The Washington times., 1914-06-16
COLUMBIA

TON Moore" the Andrew Mack
comedy produced last night by the Co
lumbia Players. might pe called Just
a small section Of the poets life. To
produce it required the full membership
of the Columbia Players, and in ad-
dition children were borrowed in whole
room scene in the first act. The par
sale quantities to supply the school
ticular adventure of rom Moore, dealt
with in the play, concerned his love al
fair with pretty Bessie Dyke, a school
teacher. An Englishman, Sir Per
ciVal Iovelace, was similarly smitten.
Moore was poor and the Englishman
was rich. To help a friend out of a
scrape Moore proposed to another girl
Miss Dyke heard the proposal She
spurns Moore. Her father was poet,
who believed the height Of his art was
contained IN preparing rhymlng roasts
of someone or something. He was nat
tered by Lovelace. pursuaded to go TO
London and take his daughter, VINO
had ambitions to become an actress
There father Dyke wrote wicked bit
OF verse about the Prince of Wales
which Lovelace finds in Moore garret.
for the poet had also gone TO London
Moore becomes famous. When Bessie
hegfns to take notice of him again
Lovelace springs old Dykes roast OF
the prince, Moore proclains himself the
author to protect the old man, and Is
promptly kicked out of polite society:
properly chastened Bessie and things
are settled between them just before the
prince comes in, apologies for accus-
ing Moore of having written the roast
and appoints him poet laureate of Eng
land, which assures him kes Of wine
every year and house rent free
II this had been a conventional dra-
matte review all this stuff about
the story of Tom Moore" would have
been omitted. 1t Is tiresome to read
and almost as tiresOme to write. But
you see. this isn't a conventional re-
view. There were some eighteen
hundred people-they looked like all
the people in Washington-at the
a fairly safe guess few of them viii
remember anything about the play
produced there.
The trouble was A. II. Van Buren,
and Dorothy Bernard Foreseetng
something of this sort I took the
precaution to extend welcome to
this happy pair one day last week. No
body in the audience had enjoyed my
advantage. hence the evening was
largely given over to welcoming TO
the old favorites rather than a play.
Each Of the number of people before
mentioned felt it necessary to extend the
welcome, and II takes long time for
that number Of people to get a job like
that done. Each OF them appeared to
have a personal interest In Dorothy
a. v
gave unmistakable evidence that it
was the sort OF an interest that pleased
them nightly. In all your days you'll
never see set Of people so bent and
determined upon extending the glad
hand to an actress and an actor. What
happened wasn't just applause. It was
series of tumults which began with
Miss Bernard's first entrance, gathered
volume as Van Buren came on, and in
terrupted the play at frequent intervals
N NJ
yet IL Manager Berger hadn't shooed the
mad throng out Of the house long after
II o'clock.
Since nobody else noticed II, It might
A. H. Van Buren, and Dorothy Bernard
deserved all the applause they got, IL
they have always charmed people like
they did this particular stranger-and IL
they keep 1t up. as they likely will 1t
isn't necessary to say anything about
the way either Of them interpreted their
parts last eyening-the applause showed
that, and the immense punches and
baskets OF flowers as well as the pretty
speeches the pair made, gave evidence
OF what people think they did with their
parts ...5a
II, would be useless to tell a crazy
mob like that anything else-and there
Isn't anything else to tell But II might
twenty-five or thirty other people who
were on the stage were mighty well
cast Julia Blanc, Everett ButterfieId,
Henry Bull, and Willard Robertson
gave an especially good account Of
themselves. The childrn. especially
Whitman Conn, Johnny Metzerott, and
Bessie Maxwell, were exceptional
There has seldom been a more thor
oughly satisfying production by a stock
company IN Shis city than the one last
night
In case there is any doubt about II,
Mr.. and Mrs. Van Buren are welcome!
GARDNER MACK