The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-16

From a letter by Henry Watterson In the 1 Louisville Courier-Journal
 Y AM afraid that old Paris is as naughty
 as ever. The other night I went to | \ the theater Antoine to see the hit or the season. It is called Marie Vlcto- rine," and is very well put on the stage It tells the old, old story. To be sure'
 what else? The Parisian can no more | get away from the drama of adultery | than the Kentuckian from a horse race. 1 No other theme interests him. This lat est success" in the eternal text ana | continuous performance is represented as
 "a study in psycho-p physiology Even the doctors are coining big names TOT
 small diseases. How original the situa- tion." explain some of the critics-orig- inalitv nowadays being the violation ot all known laws of reason and propapii- ity. "The plot" others chirp, lis of ao- l sorbing interest" The theater Antoine, where it is played is crowded. one might fancy adultery in France new d1scov- cry. It promises to become rival to Madame"
 | Next after adultery, the Reign Of Ter TOT. perhaps not unnaturally, preserves it's hold upon the Partisan imagination'
 "Narie- -Victoire' takes us back to the times of Danton and Robesperre It's opening Scene is laid at Louveciennes Tn the year 1I93.
 Count Maurice de I.anJailay is the hus- band of the beautiful Marie. Maurice has to leave for Morlaix because the Chevalier de Cloriviere, royahst con spirator, informs him that his father life is threatened by the Morlalx author ites. Scarcely has the good man ieit when the Chevalier and Countess Marie are arrested by order of the committee of public safety; and the second ana third tableaux, representing the interior of A convent used as prison, make an admirable reconstruction of prison li1e Ill the troubled days of the revolution A cynical crowd of titled ladies and gem tlemen, expecting every moment to De carried off. to the scaffold, spend their last bours on earth in most dissolute manner whilst others. prostrate Wl'h fear. seek consolation in prayer. They do such things with great realism, put artistically. on the French stage.
 The curtain falls and rises again, An interval between the first and second acts
 has nassed. Marie and Cloriviere have been in prison year, and ourihs 'ha' time the Chevalier has made violent loVe to her. Finally the man with the piue coat and red facings reads out the names of those who are to be executed the next
 ,norninr. and those of Marie and Clori-
 ,,;ere annear upon the fatal list. Acting under impulse, with the knowledge that | che will have only one more day to live, Marie. who thus far has repelled the
 chevaliers advances, now throws herself
 into his arms. But 1t is the ninth day of
 rbermidor; Robespierfe has fallen, the
 prison doors are thrown open, and Marie
 departs in despair because she had hoped that death would have wiped out her
 guilt and shame; the French sinner al- l ways a saint after the event.
 | Six years elapse. Marie, under the l name of Marie-victoire has opened a I millinery shop to earn living for her self and her child. It will be observed
 that in these romances, however brief' there is bound to be an offspring! But her husband, who, she was told, had
 been killed in a battle near Coblentz, re- turns unexpectedly, and by strahee ia ltality he arrives on the night that ciori- viere, implicated in an attempt on Dona
 parte's life, rushes to Marle-Vlc'o''e . shop to remain there in hiding we arc not informed why, the way peing ap-
 parently clear. Cloriviere and Marie uia not marry and take care of their cni'o'
 Perhaps they preferred remaining ioV- CTS. she having gotten over her remorse'
 Anyhow, the self-sacrihcing Maurice all
 lows himself to be arrested in Cioriviere
 stead: but in a thrilling scene at the As-
 size court. Marie explains all that has oc- T cured. and her statement is confirmed by I cloriviere, who.' like a stage-hero, a ! Frenchman and a lovers then and there