The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-17

"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.' was
 presented at the Jefferson theatre last
 night in it's dramatic version by Char
 1otte Walker and a capable company
 From the moment Miss Walker first
 appeared in the shadow of the Lone
 some Pine, her blonde loveliness and
 homely red gown contrasting with the tints of the distant blue ranges and the nearby trees and rocks, a creature wild,
 elfn and yet imbued with sense of poetic beauty and endowed with soul that sought expression in loftier ways than her environment permitted, she was a rare embodiment of June. The illusion of rustic surroundings was per feet. The rocks and the trees and the mountains were all thoroughly realis- tic and there was real waterfall that trickled melodiously while June was telling her day dreams to Jack Hale, a young mining engineer who invaded
 that untamed land of feuds for the pur- pose of prospecting and developing coal l seams.
 When June began to talk with such candor and artless simplicity to the en- gineer it was easy to surmise, even If one had never read the book, that there was the beginning of a love story, with the mountains for a background, while the Lonesome Pine would watch over
 the fortunes of it's particular dryad, the untutored rustic beauty in tattered gown. The Tollivers, the clan to which June belongs, were at war with | neighboring clan and conditions were very unsettled In the mountains when Hale and his partner, Bob Berkley, es-
 tablished themselves at the Gap, de- termined to institute a reign or law and order and if possible woo Dame Fortune at the same time.
 Nothing was further from Hale's s thoughts than the wooing of woman no matter what her charms and graces
 might be, but after June had acquired some more book larnin'" and had be- sides vastly increased her power to bewitch him by dressing in more civilized garb and trying hard to shake off some of her rough mountain ways, it became apparent to Jack that his heart was seriously involved some de- lay in his plans for becoming rich Kept him from asking June to become hls wife and she returned to her people. thinking that her poor little romance
 had fallen into ruins about her ears because of her own unworthiness.
 Slanderous gossip about June and the ever slumbering hatred of the feudists, particularly of June's mountain lover, Dave Tolliver, who is an implacable rival of Hale, threatens serious com plica tions in the third act. Hale's part
 Ter is wounded by Dave, but the shoot l ing results in Hale's declaring ms ioVt l for June who nurses Berkley pach to health Later on the trail of the Lone some Pine leads Hale back to June who ia waiting for him there where she first met and loved the "furriner' from beyond the pale of her own mar row world.
 The story although melodramatic at times, is essentially romantic and most appealing in it's tenderness. The theme is by no means new. Mountain girls have fallen in love with city men ana city men have fallen in love with noun tain girls-in book and plays-for
 long time. but he who can tell the story
 in the true romantic vein, whether he
 writes for the stage or for the readers
 of novels, will always be sure of popu- larity. The solemn beauty of the noun
 tains calls up the poetry Tn the sim .
 plest souls and creates depth or feel- ing, though rude and primitive, that IS
 not often attained in more conventional
 and more prosaic walks Of life. MT.
 Fox has caught the spirit of the noun
 tains in his novel and Eugene Walter, who made the dramatization, has given
 us a play that has many excellent aual- ities and faithfully depicts the scenes and characters of the book Seldom indeed does the dramatized verson of a novel equal the original in its appeal to the mind or the heart, but MT Wal ter has done his task very well and has perhaps made as good a play as could be expected
 Miss Walker seems ideally suited to play the part of June She uses the mountain dialect with great skill and her assumption of rustic manners Is very realistic, as well as very charming when she permits flashes of her innei