The Washington herald., 1913-10-05
By-JuLIA CHANDLER MANI.

We look into the current week with nc
qualm of uneasness. Local managers
are asking our patronage Of no premiere
or nesr-premieres, but are dishing up to
our amusement-loving palate attractions
(which come to us with the stamp of the
critical approval of other cities which
are accredited with good judgment. So
We heave a sigh of relief and settle down
TO just being entertained, glad that we
are not invited to attend any high-brow
feast given in the name of terpsichore.
or 10 solve any deep. dark problem of
the human race.
But this doesn't mean that the enter
tainment promised is either dull or pro-
sale. The week could be neither with
II. B. Warner in town-to say nothing of
a thrilling melodrama at the Columbia.
In The Ghost Breaker" which opens
a weeks engagement at the New Ma
tional Theater tomorrow night, Mr.. War
ner makes a long jump from the under
world realism, as typified in Alias Jim
my Valentine" TO a wonderland Of ro-
nance. But he has a worse record for
homicide in the new play than in the
old, for he kills two men in the course
Of each performance, and as a Kentucky
feudist of high repute, he has a record
of innumerable killings to his credit be-
fore ever the curtain rises. Nor is THIS
ALL for Mr.. Warmers feat of saving
child who had been locked in a safe
when he was Jimmy Valentine" is as
nothing when compared to his present
necessity of Kidding Spanish castle of its
ghOstly occupant That Mr.. Warner is
equal to the new occasion We can have
no doubt He is equal 10 almost any
Thing of which l know, except making
go of such a play as "Blackbirds," the
Henry Miller production, which had its
premiere in this city It the Columbia
Theater last spring, when he was CO.
starred with Laura Hope Crews. You
doubtless remember the illogical story
with its crook theme which had a
traGically short run in New York after
its initial performance here, at which
time it ANONYMOUSLY shut up shop. Even
that wasn't Mr.. Warmers fault. He
didn't write the play, although he did
inject into it what little backbone it ever
had by the nerve OF his acting and the
magnetism of his personality.
New York. Chicago. and Boston tell
Us that his performance in THE Ghost
Breaker is capital. They tell us, too
that this melodrama-farce-rOm by
Charles w. Goddard and Paul Dickey,
which comes to us under the direction of
Maurice Campbell is brimful of laughs
the other in the play We are sure that
Mr.. Warner projects them over the foot
lights.
Although it is with his Characterization
of the crook in Paul Armstrong; play
that Mr.. Warner is most closely asso-
ciated. he has A stage career to his
credit worth knowing about.
He was born in London in 1876, the son
of Charles Warner himself an actor of
M II - " educated
at the Bedford Grammar School. Lon
don, and at oxford University. He was
not trained for the stage, but the call
was in his blood. and after one essay at
a seCretaryship, he began to act For
a time he had only small parts. and his
first triumph was minister in
charles Reads Its Never Too Late To
Mend. Then he supported his father, |
and. when the latter was unable to APP
pear scored a success as D'Artagan in |
THE Three Musketeers." Before COM
ing to America he was leading man for |
Marie Tempest, Arthur Boucher, and |
other English stars. but, firing of the |
parts of Young lovers and clersymen, |
he east his eyes On America. As lead |
ing man for Eleanor Robson (now Mrs. |
August Belmonu he played in Merely
Mary Ann" Nurse Marjorie The Girl |
Who Had Everything. "A Tenement
Tragedy" Susan in Search of a Hus- |
band" and ''SaIomy Jane" After a |
season with Wilton Lackaye in The |
Battle his managers were ready to |
star him. and Alias Jimmy Valentine" |
was the vehicle, with what result we all /!
know.
Miss Rita StanwoOd, who is Mr. War
Rers leading woman in THE Ghost
Breaker is an American girl. hailing |
from Salem, Mass. where she was edu-
Gated for a business life. 1t was while |
visiting friends who were running an
opeu-air theater at a summer resort that
Miss StanwoOd was induced to go on i
the stage. which lead to a number of
years experience in musical comedy,
from which she graduated into the 'le-
ultimate which she declares she likes
very much better. She plays the role
Of the Princess Maria Theresa in 1.-THE
Ghost Breaker the Spanish princess for
the sake of whose happiness Mr.. Warner
undertakes to lay a ghost.
That Daniel D. Carter has utilized the
human desire to avenge an injury with
telling effect in THE Master Mind" his
melodrama in which Ed Breese will be
seen at the Columbia this week, is at
tested by the interest which has been
accorded the play in Brooklyn and
Philadelphia, subsequent to its New York
run.
Mr.. Carter has sprung into prominence
through this new melodrama and Ed
mund Breese, in the title role, is ac-
credited with the strongest characterized
ton since his remarkably vital work in
THE Lion and the Mouse" prior to
which he was featured in 'Strongheart''
at the Aldwych Theater, London, Eng
land: played in The Scarecrow,' was
with James O'Neill in Monte Cristo."
and was last seen as Bill Sykes in the
alI-star revival of OLIVER Twist
The Master Mind'-contrary to the
impression that might be gained through /
its title-is not a study in mental gym
nastics, neither does it deal with poll
tics, graft, or social reform. The prin- |
cipal character is leader of a band of
scalawags named by them THE Mas-t
ter Mind" \ crook pIay-yes-but Mr..
Carter has had the good Judgment to
travel a new path both in point of plot Il
and in manner of presentation Il
The piece is frankly melodrama, with