Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-10
BY ApEL1NE oARR1oK WELLS

BY ADELINE CARRICK WELLS
TWENTY SEVEN years is rather a
L long life for comedy, but Ii all
the comedies of a decade or so ago
are as worthy of revival as THE New
Henrietta" this weeks offering at the
Newark Theatre, let us hasten to re-
move them from their shelves, dust
them, dress them anew and offer them
to a, public whose sense OF what Is
good has been trodden upon to the
point of obliteration by the hee.s OF
present-day compilers of comedy, so
called.
Not having seen the original Henri
eta. which first met with approval in
1887. before your time and mine, it is
inposs. BILE to say whether the comedy
in its 1918 clothes is as good as was the
offering presented to our parents; Dat
it is with utmost satisf&ton that we
can declare, and reiterate, that Ihe
New Henrietta" with it's clean-tut
humor and clever situat o.s, makes
us wonder how, in the last few years,
we have stood, or rather satNhrough,
some of the hodge-podge, ultra ri que
affairs that have been placed be.ore
us with the caption "tunny" in large
type over their insipid heads.
1t was a large, receptive audience
that laughed so heartily and often last
night. Members of the Repub. tean
Indian League and their friends oceu-
ped the entire lower floor and boxes,
and the quartet of stars, with their
able assistants, received recognition
enough to satisfy even histrionic
hearts.
Perhaps the palm went to Douglas
Fairbanks, whose exquisitely droll
delineation of the character of BERTHE
Van Alstyne showed a new phase of
that young mans ability. He whom
the theatrical public has come to
know as clean-cut, quick, clever, ar
dent, ct cetera, has shed these char
teristics for the moment and appears
in the guise of a Siow-tninking but
right hearted son of wealthy faith
er, a haberdasher's delight of son,
whose haphazard ways irritate his
brainy father to the point of casting
him out of his house.
More important to an actor than
looks and brains Is the sense of I'M
derstanding. the quality that can pick
a person from the pages of manu-
script and make him live. This is
what Fairbanks has done to aBertie,
Berthe is no end of simpleton on the
surface; his darkness of expression
and sowness of speech would drive a
temperamental woman stark mad;
but as we come to krow him we find
that behind the fog that envelopes
his thinking apparatus is a sense of
values that admits of no argument
as to right and wrong. Berries loves
Agnes and wants to marry her. And
he tells her so. Or, rather, she tells
him so. But when his brother-ln-
III rfr L,o Acc
are at stake BERTHE resigns his hopes
Of Agnes and takes the blame of an
unfortunate affair without resent
ment because, to his primitive mind,
it is the only thing to do. His SIM
plicity is co lossal, but lovable and
somehow right, as Mr.. Fairbanks de-
picts him.
Do not gather from this that Doug
las Fairbanks Is the whole New
Henrietta" Shining with him in its
stellar skies are William H. Crane,
who hasn't had such an opportunity
as this since the days when he de-
lighted everybody as David Harum;
Amelia Bingham, who has abandoned
her vaudeville "Big Moments from
Great Plays" to return to the legiti-
mate, where she belongs, and dainty
little Patricia Coninge, who is toe
young to have much of past, but
whose fut ure Is fairly bristling with
possibilities.
The story of the New Henrietta"
concerns a mine, in which old Nick
Van Alstyne has such faith that he
not only sinks all Of his own money
but that of his friends, in it's depths
His rascally son-in-law Is ambitious
for personal reasons-of making his
wife's father bankrupt and enrich
ing himself, and when old Nick falls
In love with charming middie-aged
woman-whose money Is also sunk
In the Henrietta mine-Mark sees ar
opportunity to send the Henrietta
stock falling in order to buy 1t W
again for himself Van Alstyne has
planned a yachting trip, and it IL
while he is away that Mark beg ms
operations. Fortunately, however
for the sake of his fortune-and the
plot-Van Alstyne steps ashore In
time to hear the extras. He rushes
to his office. The stock is down Il
sixty-six and third. If II reaches
sixty-five all will be over. Van Al.
styne rushes to his vault for the Sc.
curities that his brokers demand be
fore they'll obey his orders to bu
They're gone. Mark, the scound-er-el
has taken EN-! Just as all hope SCENT
| to have departed In comes BERTHE
whom his father has called 1.-The fool.
BERTHE has had time of 1t. Whei
he tried to take his seat in the Stool
Exchange they mobbed him. Their
was no seat there at all. Besides
| they all were calling Henrietta,
which was the name OF a famous
actress, as well as that of the yount
woman whom his brother in-law ha'
wronged. and who had died Berti
knew nothing of mine by that name
/ and considering their shouts highl,
personal, started in to lick them all
succeeding in beating three before /
number of kind friends helped hin
with the aid Of fists and boots to tn
street
Nevertheless, when Musgrave
Nicks secretary. told him the situa
ton and Berthe graRned the fart fha