New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-11
Versatility Is Factor in
Picked Team Of
Plays
SHAW AND DUNSANY
MAKE UP FOR MAHAN
Possibility That Strong
Scrub Might Prove To
Be a Victor
CBy HAYWOOD BROUN)

(By HAYWOOD BROUN
The sport writers profess 20 have
great difficulty in picking an ail-star
eleven, but that's no trouble at all for
the dramatic department. This is our
selection; "The Gods OF the Noun
tain" Great Catherine "Bushido."
"Trihes," "Old Lady 81" THE 18th
Chair" "The Yellow Jacket" "Pierrot
the PrOdigal," Nothing but the
TRUTH "The Man Who Came Back"
and Getting Married"
1t may be said that this eleven is
without offence, but there is no deny
ing its versatility. Hero is a team
which can run around the intellect or
hurdle the heart. 1t can measure its
gains in laughter, in tears, in thrills
and in charm.
Bernard Shaw, Of course, will do
most of the kicking. Place, drop or
multiple is all the same to this in
trepid player. Just as long as he can
get foot free he can kick, and he
cares not what he hits. The team is
! none the worse for having two Irish
men in the lineup. The land which
/ gave us Casey and Mahan also pro-
duced Shaw and Dunsany.
There are other reasons for includ-
/ ing Portmanteau and Washington
Square players, but, in addition. we
thought it well to follow the Pitts
burgh practice of having one or two
amateurs on the eleven.
The copyreader refuses to pass this
story because, he says, he can build a
scrub team around "Tum TO the
Right which would rip our All-Amer-
lea TO pieces. II he had his will he
would drop Pierrot as too slow and
substitute Cheating Cheaters" In
his crude way he adds that there can
be no question of the right of Get
/ ting Married" TO remain in the line,
since 1t is so difficult TO get through it.
Purposely. no musical comedies are
included in the lineup. We haven't an
idea what makes a good musical com
edy. Lima Abarbanell can sing and
dance and act far better than Anna
Held, and Flora Bella" is a much bet
ter show than Follow Me-" but the
Casino drew just about twice as many
people as the Forty-fourth Street The
atre on Saturday night.
Clifton Crawford is not only a clever
entertainer, but he is quick TO appre-
ciate fair criticism. One or two re-
viewers commented on the fact that
the Joan of Arc verse in his History"
song was in poor taste, and he prompt
~ dropped the Maid of Orleans and
wrote a verse about Hiawatha.
In "Her Soldier Boy" there is a bit
of dialogue which goes something like
this:
She Oh, I'm 30 happy! My brother
has been away fifteen years and he's
coming home to-day.
He-Fifteen years? Ny, what a Sc
we're judge.
This is a good enough joke for all
practical purposes, but IL can hardly
be said 10 be seeped in subtlety, yet
in hearing the musical comedy twice
we have observed that a long pause 10
needed before the house rocks with
laughter at the gag.
A reader who signs himself a
Seeker After Truth" wants TO know
who is the greatest living actress IN
order TO decide bet. We refuse to
be a party TO any such fool wager. II
might be possible TO name the greatest
dollar actress, the most powerful
weeper, the most persistent giggler,
the most consistently cute person and
the leaders in other lines of stage
proficiency, but we don't know the
greatest actress. As likely as not she
hanging about the door Of some movie
studio wondering whether or not the
director will take her on for the day
as an extra woman.
If there is any prominent vampire
out of work lust now why doesn't she
get some film author TO devise her
picture founded on Oliver Holiness
Elsie Venner"? The New England
humorist probably took no thought of
the picture possibilities when he wrote
this tale for 1.-THE Atlantic Monthly
some sixty years ago, and yet 1t IS
hard TO believe that he had never seen
Theda Bara.
Elsie Venner is a girl whose mother
was bitten by rattlesnake few weeks
before Elsie was born, which may eN-
plain why Miss Venner grows up to be
a girl endowed with a pair Of diamond
eyes possessed of peculiar light. ms
may be the reason, also, why she wears
strange striped cloths and necklaces
and bracelets. IL may explain her
fondness for wild rambles on the noun
tain at night. and the peculiar and sin
ister manner in which her forehead
seemed TO narrow as she gazed at her
cousin i'm anger before she suddenly
drrted al him and bit him on the arm.
II was observed that the old doctor, who
had known her mother, took great care
TO burn those white marks on the boy
arm. Years afterward, whenever Elsie
looked at him intently Dick could feel
the Jingle on his arm In the peculiar
white scars which remained.
But, after all, it is a singularly viyid
scene on the mountain which com
pletely reveals the secret Of the girl
personality. 1t was foolish OF Bernard
Langdon 10 venture alone on Rattle
snake Ledge, and most fortunate for
him that Elsie loved him. AS he gazes
into the mouth OF cave he hears an
ominous rattle and then he observes
two beady eyes fixed upon him. Inc
eyes draw nearer in the darkness, put
the schoolmaster cannot turn 70 run'
"He waited as in trance-walted as
one that longs TO have the dow ialii
and all over as the man VINO shali De
in two pieces in a second waits FOR the
axe to drop. But while he looked
straight into the flaming eyes. II
seemed to him that they were losing
their light and terror, that they were
growing tame and dull; the charm was
dissolving, the numbness was passing
away. he could move once more ne
heard light breathing close TO MS