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

| Don't go out tonight, daddy. l am
going 10 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 a 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 a redis-
! covered manhood.
Little Mary Turner gives her life
as the price for her rather's salvation,
and it is worth it. Had she not done
so three lives would have been wreck
ed. Joe Turner, his wife and their
child. AS it is, the sacrifice is made
and the man saved from himself and
from the curse of drink.
1t has been said that a single per
Torrance of Ten Nights in a Bar
room" is better than one million tenn
perance lecturers, and it probably is.
In fact it is a temperance lecture with
the horrible example" in the role of
Incorporated 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 endeavoring 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
a respected citizen of Cedarville. 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 a confirmed drunkard-
they don't do that often-and again
when Slade, the saloonman, is shown
down and out" booZe-besotted bum.
Saloonmen see too much of the eff
fects of drink to allow themselves to
get in that condition. :
From 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
tderer meeting violent death by be
ing thrown from his horse; Slade is
killed in a drunken brawl with his
son and the son of Joe's partner bare.
ly escapes watcry 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 Anotll-
er evidence of the saloonman's knowE
edge Of the poison he dispenses isl
had when Slade says, 81 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 -.