The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-10-24

than h appearance of Ar
old korH at the Irving llac,
Theatre In Oscar Wilde's comedy az
IDEAL Husband" The play in Germa,
mas been popular for several year
n Mr.. korn has acted II frequent,
AT the Hofburg in Vienna. lie will h,
by the regular company. y,
ACTOR In years has made such u sue.
cess at the Irving Place as Mr.. Korr
who is Il native American.
Even at the risk of being AGAR
called q narrow and h%idebound techni.
clan, who does not AXE %techniouc fo,
granted and will talk about =. re.
chanical thing, the following
published. II concerns the u- i:.i.
nate ITO at the Comedy ...tr,
called THE Bargain" which has beer
called on or In some way disposed of
This Is not the first time that the cdi-
tor or this department has been favored
with such analytical communications
A similar gratuitous criticism of
common Clay" extending over some
six pages. was kindly sent along.
This play has the same technical
defect AS The Natural Law produced
last spring by John Cort. As there
IL no conflict, the play is undramatic.
However. The Natural Law being "A
sex play. had a universally Of appeal
which is lacking in The Bargain
which deals with race prejudice.
THE first act, while fulfilling the
function OF an exposition by indicating
the possibility of conflict between the
conservatism of the father on the one
hand and the suggested love affair
OF the girl, the boys speculation and
the wife's stage ambition on the other.
Is nevertheless devoid OF action. The
other acts have no even II trace OF a
conflict. They show nothing more
than a series of disappointments be-
falling the father. lie shows a lot Of
emotion. II is true. Il he does not
do any hing.
Those to whom the aptness of this
criticism IL not Immediately apparent
should compare the construction of
this play with that of Common Clay
In the latter play we have II we'll de-
fined confiict-Ellcn NeaTs struggle
for the rights of her child. The
trouble with Common Clay is that
the climax. instead Of bringing the
~ ~ " h''lNlNt lFSl's Eb'N WI
at a tangent in revealing the ~irrele-
want Irrelevant as far as EIiCH's
struggle for the rights IF her child is
concerned) facts of the heroine's pa
ternity. II will he remembered that
all the critics agreed that Common
Clay is u good play up to the climax.
but nom of them could state specif-
cally what was wrong with 1t after
that"
This helps some to prove the theory
that in this country every mar is his
" dramatic critic.
The Wilstachian bureau Of publicity
Winces. 1t protests:
I'm accusing me of being the author
Of the letter in the Friday SIN. in re
Mr.. Sothern's fat poet in The Two
Virtues you make Ine out a literary
charlatan. This Harris person SAYS
in his letter that Coun F'osco OF "Th
Woman in White as PLAYED 10y Alfred
WiRan. was fat n honest In Will
kie Collins's novel. and in the play of
the same name Count IOsco il no:
only very fat but thoroughly disrcpu-
table. He hadn't an honest hair in his
head.
From the tag on the Harris letter
l take il that you are OF the opinion.
not only that all poets are thin. u
thai all press agents are rosues. II
may he that YOU are right az 10 press
agents. hut all wrong as to poets. AS
to the latter, it may surprise YOU To
know that | am strangely in accord
with Mr.. Sothern. His interview in TIE
81 NnAy Sr'N haS rnnN+fnsal nm tl.t
the writing of poetry. being a seden-
tary job, is conducive to corpulency.
] recall that Thomas Hardy once said.
Mental luminousness must be fed with
the oil of life II not only must be-
but liz, and for the reason that poets.
through all the ages, have been so We'll
thought of hat the hungry bard has
been an unknown quantity. Anybody
would feed Il poet in order to keep
alive the lamp of luminosity.
If q would like a list of poets
who have been provided with the oil
of life beginning with Virgil. fed by
Mpcenas, along down to George Syl-
vester Niereck. who is being red 10y
the Kaiser, | will gladly furnish same
Of course, that you will
that +. II. Sothern is appear
ing in The Two Virtues at the Booth
Theatre, matinecs, @:l5. nights. Sis.
This latter is AN example of the
Of theatrical ii%ctioneers.
"FRANK W~usTAcH'
The stage is outwardly dead in
said 10 TIE Si'N reporter Anna
Held. who sings at the Palace Theatre
this week. There Is no business in
ne theatres. but the dramatists and
he players are very much alive. New
plays are being tried out privately in
bathrooms, in chateauX, in places where
only invitations will admit Many war
banned by the censor have been
produced in this way, Truly. | have
VARIETY IN
BUSHWICK THEATRE-Ger-
trude Hoffman, moves to
n this week and will