
homestead. Instead, we go with him and
the little waif TO a garnet where he wit
nesses the brutality of a sot 70 his diving
wife and befI1ends the child The vel
come Of Thompson to vaudeville is tu-
multuously affecJionate. The people are
not fooled AT all They know that they
are getting a small portion of the actors
former ability as Of his famous play. Yet
they laugh loudly at the few Jokes that
he delivers feebly, appIauds his nerveless
movements, and give to him that priced
triumph Of show folks, an ovation"
When Uncle Josh kneels with the child at
the mothers bedside to pray. then rises
10 throw the cursing father out through
window, and quietly kneels again to con-
tinue the prayer. no hero ever climbed
meiodrama in greater popularity. i
madam ""
Jacqueline may have broken all ten
of the commandments. but the two that
bring her 10 mundane misery are. Thou
shalt not commit adultery" and Thou
shalt not kill" She confesses her con- &
jugal sin, and II she were forgiven by
her husband. she would not become a
snurderess. The audience. when she comes
back home to see her sick little boy. =
would Ike to have her stay but if the :
husband let her do that there'd be no ,
play, so he drags her Up from her knees
to her feet and violently filings her out Of !
the house. Then drama of the intenS- ,
est kind follows
Dorothy DOnnely has been the sinful >
and sorry wife in the prologue New .
Workers have known Dorothy ten years as +
an actress likely 20 do something worth r
while. She came Of stage family. / +
Henry V. Donnelly IS her brother. and in a.,
his stock company she began when a {
young girl Later she was chosen for
roles Of g coldly intellectual type. She :