Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-09-03
STRONG DRAMA At
POPULAR MAKES
FOR TEMPERANCE
Curse of Drink Plainly Depicted
in "Ten Nights in a Bar
room," Current Offering

Don't 60 out tonight, daddy. / am
going TO die and | want you to prom
Use me you will never drink any more
whiskey and that you will always be
good to mamma" With these words
hardly off her lips little Mary Turner
passes to the great beyond in Ten
Nights in Barroom," being shown at
the Popular theater, not, however, be-
fore she has secured the desired prom
Use from her rum-besotted father and
started him on the road to redis-
covered manhood.
Little Mary Turner gives her life
as the price for her fathers salvation,
and il is worth it. Had she not done
so three lives would have been wreck
child. AS ii is, the sacrifice is made
and the man saved from himself and
from the curse of drink.
It has been said that a single per-
Torrance of "Ten Nights in a Bar
room" is better than one million TEN.
perance lecturers, and it probably is.
In fact it is temperance lecture with
Tic CAfshiIbC III lOiC vi
hero-provided the part could be
termed heroic: If the application is
incorrect then there is no heroism in
this world.
Joe Turner starts on life's journey
with an outlook of the brightest. With
a charming wife, fine home and bus.
mess, inherited from his father, the
old miller of Cedarville, he allows the
rum-shop to interfere with his bust
ness. His boyhood companion, Simon
Slade, is his foreman and, when it be-
comes necessary for Joe to raise
money on the old mill to keep up his
tavern" habits Simon has it and Sc
cures a half-interest in the MILL ST.
mon eventually sells out and opens
the finest tavern in Cedarville. Joe
becomes the premier. customer and is
most welcome around Simon's joint
until he goes broke and becomes the
village drunkard." Then he is not so
welcome and the proof is had that the
saloonman is but a "fair-weather"
friend at best. Joe loses his mill and
is reduced to want, his wife being
compelled to take in washing to keep
alive herself and daughter, and to-
keep her drunken husband in funds.
In endeaEoring to eject Joe from
the tavern Slade strikes Joe's little
daughter over the head with a rum
bottle. The child dies, but first Sc
cures from her father the promise
that he will not touch drink again. In
addition to his promise Joe takes an
oath, over the new-made grave of his
child, that he will never again touch
liquor. He rehabilitates himself, again
becomes halloween in the mill and
respected citizen of CedarviIle. He
makes fight against the tavern and
aids in running it out of business.
Ten Nights in a Barroom'' is an
elegant demonstration of the old
adage, truth is stranger than fiction
But twice it. departs from the plausi-
bility of truth; once when joe reforms
after being confirmed drunkaTd-
they don't do that often-and again
when Slade, the saloonman, is shown
down and out" a booze-besotted bum.
Saloonmen see too much of the ef-
fects of drink to allow themselves to
get in that condition.
From a dramatic standpoint it would
be hard to improve on Ten Nights In
a Barroom." Besides the murder of
little Mary Turner there Is killing in
a card game in the tavern, the muir
derer meeting a violent death by be-
ing thrown from his horse; Slade is |
killed in q drunken brawl with his
son and the son of Joe's partner bare
ly escapes a watery grave
Comparisons are usual odious, GER
tainly so when there is shown on the
film the home of the rum seller" and
that of the rum drinker." 1t carries
moral that is hard to beat. Anoth- |
er evidence of the saloonman's knowl. |
edge of the poison he dispenses is |
had when Slade says, Il do not want
my boy ever to touch liquor or to |
gamble" Slade knew. -..
Ten Nights in a Barroom" will be |
the offering for the balance of the |
week, and is one of the strongest of |
the repertoire of "Blair's Greater Pho. |
to-Plays" thus far shown at the Pop
ular. T.: .-~ 49,.