The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-02-14
WAGON MARKET.
The TheQterS
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
Nobody cared particularly whether
the company that played The Gamb-
lers.' at the Gennett last night was the
first" or the "forty-Arst"
There is no virtue in a first CON-
pany" unless it happens to be the orr
ginal caste, and even at that it may
be negligible in histrionic acumen
However that may be, there was but
one weak spot in the presentation of
this play here-that in the role of
Isabel Emerson" which was so min
or a part that it really didn't matter,
save that it married the harmony of
the composition. The young woman
who took the role should retire perma-
nently from the stage. Her place is
otherwhere.
Charles Klein, author of THE Gamb-
lers" knows how to write play.
From the standpoint of technical
consideration, of construction, of the
mechanics of playwriting, Klein is al
ways interesting.
And he knows how to tell a story,
good story and how to tell it we'll.
Mere virtuosity in play-writing
counts for little unless accompanied
by the good red blood of life. Klein
united the two.
While he is fond of the cold. merci-
less type of business man, of the mill
tant woman and the clashing of these
arate creation with reality. His gallery
shows infinite variety in personality.
The Gamblers" is one of those
plays of American life, which have
been current the past few years and
which have made an appeal to the pub
lie of the country because concerned
with people and situations with which
the average American is familiar.
The story is, in brief, this
A set of men controlling string of
banks specialized with the funds and
are under Federal investigation, will
bur Emerson" taken by Mr.. Charles
Mackay, and the manager of his faith
er's affairs-Mr. Frank Andrews i'm
personating John Emerson" the faith
er-being directly responsible for the
financial imbroglio in which the men
found themselves with prison terms
possibly staring them in the face.
Emerson, the younger, recognizes
the fact that he has drawn his bust
ness associates into a net of compiled
Unconstitutional to certain extent
with their consent-and, knowing that
his father, who has supreme conf
even any knowledge of the pecula-
tions, is determined to keep the latter
entirely out of the investigation and
it's disastrous consequences.
James Darwin" the prosecutor in
charge of the case,a hard man, with po-
litical ambitions to which he will sub
serve any means, is the husband of the
woman with whom Emerson has al
ways been honorably in love and for
whom she, unacknowledged to her
self, still retains her early love-hav-
ing thrown him over for Darwin be-
cause of the formers devotion to &C
cumulating fortune.
The story is a thrilling one and in
cludes the capture of some papers CIV
en- to Darwin by George Cowpe,r" TAX
en- by Franklin George, to save him.
self by turning states evidence and
which get into the possession of Mrs.
Darwin during her husbands absence
from home and which she finally turns
over to Emerson when she finds her
husband most falsely and unjustly &C
cuses her of iason with Emerson.
The finale, an effective one. in
which she promises to wait for Emer-
son during his incarceration-since
she is to secure a divorce from her
husband-makes climax as skillfully
managed as it is Economically appeal
ing.
Realistic, as we'll as carefully pol
ished, characterizations were those
given by the caste seen here-no more
convincing exhibition of histrionic art
could be possible than that Of Joseph
Adelman as james Darwin" his per-
sonality lending itself admirably to the
role-cold. hard, merciless. suspicious,
boundlessly ambitious and selfish with
the selAshness of sex and OF individu-
alitp In its way it was a histrionis
masterpiece.
The portrayal of character shown in
the first act when the five men faced
the situation, was one Of the finest