El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-01

she stands in awe Of her husbands
maiden aunts who have refused to re-
ceiYe her. she having been a mere act
ress when their nephew married her
Dolores is living with her friend
Gloria Grey Miss Irwin, who is a
music teacher in New York Miss
Greys finances have fallen upon evil
ways. The bill collectors are pOunding
at her door, there is nothing IN the
larder- Where is there a place for
foolish pride, in such a crisis as this
She therefore insists upon going down
to Pennington Manor in the place OF
Dolores, assuming her name and wild
OwhoOd. Thus does she become the
Widow by Proxy" and Dolores, who
accompanies her, is Of course, MISS
1t would be hard to think up a more
delicious situation in which to thrust
Miss Irwin The way she oTeraWeS
the patrician maiden auntS is a delight
to the heart and eye She talks glibly
Of her noble relatives, dukes and Ouch
eSses and such like until the naughty
ladies are forced to extend the tnv1-
tatiOn they had decided to withhold.
And her dressmaker, who has followed
her hotly to collect an unpaid bill. she
introduces to the maiden aunts as the
Marquise de Chateaubriand- She IS
getting away with 1t very nicely,
having a lovely time in fact, when she
suddenly discovers that she has fallen
in love with her supposed dead hus-
bands cousin, and then she learns
from his own manly lips that he can
forgive most anything in a. woman but
untruthfuness. His life had once been
wrecked by q woman who told him
a falsehOOd. and here is the widow by
proxy who has been telling him Whop-
pers right along.
The situations in the play are well
worked out and they move rapidly to
the climax, accelerated on the way by
clever dialogue
In the second act Miss Irwin sang
Sweet Sixteen" and Don't Leave
Your Wife Alone with all of her old
JUNCTION, and she added a sentimental
song when the man Of her desire ap-
peared upon the scene.
Perhaps the best work, next to Miss
Irwin, was done by Clara BlandiclH,
in the somewhat negative character
Of Dolores Pennington She played
with excellent taste and knew to
nicely just how TO feed" the star.
Alice Johnson, as the dressmaker, was
all that could be desired, arrayed in
dazzling gowns The role Of the Pen
nington who ioathed untruthfulness in
a woman was played by Orlando Da-
", who discreetly allowed himself to
be persuaded that the pseudo widow
cause and that once having begun she
had TO go in deeper and deeper. Hay-
ing arrived at that point of view he
found his happiness in marriage with
the resOurccful music teacher. The
two quaint old maiden ladies were
played by Helen WeatherSby and Fran
ces Gaunt, who depicted the dignified
danes very adequately.
The only critical question that is
raised by the Widow by Proxy is the
questionable taste of employing the
themes OF death and widOWhood as the
vehicle for jests. While the audience
Monday night exhibited nothing but
the liveliest hilarity during every min
ute Of the play it is doubtful that any
woman on the stage, other than Miss
Irwin. could turn such themes into
comedy without giving offense.
But Of course the situation is saved
by the fact that there has been no
death and there is no widow. In fact
the scene at the close Of the second act
when the supposed Pennington widow
learns that her husband is not dead.
Miss Irwin launches into some rapid
fire comedy that sends her audience
off into gales of laughter AID affords
her one Of the best opportunities OF
her stage career.
1t is very safe to predict that the
widow by Proxy Will remain at the
COhan theater for many months