The Pulaskian., 1916-02-04
MRS. BABCOCK READS HER PLAY TO AUTHORS AND
 COMPOSERS.

ana composers OOcleIy or Ar kansas on Thursday night, to which two hundred guests had been invited, Mrs. Bernie Bab- cock gave selections from the four acts of her new drama, Nanny"
 The story pictures the life of the Old South as it was lived on a Mississippi plantation, near Vicksburg. during the war. The scenes take place in the living room of the "big house." and in the puneheon-foored slave cabin in the quarters. "Massa Jedge," "Li'l Missus," Mars Gus, dat deah Mars Gus" faithful George, Mosey and Nanny, with other actors which played their part on the stage of the past, live again in an atmos- phere so real that those who were a part of it imagine for the time being that there has been a resurrection of the past, that long hushed voices are again speaking, and the touch of the vanished hand can again be felt.
 The story is a very simple one, yet, with all it's simplicity, a very gripping one-a story that, were it not for the saving humor of Mosey's antics, would make handkerchiefs too much in evidence, for under the play is the sob of the tragedy brought into the home by war; and out of the pathos of it all there can come none other than the strongest possible sentiment against war.
 Unique in literature, the lead ing character in the play is a black mammy-"n nothing but an old black mammy." Yet by the measure of service and loyal love, the character of this dark skinned slave looms large, for she loved to the end with a love that knows no fear-and great CT love hath no man this this, that he lay down his life.
 The climax of the play is of the kind seen on the stage at long intervals, when, after the drop of the last curtain, the au- dience sits silent for the mo- ment, as if unconscious that the end had come.
 To the soft strains of that old battle-ground song, "Tentine Tonight, as it comes on the still evening air from the Union sol diers encamped outside the gate, the heroic soul of Nanny passes out with the "shadder an gels" and as the last strains of Dying tonight, dying tonight, 7 die away on the stiffness, the si- lence of the audience is almost one of suspense.
 Three times the author o1 Nanny" has read it, and with the same climax in each case Preceding it's publication it was read to a circle composed of of. ficers of the U. c. V. and the U D. c. and some others, familiar with the institutions of the Olt South, who were asked to pass on the realism of the picture The second reading was before a company of Drama League ane other club members. In eacf case, as in the reading to the larger audience, the effect. was the same.
 The plantation melodies hearc between acts were rendered by pupils of the music department of the School for the Blind, anG were under direction of Prof and Mrs. Trebing. The "Tent ing Tonight" refrain which made the melody background fol the passing of Nanny" was sung by Mrs. s. c. Boyce ane Miss Frances Babcock.
 Everybody who has heard Nanny" will go to see the play when staged, handkerchiefs ant all, for at last people are evel more than ready to pay theil money that will make then laugh or cry, and Nanny" of fers a chance for both.