New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-19

The marvel Of Hauptmsnn's "Weav-
crs" lies I'm the extraordinary skill
with which the playwright has traced
the manner in which a mob grows.
There is but one rebel in the first act
At the end Of the second act three are
added. From then on progress is rapid,
until i'm the final act an entire country
side Is ablaze with revolt. The clash
Of the play comes not in the opposing
wills of individuals, but in the struggle
Of the individual and the mob.
The final act finds MS in the home of
old Hilse As the act begins the old
man is praying. AN If we're some
times too sore cast down under Thy
chastenings when the fire of Thy puri-
fcation burns too ragin' hOt-Oh, lay
IL not TO our charge forgive us our
sin" is the burden of his prayer.
Two persons who say amen to that
PRAYER rush out Of the house before
the end Of the act to hurl themselves
against the soldiers. Louise is the first
10 20 after her cry, I'M answer to the
protest of old Hilsc. you and your
piety an religion did they serve TO
keep the life in my poor children In
rags an dirt they lay, all the four it
didn't as much as keep EN- dry. Yes!
] sets up TO be 2 mother. that's what |
do an If you'd like to know it,, that's
why I'D send all the manufacturers to
He'll because I'm a mother
Her husband Gottlieb is left. He rs
by training and by every instinct
cons ervative, but the mob gets him just
the same. and IL would have had old
Hilec. too. If he had not been shot by
"a stray bullet at the end of the play.
This drama of man and the mob is
L. l.. 10 Dot
son. or the next one, for that matter.
Becker is as real person as picket
IN the streets of Lawrence, and Louise
might be a woman in the ore fields Of
Colorado.
on the other hand. this mob Of
Hauptmann's might have been COM
posed of those folk who stormed the
Bastile. These men might have roared
for bread in Rome or Babylon or Troy
or Jericho. The man of Tyre and the
man of Trinidad might differ in many
important respects, but a mob IN
Phnnicia would be pretty much the
same as a mob in Colorado. One touch
Of hunger makes the whole world kin.
We do not think that "The Weavers" is
out Of date
The English version Of the play
translation by Mary Morrison. The
brief quotations which We have made
are characteristic. The translation is
without literary merit. Not having
read "The Weavers" in German, IT
NAV be rash to venture a statement,
but we will wager that there is no
purely literary merit in the original
We do know that it is written in an
illiterate dialect of Silesia.
The minute "The Weavers" became
literature il would cease to be drama.
At any rate, let George Bernard Shaw
write the long speech for Louise IN
the fifth act just before she goes out
10 ioin the rioters and the effect or the
play would be destroyed. Let her nave
a speech, for instance, like that OF the
dustman in "PyRmalion" about the IN
deserving poor, and crash would go tne
play. The mob's the thing. NoOoay
must be so eloquent as to stand out
sbsrplv above the multitude whom the
NAV Concerns. Hauptmann himself
must stand aside and let his mob have
its will. H.. -. =.
The stage is almost as seductive as a
uob It's shirt, its very language, IS
contagious. The other day bolt ieii
on The head Of a scene shifter IN a
broadway theatre and knocked him out
He regained consciousness hve minutes
later and his first words were "here
am II"
Lou-Tellegen says that he Is great
friend Of Charlie Chaplin and that ne
would not think Of attacking the Amer
lean sense Of humor, as we had MN
doing in a story the other day. Ihose
were the words, however whleh tne
press agent put In his mouth and 20
tell the truth, since we slipped on the
sidewalk yesterday on crowded cor
nel our own regard for the American
sense of humor has cooled percepuDly'
Hauptmann was not the only man
who understood the psychology OF
rnobs. There was Charlie Case. Don
YOU remember: For two acts | played
the part Of man pursued by a mob
but In the third ! got the audience so
worked up that they Joined the mob.
n Robert Louis Stevenson could
manage 70 get seat for treasure
Island" at the Punch and Judy Inc
atre-and he would find II diiheult-ne
would undoubtedly be surprised. 1t
was Stevenson who wrote: There Is
vast deal in life where the interest
turns not or the passionate slips and
kesitations Of the conscience, but on
the problems OF the body and OF the
practical intelligence, in clean open
air adventure, the shock Of arms or the
diplomacy OF life. With such material
a. this II IL impossible % build play,
for the serious theatre exists solely on