Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-01
MANY WIVES FEEL
CONSCIENCE PROD
BY "SPENOTHR|FI"
Gripping Play at the Newark
Realistically Enacted by Ed.
Breese and Capable Support.
AT PROCTOR'S OLD-TIME
FAVORITES HOLD SWAY
"The Girls from Dixie" Thrill at
the Empire-Other The
aires Also Please.
MOTHER version of "A Foc

A MOTHER version Of "A Fool
~ There Was" is "The Spend
thrift" only in the latter Porter
Emerson Browne, author of both. re-
Tented sufficiently to permit his hero
TO have a chance of happiness, instead
OF going down to destruction.
Edmund Breese n a company OF
capable players unfolded the story Of
1.-THE Spendthrift' in the Newark
Theatre last night. Almost as unpleas-
ant as "A Fool There Was" this play
has the same power to hold ones close
attention n interest until the final
climax has left its thrill.
Certain it is that more than one
woman in the audience felt a twinge
in the neighborhood of her conscience
as the wife's utter selfishness n
thoughtless disregard of her husbands
financial embarrassment revealed them
selves in all their ugliness. Realistic
to a degree, THE Sp~endthrlft" reveals
a type that is by nc means a rarity
that of a shallow, pretty woman, VINO
considers her husband mostly as a
sort of accommodating bank on which
she can draw without limit. The pic
ture is hardly pleasing. but no one
who sees it can doubt the truth of its
drawing.
Richard Ward has been married for
several years to a gay little butterfly
of fashion. who has always managed,
no matter how rapidly his earnings in
creased, to need enough clothes, and
the like, to smother this income twice
over.
Thrift Lessons Ignored by Wife.
Explanations and reasons as to why
it is necessary for her to practise
make not a ripple on the.
Smooth surface of her inconsequential
little brain. At last the l~ong-suffering
husband finds himself facing bank
rpptcy. When he thinks that at last
his wife grasps the state of affairs,
she suggests hat they close their house
and go abroad as a means of economic
ing. That night, touched by her hus-
bands sufferings and thinking with
lively dread of what a horrible thing
it would be to be cut off completely
from modistes and milliners and So
ciety friends. she borrows twenty thou
sand dollars from a millionaire club
man, telling her husband 1t was loaned
by her aunt, a wealthy Wall Street
Spectator.
Aunt Gretchen enters just in time to
deny his statement. The tortured hus-
band, knowing that his wife has lied to
= him, becomes convinced of her in
fidelity, n in the middle of the
night brings the clubman to her room.
where he confronts them both in order
to learn the truth. While the clubman
is trying to convince him of his wife's
innocence he makes a sarcastic remark
that Is instantly misinterpreted. The
- .zoI ~ -,,ohn frnpa the
room, the clubman goes his way n
the wife runs away, to take a situation
as governess. The husband finds her
five months later. Sadder n wiser,
forgiveness is mutual, and they resolve
to begin again.
Mr.. Breese's Acting Perfect.
Edmund Breese handles the role of
the husband with the careful skill that
characterizes most of his interpreta-
tons. Every word and gesture sug-
gests the tired, plodding business man,
whose ideals are rapidly dwindling as
The necessity for keeping his nose to
the grindstone increases. In his scenes
with Frances, his wife, played by
That's Magrane, he shows forcibly the
triumph of love over reason. He scolds
her for her selfish lack of interest in his
affairs, and the minute she ,pouts he is
imploring pardon, until at last he
realizes what a fool he's peer and what
q mess they've made of life.
Miss Masrane plays the bon-bon-
loving, lazy Frances with high intelli-
gence, winning for that young person
one's cordial dislike until her true
colors" are shown in the last act. A
splendid portrayal Of h vinegary,
though kind-hearted, Aunt Gretchen is
given by Miss Matte Ferguson, who
knows enough not to strive for comedy
effects just because she happens to
wear a rusty cape and old bonnet. 7.
Daniel Frawley plays very credibly
the part of Philip Cartwright, Wards
lawyer and chum. and Sumner Gard
appears as Wards brother Monty, in