The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-03
THINGS DOING in GOTHAM
BY FRANKLIN FYLES.

EW YORK, April marietta Oh
IN ly, born italian, but trained Ger
man and "Baccarat," written French
by a half American are new here in
English. The actress and the drama
alike express in extreme intensity
guilty love as a frantic passion. There
fore il is a wicked play. l think it is
the Wickedest / ever saw; but not the
most salaCiOus; for as the American
title, The WhirlWind," indicates, the
freelOVers already have sOWn the wind
and now reap the whirlwind. Camille"
has been estimated as perniciOus be-
yOnd all other stage representations
of carnality because it etherialiZes and
sentimentalizes a wanton and makes
her an object of sympathy, admiration
and even emulation. Yet Dumas killed
his victorious creature for expiatiOn,
while Henry Bernstein let's his live on
undisgraced and with a possibility of
future happiness.
The Bernstein-OIy woman did not
give up the man she loved when, for a
title, she married a man she dislikes;
but merely turned the endeared one
into a paramOur; and all the while that
she and he sowed the wind the liaisOn
was unsupported. Her bad character
did no harm to her good reputation.
The whirlwiad strikes them as the play
begins. The lover comes pale and
trembling to a dinner in her house. She
sees that something dreadful has hap
pened. Reluctantly he tells her what
il was. He went into a gaming house
and lost some money of his own at
baccarat. In his pocket was a sum be-
longing to his business partners and
amounting to 10000 of our dollars. In
a mad outbreak of his mania for gam
- all 80 -
replace it and his partners will expose
him if he doesn't. he must run away
or become a convict. He would bid the
woman goodbye. She won't let aim.
She clings to him with frenzied kisses
and caresses, pleading TO share his fate.
He swears to take her with him in his
Digit.
Husband Counts for Naught.
Observe that the husband counts for
naught. He is barely there for FIVE
minutes, q lay figure weakly repre-
senting virtue, without suspicion that
he is a cuckOld. Iniquity in wedlock
IS the theme solely exploited. but not
censured. and so powerful is the writ
ing and the acting of the misbehaving
wife that the audi snce accepts her as
q heroic martyr to maHgn tortures, in
stead of a cOnscienceless culprit in
what genius can do at the theatres. It
makes US forget for the time, the
wickedness OF the sinners and absorbs
us in the Woman's fierce fight to save
a rake, gamester and thief from prison.
She takes her jewels 10 a banker, and
they are sufficient to borrow the
money, but the loan can't be effected
secretly in less than three days, and
the money is needed on the morrow.
Distracted, she appeals to her
wealthy father He won't give so
much to her without knowing the ur-
gent purpose; so she has to confess her
shame TO her parent; and then he re-
fuses 10 save her pal Tor her further
cOmpaniOnship. Now she is crazed
What next? She has rich and SEN
sual cousin, who is a bachelor through
her rejection of his love; and he, know
ing that she despises her husband, has
psrsistently offered himself as a con-
soler. She now asks this cousin 20 lend
the money. She is willing if she will
pay the bonus he demands few
hours absolute contro, of her The bar
gain is made and adhered to.
Oily is the finest, keenest, widest.
dercest emotional actress in America,
or in Europe either so far as | know.
excepting Sarah Bernhardt. So strong
is her voice, SO strenuous her action, so
harsh her art in its intenSer phases, she
viii be professionally wise to leaving
morality ont Of consideration and to
portray wicked heCrines only. Virtue
can't vie with vice in evolving dramatic
scenes like those that display her
greatness in "The Whirlwind." Her
faculty OF facility is amazing. Two
years ago. she played Zaza here in Ger
man obscurely at moderate wages, and |
saw Louise Leslie Carter do It in Eng
lish TO lavish acclaim and remunsra-
tion. She stopped acting and studied |
English to get American fame-and |
wealth. Her foreign accent is not de-
trimental except IN rapid, vehement ut
terance
Her voice is her fortune, not her face,
which has no beauty and suggests a
merry coincidence rather than an emo
tionalist. Among the dinner guests in
the first act she is the nonchalant host |
ess; but nom the moment that she
starts to fight for her lover, she is a
Ngerish animal, scarcely human In hsri