The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-03
OLIV E VAIL Miss Nobody From Starland

Tommy's introduction to the locale of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, that Irish American play, dramatized from the stories, Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," and "Lovey Mary,
 written by Mrs. Alice Hogan Rice,
 which comes to the Bijou this week,
 commencing Monday night. Almost ev-
 eryone has read the books and there for the story of the play into which the two books are telescoped Is more or
 less familiar. The dramatization con-
 cerns itself solely with life and the
 brisk action is crowded with types and
 homely pictures. Mrs Wiggs didn't live technically and the play which ex- ploits her is regardful of heart inter- est rather than of mechanical pre- cision The entire action takes place in the Cabbage Patch, portrayed eXt- actly as described by Mrs. Rice who says: "It was not real Cabbage Patch, but queer neighborhood where ram shackle cottages play hopscotch over a. railroad track
 There were no streets when a new house was built the owner faced it any way his fancy prompted. Mir. Bag by's grocery, it is true, conformed to
 convention and presented solid front to the railroad track, but Miss Hazy s cottage shied off into the Wiggs yard, as if it was afraid of the big freight trains that went laundering past so
 many times a day; and Mrs. Eichorn $ front room looked directly into the Shultze's kitchen.
 The Wiggs house was the most imposing in the neighborhood. This was probably
 due to the fact that it had two front doors and tin roof; one door was nailed up and the other one opened outwards. It was the only tin roof in the Cabbage
 Patch Jim and Billy had made it out of old tin cans which they had picked up on the commons. The play opens in Mrs. Wiggs cottage with the wedding of Ms
 Hazy to MT. Stubbns, who has been pro- vided by a matrimonial agency Mis- Hazy has been "sicked' on to matrimony by Mrs Wiggs, who has aided in the win ming of Mr. Stubbns by artistic cooking, which is passed off as the brides own. The wedding is as funny as could be imag- ined, and no comedy possibility has beer, overlooked. Here one meets everyone but MT. Wiggs who returns later in the play. In the second act the exterior ofs Mrs. Wiggs shanty is shown, Lovey Mary and Little Tommy are harrassed by the asy lum authorities and the father of the lit le fellow, who clings to his benefactress. Mrs. Wiggs conducts her famous Sunday school. and Mr. Stubbins falls from grace and is shipped away in a freight car. In the final act there fs the return of MT. Wiggs, who turns out to be the father of Little Tommy; of Mir Stubbins, who rehabiitates himself and the justi- fication of Lovey Mary Laughter and tears are close together all through inc play, in which all the comedy of the books has been enriched by the fancy of the dramatist. Blanche Chapman who will appear as the quaint. motherly Mrs.
 Wiggs is scoring the hit of her career in this part, so full of heart interest The same is true of Minnie Milne, as Mis- Hazyy the meek and sliftless neiglrbor of Mrs. Wiggs. and of Thomas Akin in the role of Hiram Stubbins. Miss Mae Botti, the clever impersonator of Lovey Mary, whose runaway flight from the or phanage with Little Tommy furnishes the central thread of the plot makes the most of that highly sympathetic charac- ter, and is altogether natural in the in. depreciation of the role. All of the minor
 characters are in capital hands, and the actors, work together in such q capable