The Washington herald., 1913-01-07
COLUMBIA.
"Mflestones.,

assertion OF lbsen that no one can live
your life for you without making a dis
tinct mess of il. Arnold Bennett and Ed
ward Knoblauch have blended a de-
lightful idyl and plaintive satire in
"Milestones," the British drama cover
ing three generations of two conserva-
tive families, which was presented for
the first time in Washington in the
Columbia Theater last night by Klaw
& Erlanger with a splendidly poised
English company.
The charms of "Milestones' is four
fold, being sartorial, sentimental, psyche
logical, and historical, the most signifi-
cant of which is the sentimental or ro-
mantle side, or, as the matter is con-
cisely put by Aunt Gertrude in the
third act when Mr.. Preece says:
What's the matter, Aunt Gertrude;
nothing serious I hope?"
And she makes reply: THE usual thing
Mr.. Preece, the usual thingi A new
generation has got to the marrying age.
The action of the story Is most un-
usual. John Rhead. n big, -forcible man
in his own home and in business, de-
clines emphatically TO make certain mis-
takes in love and commerce which his
father demands Rhead comes TO the
realization that the day of wooden ships
Is soon to come to an end, and there is
trouble in the firm OF Sibley, Rhead &
Sibley. iron founders: for old Sibley
(whom we do not see) and his near
sighted son Samuel pooh-pooh Rhead's
notion; SO he breaks away and joins an
other firm with more progressive ideas,
and this involves old SibIey's consent to
his marriage with Rose Sibley, while
Johns sister Gertrude, who is engaged to
Sam Sibley, hands him back his ring,
partly because she is in sympathy with
her brother and partly because she is
more advanced in her ideas than the
women of her day. So We come to the
end OF act first with pretty Rose Sibley
promising to love her John all the more
for his loyalty to his ideas, and Gertrude
hopelessly estranged from Sam-all this
is In 1855.
Twenty-Five years have passed when
the curtain rises on act two, the scene
again being laid in the Rhead drawing
room. in Kensington Gore
John Rhead is now portly, prosperous.
and fifty. He has married Rose, not
because she has defied her father but
because old man Sibley has died. His
tory repeats itself. for the theme OF the
second act is the same old trampIng
on the affections of the young, only this
time it is the once impetuous John
Rhead who stands in old Sibley's shoes,
refusing to allow his daughter Emily
to marry Preece, a young inventor in
his employ. Success had made Rhead
obstinate. and obliterated the memory
OF his own youth. Iron ships have made
his fortune. but the idea of steel ships
as presented by Preece fills him with
contempt. and. besides, he has social
ambitions where Emily is concerned. and
so, after a few tears, she consents TO
marry the amiable old Lord Monkhurst,
with only the voice OF Gertrude, who
is now a spinster raised in passionate
and unavailing protest. So, again the
happiness of the second generation is
sacrificed on the altar of parental am
bition and obstinacy-
The third act brings US to the year 1912.
twenty-five years more having marked
another milestone in the history of the
Rheads and Sibleys. 1t is the golden |
wedding day of old John Rhead and his |
wife Rose. John, who is now baronet |
i nearly eighty, bent, tired, but still |
tvranical and distatorial His wife Rose |
has been made sweeter by the years {
Emily is a widow, and would repeat the |
tragedy OF her own life in that of her |
daughter Muriel, who wants to marry |
her cousin. Richard Sibley, a young en- !
gineer, who intends 10 settle in Canada |
Muriel is frank. independent, and re- I
sentfuI of dictation, but she yields 10 |
her mothers selfish cry of loneliness and |
renounces her own happiness. And Ger !
trude, old and pathetic, with her own |
spoiled life asd ever young memory, again |
protests, as does also Rose Rhead for |
the first time in all her husband-adoring !
life.
Preece, now a successful Labor NJ P |
and indispensable to old man Rhead in |
his shipbuilding business, comes to tho |
rescue of Muriel's happiness by renew
Ing his suit for Emily hand. this time |
with success, which leaves MurIel free
to follow the bent Of her own affections. |
There is very sure and pathetic ap-
peal in the spectacle of aging humanity !
portrayed in "Milestones'' by Malcolm |
Cherry as John Rhead, Gwendolen Floyd |
as Gertrude Rhead, and Sybil Walsh as |
Rose Sibley in the first act and as the |
wife OF John Rhead IN the last two acts
of the piece. Very typical of Mr.. Ben
net are the two old ladies of the last
act who have grown aged before our
eyes without a jar to our sensibilities. /
and there can be imagined no more beau
tiful picture than the peaceful close Of
the drama when old John Rhead and
his tender little old wife sit in the fire.
glow listening to Gertrude sing "Jua-
nita," even as they listened in the first
glow Of their love when the cover of
their book of life was first turnZ back
that the audience might read.
''Milestones'' is produced under the |
stage direction of Frank Vernon, who
bears the same relation to stage-craft
America, and he has set the quaint and
novel dramatic gem in a perfect frame.
while Joseph Brooks, under whose man.
sgement the play is presented, has assem-
hled a capital company. One of the
most sincere and artistic characterize
tions l have ever seen Is that of Miss
Floyd who. in 1860 is belle in crinolines;
in 1885 a mature old maid outwardly
sour but inwardly full of the love of
youth and romance, and again in 1912
a little old lady singing an old song in
q quavering voice, her heart still young
despite the years
Malcolm Cherry, an actor who is not so
well known in this country as his
brother Charles, gives a portrait of John
Rhead through the various phases of
his life that is as clear cut as a cameo
II is not easy to be a demure little en-
Eenue in the first act and a doddering
old lady in the last. but this is what
Sybil Walsh accomplishes with a won
derfully smooth transition, while Cath
leen Doyle, representative of the second
generation Of the Rhead family, does
the best piece of straight acting in the
play. Excellent Characterization are
also given by Clayton Green as Sam
Sibley, Marie Hassel as Nancy Sibley,
Una Venning as Muriel. Geoffrey Doug
ass as Lord Monkhurst. and Charles
Vaughan as Arthur Preece.
1t Is not because the theme of Mile
the audience, but because it is an inti-
mate picture of life which rings true ]
from curtain to curtain.