New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-11

saphy the maid .......... Miss Eiira6eih hsf.eas
AAastasus s.heib.e, known IS "Stss.."
" WHY ................ A!bsr, B-nins
no'ie hs niece. ........... Mis- Amy Dennis
Harriet KS daughter Ms. Alma hi
vaughan Leland broker 'rOm Boston. anna i'
Richard Henman foreman IN Enrsls factory
AlphonL Either
carer. Ingeis confidential man ...... John Mckee
BY HAYWOOD BROUN.
"Our Children" is couched with such
an honesty of purpose and played in
so much srcerity for the most part
that almost'any theatregoer should be
able TO lyeep with it here and there
without losing his self-respect. The
interest lies much more in what Louis
Arspscher's characters are than in
what they do. Frail in plot. the new
play at the Maxine Elliott Theatre is
robust in character delneation and
portrayal.
The play begins with n promise which
10 is not able TO sustain, but by the
time the last act arrives the various
characters in the story have so com
pletely won the hearts of the audience
that no serious objection Is raised even
though they move through most con-
ventional scene of Christmas, recon
Citation and curtain.
Mr.. Anspacher's folk are German
Americans of the period before the
hyThen had any place in our national
iife save in the dialogue of Weber and
Fields
Yet there were signs Of the new dis
pensation. Only in an age when n
George Sylvester Niereck and a Jere-
miah OLeary are fighting the Teuton
cause side by side would an actor
named Emmett Corrigan be called upon
10 play the part of Willybald Engel,
German shoe manufacturer.
Mr. Corrigan was sincere, direct and
convincing Actor and accent are
doing nicely. Yet with all the skill Of
Mr.. Corrigan and Albert Bruning and
Arthur Lewis, for our eyes and ears
the best player Of them all was Miss
Elizabeth Aariens, who is much better
known in Irving Place than to Broad
way. Miss Aariens has been queen and
countess and heroine Of one sort or
another once upon o time in the Ger
man Theatre, but last night she was a
maid of all work and she was every
inch q servant. Good as the others
were, there were times when one would
have wished TO change this or that in a
gesture or a tone, but we should not
care to CLEAN in the path of Miss
Aariens. Hers was a splendid part
PLAYED TO the limit in its possibilities
Of laughter and with that redeeming
touch of pathos back of II all. We
could not quite forgive the author for
keeping the Sophy of Miss Aariens on.
Of the last act.
DR.. Anspacher's story is a simple one
and yet it contains a novelty in its
basic idea. Mother love is in the top
right-hand drawer of every dramatist.
The author Of "Our Children" has fished
deeper and brought forth father love.
For our part, we like it better than the
older article. 1t is more manly. A
fathers love for a son is the beginning
and the end of the play. Boys are bet
ter than girls, is the dictum of the
chief character, which may be the rea-
son why the author was provided with
cast in which the actors were much bet
ter than the actresses. Save, of course,
in the exception already noted.
Willybald Engel, the part played by
Mr. CorriRan, is a successful shoe mer-
chant who has risen from the work
mans bench lie has son and
daughter. and everything goes to the
son. At the beginning Of the play the
boy has Just come back from college.
Lynn. Mass, is the scene of the play,
and vet from the developments Of the
second act we can hardly believe that
Theodore Engel was Il Harvard man.
There was about him something to sug-
gost that he camo from well. never
mind. Why endanger a rising Connec-
ticut circulation? Let it merely be said
that he went to the bad.
For his son old Engel drains himself
l.
nership in q brokerage firm with
Boston swindler, and for the sake of
his son he begins to have social am
billions for the family. Thus. when his
daughter Hertha wished to marry
Richard Hellman. the foreman of his
factory, the old man refuses. but the
girl goes out of the house Just the
same with her man.
Two years pass before the second act.
which finds the Engels in dire straits.
The brokerage house fails and the
swindler runs away. leaving young
Encel to bear the brunt of the failure.
The boy tries 20 eXtricate himself from
his difficulties by throwing over the
daughter Of his fathers best friend in
order to make an advantageous match
with the daughter of banker, but his
new flame discovers his plight in time
TO refuse him. Desperate, the boy runs
away. but his father shoulders the re-
sponslbility and sets himself to make
good the name of his son.
In the last act the old man has been
forced back to the cobbler's bench, but
little by little he is paying of his debts.
Toward his daughter he becomes recon-
ciled, but he hardens his heart against
her husband. Only at the end, when he
finds that his son-in-law has put his
boy Theodore on his feet again and
brought him home, does the recOncilia-
ton come, which leaves everybody
happy.
Albert Bruning played the part Of
Engcl's friend Anastasius Scheible
with much skill and there were num-
Der of good scenes between the two
men. Their quarrels and reconcilia-
tions were mite suggestive OF Potash
and Perlmutter. but 1t was nothing
more than suggestion. Christine
Norman showed much skill in playing
the neglected daughter durinr the
greater part Of the first act. when she
showed a God-given ability to sit still
and vet remain in the picture. I'm
fortunately her emotional outburst at
the end of the first act Is written in
more or less artificial spirit and she
was not sufficiently skilful to redeem
II from the theatrical quality. Ralph
Morgan was effective as the son and
Amy Dennis sufficiently girlish for the
rather colorless part of Rosie.
There is one laugh in "Our Children
which will be lost unless we are mis-
taken. In the third act Spencer Hut
ton sent the audience into burst OF
merriment by advising another charae-
ter. "You better bundle up, It's very
cold" We believe that Mr.. Anspacher's