Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-02-25
'LITTLE WOMEN" The
NEXT BIG ATTRACTION
One of the Most Popular Dramas on
the Stage Today Coming to the
Grand, Monday March 9th.
LWO PERFORMANCES
AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
Tickets Go on Sale Friday Morning
at Nine O'clock at L. j. Par
mans. Matinee Prices
SOC to $1.0O.

Tne patrons OF the GTdHu Will Ue
given another treat on Monday af-
ternoon and evening March 9th when
William A. Brady's Little Women"
company will appear here. All the
characters of the much loved Louisa
M. Alcott book have been faithfully
preserved by Marian De Forest in
the dramatization of this great play.
The company played a three days
engagement in Dallas, Texas, recent
ly. The Dallas News, perhaps the
most influential newspaper in the
new south, printed the following
criticism of the performance:
Like a breath of sweet air from
the orchard lands was Little Wo-
men, at the Dallas Opera House last
night. You know the book, If not
actually eye to eye and heart to heart
then by reputation. Your mother, or
mayhap your sister, very likely your
wife, if you are married, read the
book-the Little Women" book, by
Louisa NJ. Alcott. 1t is not so much
known these days as ten or twenty
years ago when new, heartening
little story of cheerful domesticity
made human by a sometimes incoI
Yenient lack of worldliness.
We'll, the play from Little Wo-
men," is very like the novel by Miss
Alcott There are Meg and 10 and
Beth and Amy-poor little fading
Beth drifting out of the sweet cir
Gle and into the mists while the
woodlands are a thrill with the birds
songs Then there is Aunt March,
rich and stormy, but kind-and hear
ty old Mr.. Lawrence. They are eli
there, and they look much like you
pictured them. The quaint fashions
and the prim speech and the spiritual
ideals untarnished by avarice. 1t Is
tender and true. There are times
when you smile, other times when
you chuckle audibly and-quite a
long time it seemed to some-a space
wherein, if you are not insulated
against all softness, a space wherein
your eyes are bedewed and lump
rises and rests in your throat. But
you were not unhappy-you did not
grieve for the dying or the living.
You just felt the press of tears be-
cause there was pathos in your way
and you had to give it witness. But
it is not weeping play any more
than it is weeping book. 1t hasn /
a word about big business. There is
not even the faintest reference to
eugenics. 1t foretells no sort of Ia
Dor crisis. 1t is innocent of sociolo-
gy. Nowhere does it hint of infdel-
tiles, or liasons, or slums, or the great
white way. 1t is, in short, as differ
ent from the modern drama as can
be. For that reason you may or may
not like it. There are some who
choose one sort of thing, some anoth-
er.
But whatever your choice in the
atricals may be you can't help liking
the March family. Meg is, in this
cast Texas girl, we are told, Hous'
ton being her home. She is as pretty
Nas il she were from Dallas, which l:
Nst about as high compliment a:
we know how to pay her beauty. JC
though we don't know where hel
real home is, has friends everywhere
On the program she is Margery Tay
lor. which Is a mighty nice name
and her acting is as fine as her char
acter in the book. Virginia Spragg'
is the Beth in this company and sh
was as dear and dainty last night a
a Dresden china shepherdess. Am
was impersonated by Elaine Benton
and a soulful little dropping viole
she was. Margaret Dills, as Mrs
March, and Charles De Forge, as MI
Il quartette of daughters- only W
did think Mr.. March was made u
to look rather too much like an in
valid, considering that he was sur
posed to be vigorous enough to go t
the war. George M. Clark, Ma
Juergens, C. C. Gwynne, as Laurie
Prof. Bhaer and John Brooks, re
spectiyely were very desirable sons
in-law, and all the others were we
fitted to the picture.
This play will be here this after
noon and tonight, tomorrow after
noon and tomorrow night. The wri
er OF this recommends it because b