The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-01

work worth study for its gracious verse
and imagination and remarkable effects.
is left solely To the ragged first night
notices 1t received. 1t should be worth
a second review.
What drama nowadays ever receives
one? Pieces are killed in a night A
round of bad notices, and the houses
arc empty for the rest OF the week,
when the storehouse receives its in
vestiturc and the company seeks the
cheaper lunching rooms.
The increasing number OF theatres is
also responsible, ! have no doubt, for
the call for The punch" In play. II
needs that To awaken the faded critics
to any sort of cerebral excitement. The
public is certainly not so eXacttng.
They want good art but they are told
that there Is one shocking scene a
drunken husband breaking with "A pair
OF hretongs into his wife's bedroom,
and all is well. That there was n great
bit of characteristic selfish brother-in-
law--was barely mentioned Similarly,
an East Side variant of Les Lionnes
Fauvres" Of Angler. given a Riverside
habitat has it's punch" pointed out
and endless business follows.
What | am aiming TO show Is that
the dramatic situation Is mostly AT the
root of the Ill balanced and never cor
rected critiQues. The dishonesty that
Mr. klaw complains of is a thing by
Itself II II exists it should be stamped
out, not limited at in a yelled way. The
oVerworked honest critics would he glad
of Il. Ii does not infect the whole mass.
The trouble lies deeper. IL Is the off
with-his-head method that is destruc-
tive. where some consideration. some
marked regard for standards would pre-
serve criticism from sheer butchery. y
THE Yellow Ticket" is a propaga nda
play. 1t has an unusually powerful first
act, and the rest of>the play develops
the theme along lines almost II not
quite inevitable, Il Is very we'll acted
and Keeps the interest gripped to the
end. In the second act n woman kills
a man in defence OF her honor. as many
women have done in plays, without Of
fence in critical eyes. but 10 they one
and all cry "Scarpia," because Sardou's
La Tosca" survives in operate form,
and that became the high note of the
criticisms, They might more appro-
priatcly have cried "Ho!ofcrncs." II
might have been noted. Why not" But
as the critics snatched at il, and the
headline people dished 1t up. the scheme
OF the critiQues was thrown off its true
centre, and some real faults entirely
overlooked. In Omar, the Tentmaker."
n mischance with "A mechanical effect ON
the first night was given the centre of
the stage in the notices next day. 4
lady at Wallacks a few years ago
tripped over her gown, and the play
was ruined,
A.,
seriously: that resolves upon higher
plane OF judgment, and keeps the rela-
ton OF parts in mind would be a bless
ing. We must. being American, have
our joke, but let II be kept in its place,
and not make The whole function a Joke,
For my part. ! am aware Of many
bright minds contributing 10 our daily
dish OF criticism, men who do not seek
to do injustice. but who are learning
to slaughter lightheartedly. Art is
worthy Of respect The American play
wright the American composer might
he considered without jngosm. The
American poet should be considered. not
necessarily coddled. Even with the
very poor things that sometimes see
the light n gentler way Of pointing their
shortcomings may he found
John u. Stockton, charming writer
~ many years ago once saw a la
mentally bad play at the Academy OF
Music. We sat beside each other as he
wrote his notice, and when he had
banded it to the copy boy he told me OF
the enormously funny things he had
seen presented under tho solemn belief
that the play was extremely serious.
"Oh," he said. twenty years ago how
IT, 4 49,.
over
And now what have you done?"
II have remembered that art has dig
nifty and that my father was a gentle
man."