The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-10-31
Without Fun-Lehar's New Opera.

New York. Oct. So-we have had q
rather novel theory in matters matri-
monial propounded TO US IL the two
women authors of The Mark of the
Beast" just produced at the Princess
Theater. speak with any authority for
the rest of the sex. The principal male
character is a lawyer impersonated in
manly and declamatory fashion by
George Nash. Early in the play he Is
besought by a woman friend and client
to undertake her defense in divorce
suit which is about to be brought against
her on the ground of infidelity. When
the lawyer finds that she is actually
guilty he refuses to take her case. but
agrees from friendship TO see the hus-
some arrangement which at least will
not deprive the wife of the custody OF
her child.
When the interview takes place the
legal intermediary puts up q plea not
for justice, but for mercy. He entirely
omits the denunciation OF the double
standard for men and women. Discrfm-
nation against the woman in the mat
ter of offelses against the conventions
of sex has lately been rather overworked
as dramatic material The point urged
is that if husbands are too busy to pro-
vide amusement for their wives, the wife
should not be punished even if her de-
sire to be entertained carries her to Che
point of marital infidelity. The lawyer
argues this claim to forgiveness with
such force that the husband not only
gives up the idea of a divorce suit, but
also Unburdens himself of the revolver
with which he had intended to do bodily
harm TO his wife's playmate.
The result Is forgiveness and a speedy
reconciliation, but the lady dramatists
lie
ing of the theory that a busy husband
is in duty bound to forgive his wife If,
when he fails to provide entertainment
for her, she chances to be unfaithful in
her pursuit of entertainment elsewhere.
The lawyer himself is a busy man and
his wife a pin-headed young woman with
a dangling admirer. With the kind of
realism in which the New York stage of
late delights, we have almost visual evil
dence of this wife's lapse from virtue in
the desire to be amused Penitence fol-
lows quickly, and the next day We have
her confessing her misstep and the
lawyer, arming himself with his friends
discarded revolver to go out and wreak
vengeance on playmate number two.
Fortunately, the friend. being once
more firmly established in his own
marital relations, arrives opportunely to
prevent this intent. The lawyer, having
first been disarmed of the physical
wea pom. is then robbed of what addi-
tional intentions he may have had In
the way of legal punishment of the wife
by his friends firing back at him the
same arguments that he himself had
used successfully earlier in the play.
Then there is another forgiveness and
reconciliation. with the quartet of divert |
ed wives and turn-the-other-cheek hus-
bands uniting in the happy ending with
out which no American play can be truly
great
Feminine Analysis of Life.
Men dramatists have provided us with
all sorts of situations in the domestic |
triangle and have used the neglected |
wife over and over again as one of their |
puppets. 1t has been taken as a matter
Of course on the stage that the weak |
woman who is neglected by her husband |
is exposed to greater temptation than |
the wife who shares her husbands inter- /
ests and pleasures, or who has character |
enough not to he unfaithful simply be- |
cause she can find no other amusement
or occupation for herself.
II remains for the lady authors OF |
The Mark OF the Beast" Georgia Earle
and Fanny Cannon by name. to put I'D |
the argument that when a busy man
finds that his wife has been untrue TO |
him, it is his duty to understand that the
blame Is. in fact, his own. Therefore
the woman is to be promptly forgiven
for her merry little esca pade, and imme-
diately restored to the marital embrace
One might almost infer that in the opin-
ion OF these authors she should really
be commended for resorting to this re-