Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-26
BELASCO GRIEVED
BY BOSTON'S SCORN
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Continued from Page One
no suggestive lines. no doubtful scenes.
no meaningful byp,ay. hate such
things abhor them
"I believe i'm God, and | never go to bed
at night without first dropping on my
knees In prayer
"I love my work | love Marie Odile
l am hitter that my child is spurned. T
am hur: that this play. beautiful clean
and uplifting, should he questioned by
Mayor Curley. I should have been glad
TO give all the profits that would have ac-
crued to me for charity--if I could only
have shown my work to Boston. The
people of Boston would have thanked me
for it, hut they will not have 1.-THE
Mayor won't have it,"
STORY OF MARIE-ODILE
'Marie-Odne," might he described as a
study In maiden innocence. The hero
Inc. Mare-Odile, is a nOvitiate in an Alsa-
tian convent during the FranCo-Prussian
War She has lived with the sisters
within the walls ever since she was found
a baby at the gate. She blooms into
beautiful girlhood in absolute ignorance
of anything in the world but prayers and
her duties about the convent.
Marie-Odile was in the pigeon loft feed
ing her pets when word was brought to
the Mother Superior by an aged priest
that the dreaded Uhlans We're advancing
toward the convent. The Mother Superior
and the sisters fled, forgetting Marie
Odile in their haste to escape
So she encountered the invaders alone
They We're hungry and she spread for
them the meal she had prepared for the
nuns Selder-like they bade her, won
dering and frightened, sit i'm the Mother
Superior's place and heartily they toasted
her.
Some of the soldiers were rude to her
and she shrank away and could not un-
deTstand. But one, a corporal, spoke
kindly to her. He seemed to her like
the archangeI, and in him she saw the
incarnation Of st. Michael, OF whom she
had dreamed.
CORPORALS LOVEMAKING.
The young corporal had left no sweet
heart behind him. he was of the temper
that dreams of women and clothes them
with romantic fancies. He had the mel
ancholy forebodlng that he would be
killed in battle As 1t happened, the or
ders of the squadron held him at the
convent when the rest had gone afeld.
In the afternoon sunshine and in the
still solitudes he spoke to Marie Odile
OF all that was in his young and romantic
heart. To her it was as If all the long
We're as by miracle fulfilled.
The next day the soldier went his way,
and as he had feared his life did go
out in battle.
mdHle-Oulle remained IN the convent
with only the old gardener beside
her, and with none but him to tend her
when her child was born-the baby that
heaven had given her as by a miracle,
as she in her heart believed.
When the war was over and the nuns
came back, carrying in their hands the
shining gold altar candlestiCk and cross,
they found Marie-Odle sitting as golden
IN the sunshine beside the cradle OF her
son. as Mary is shown in many an old
picture.
Marketable told them the tale Of her
fortunes ana her miracle. The Mother
Superior. a disciplinarian bade her go
and so lift the stain from the convent
Just as the Mother Superior issued this
command, a ray of sunlight strays
through a stained glass window. illum-
mating the figure OF Marie Odie and her
child This Is especially startling. as Just
behind the young mother Is a picture OF
the Virgin and her Child upon a wall
The incident stTs the assemblage OF
sisters into affrighted compassion. and
me Mother Superior is deeply moved
She relents and gives Marie -Odile and |
her child her blessing as they pass out
into the world
Nh Belaseo viii present Frances starr |
~ the title role Of Married -Odile."