New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-09-15
Edmund Breese in Issac Landman ;:
"A Man of Honor

The stern Roman father who, according
10 history. was equal to the task OF
condemning his own son for rights sake
has come 70 life among US again at Weber s
Theatre. where Edmund Breese gave mis-
first New York presentation of "A Man Of
Honor" last night. It is. perhaps, some
what unexpected in modern courts of law.
and especially in the person Of a candidate
for Governor. 10 ind a man whose mere
sense of Justice compels him to give up
anything dear to himself. And II is even
stranger to observe this unhinching love Of
right in one who has sacrificed his chill
dren to his own ambitions
Judge Amos Kingsley is a political as
Birant who spends his time and thoughts
and energies on getting political power
His SON. Richard, a grown lad when the
play opens, falls into the clutches Of a
corporation which his father is lighting
and becomes its dupe. The corporation s
lawyer inveigles the misled boy into COM
hitting a theft so that the corporation
may have this information 20 hold over
the father and thus prevent his judicial
verdict which would ruin the company
The Judge, however stands firm for JUS
tice and purposes to condemn hi son.
The father and sen meet in a scene
in which the boy calls his father 10
account for his lifelong neglect Of his
family and shows him what the course OF
his conduct should have been all along
The play ends "upliftngly." The Judge
sees that his sons amateur sense OF jus
uce is superior to his own professional one,
and decides that the duty TO ones family
is superior 10 duty to the state. After all,
the ancient Roman was resurrected merely
10 be buried again. this time probably for
good.
The Man of Honor" is d play with one
scene. and that an Intensely painful one.
II is the scene where father and son meet,
ard Is brutaily forcefuL The rest OF the
action moves along without the will Of
the characters, with almost the irresistible
outside force that Is used in Greek
tragedies, only here the outside force IS,
after all, merely the author.
The play takes itself very seriously; in
fact. il is quite without a sense Of humor.
The Judge ends the whole thing by refus-
ing the preferred nomination for the Cow
ernorshlp. so that he can N last be a real
father 10 his children. Is there no way Of
tt4uE a AdAAtE A4lbH-A4 ~ ANNfl NO Asei'ci
Laudman has INDUCED In a great deal OF
preaching. and has shown both the mis-
takes OF the overhoporable and the dan
gers OF those big corporations which are
squeezing the blood out Of the nation,
but he has not developed any characters,
nor given Us any of the pleasures which
the use Of some imagination might have
uut into the play. He has written a
drama that suggests The City" OF THE
Thief or THE Whirlwind" in idea, but
is not a finished piece Of dramatic work.
Edmund Breese did the best that any
one could have done with the part Of the
overhonorable judge. In the on, dramatic
scene Of the play he had almost mis- entire
audience in tears Hans Robert. as Rich
ard Kingsley, realized the possibilities in
the same scene. and made II as exciting
AZ any one could well stand The rest did
rerhars as well az they could wiki nothing
20 work on. The characters Of the two
women might as well have been left out.
They had no bearing either on the interest
or the dramatic action Of the play.
,,ssT CL- NAN HDEDP