Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-01

VI OU might have strolled into the
theater unaware of play or au-
n thor. During the action perhaps
you caught this bit of dialogue:
Hes a promoter. He capitalizes his
conversation"
Or this:
Yes, he had the short end of the
argument. He was handler with his
conversation than his hardware. So
they got him.
At once you know that it is George
Ade speaking.
You recognize not only the shrewd
American humor and the kindly and
quizzical philosophy of life. You fairly
hear the ,drawl. 1t is infectious, All
his characters acquire it, and William
H. Crane slips into it as unconsciously
as Margaret Dale in Father and the
Boys" a the Mason.
Here is one play that the press
agent didn't overpraise. 1t is better
than its foreword. And yet the action
dilly-dallies and hesitates, for all the
world like George AIDES drawl or
Lemuel MoreWoods early attempts to
teach his two sons the business. The
boys, you see, wouldn't learn. They
preferred to lead cotillons and study
boxing under competent instructors.
They turned the old mans office into
a discreet combination of a prize ring
and a garden party. Father paid the
bills, champed q bit and almost gave
it up.
Then Father had an inspiration. He
would go the Boys one better He
started to cut a dash himself. He be-
gan by taking a steadily improving
hand at a roulette game at which his
promising offspring were rapidly los
h ,fs 10 or
who knew how. Father lost a few fif-
ties and then won $1100 Then Father
quit.
That was the beginning. A few days
later a rejuvenated and reclad parent
is seen at the race track, accompanied
by a young woman who has enter
tanned his sons guests at their most
recent function" after the fourteenth
course has been refused. She is
slangy, but genuine. Again the old
man wins. By this time the sons,
alarmed, try to hold him in. 1t is like
attempting to rein Niagara.
Then we get our bit of melodrama-
mildly satirical, but gripping. To
prevent his young woman friend from
being duped by the same gentleman
from whom he won the $1100 Father
takes her on a runaway trip to Gold
field. There simply are no conven-
tions in a matter of business. They
arrive n time to save the mine from
covetous hands, and discover the other
half owner is the woman's long-lost
sweetheart-a bit of romantic absur-
dity too dear to our sense of the prov
identially fitting to quarrel with. The
Boys arrive. and the old man learns
that the business has been thriving in
their absence. Also the two youths
have proposed to the very young
women the father has selected for
them-George AIDE was ever an easily
satisfied match maker. The only diff
ference is that each has proposed to
the other chaps ntended-intended,
that is, by Father. So we have a little
welcome comedy to reconcile US to a
somewhat tagging final curtain.
Everybody is satisfied. Father and
the Boys go back east and one feels
sorry for Wall street
1t is the kind of play that fills you
full Of good nature and enthusiasm for
native American playWrights Tech
nically, / dare say, it violates any num-
Der Of infallible tests. Good plays fire.
quently do. The situations are not
sequential. They arise, as in life We
get interested in the conversation, and
then, all at once, we find another corner
has been turned in the action. And all
the time we watch and listen to Crane
| as If he were one of the family He is
| so homelike
| l find it difficult to believe that Mr..
/ Crane has been playing this part week
! in and week out all over the country
until, in all conscience, he should have
gotten tired to death Of it, 1t seemed
/ last night as if he merely did what
| occurred to him from moment to mo-
ment. l clean forgot he was acting,
| forgot to analyZe and weigh and pom
| der. Here was merely a jolly old boy
on lark which he had missed in years
OF frugal toll He had had the plain
living. Now for the high life.
1 refuse to criticise Mr.. Cranes per-
formance in any nauseating detail In
stead, as a rarity, / urge you to go and
see it. You will forget your troubles
and laugh with Father and the Boys"
The supporting company is one of the
best seen in many weeks at the Mason
Miss Margaret Dale is a buoyant Bes-
sic Brayton and Scott Daley merits
special mention for his impersonation
of her wandering western lover OF
the rest of the cast commeudation may