New-York tribune., 1917-09-04

By Ralph Block

1t may have been the enthusiasm Of
the moment. II may have been because
| the call of thousand or so people
! from the body Of theatre is bound TO
/ make you generous. especially TO the
! occasion that brought you there the
play itself. Al any rate, whatever it
was, II was strong enough TO make
| Colonel Theodore Roosevelt stand up
In box at the Gaiety Theatre last
night and publicly declare himself on
the merits Of "Thc Country Cousin"
which comes to New York now after
season in other parts. Colonel Roose-
welt said "The Country Cousin" was "a
| first class American play" lie said 1t
as If he really meant it, so it may be
lie liked the play. He may even con-
tinue TO like it to-day, after he has
had time to think it over little. But
We hope not. Because in spite Of the
! bits that sounded like excerpts from
/ the Colonel's own speeches, IN spite Of
( the fine flavor that Alexandra Carlisle
gave % the bright Tarkingtou-Strcet
( lines that cropped out here and there,
| in spite Of the always good but still
surprising acting of Donald Gallaher,
1 there were a good many parts of The
/ County Cousin last night that had
I about as little of what we like 10 be-
| lieve is the American spirit of to-day
( as q dog fight has patriotism.
The Country Cousin" hangs its tale
on the familiar moral that country
/ Sz1f 81, 10 ao14 90 4ka 9th
and city folks are not. William Hodge
used 10 act in plays Of that kind, and
sometimes he succeeded in making
| them convincing. The trouble with a
play Of that kind, 10 begin with. is
| that il starts out with false premise.
| In land that is full OF lot of cities,
and lot Of country, too, there are
bound TO be some fairly decent folks
| in cities and here and there few
| rotters in the country. But "The Coun-
| try Cousin says no. II says II
very emphstically, and II any one
| were 10 take il seriously they would
have 70 believe that the pure in heart
reside nowhere at any point east ot
Chilicothe. Ohio, or thcreaboutS. II
is indeed the kind of play which at
tacks the provircalism of the East by
patting on the back the prOvincialism
of the Middle West. And although nat
urally New York would supply a good
deal of evidence on which to build a
play Of this kind, the co-authors OF
The Country Cousin" seemed so eager
| 70 make their point that they went out
Of their wav to DO It, And the result Is
the usual false and theatrical play Of
dramatists who insist on believing that
the moral Of q play is more important
than the story it has TO tell.
"The Country Cousin" is architectu-
rally like "The Man From Home" and
Fixing Sister" Eleanor Hewitt, just
eighteen, lives in an Ohio village and
finds IL stupid, as Ohio villages perhaps
may be. She has inherited somewhere
near a half million dollars, and shortly
her father, divorced and rewedded to a
cheap and frivolous woman, appears on
the scene to take hct East. The second
act discloses Eleanor in the scenes Of
sin 70 which her father has brought
| her. Act is an Italian villa near
| New York, with house party in action.
| Acts and are the interior of the
| villa, with the house party in process
| OF expiration.
Into this iniquitous background
| comes the country cousin, lady who
/ farms out in Ohio, and-it may be said
I -LUt Olt human anu Btuulllt NuAldN-
| ter in the show. She is insulted by
| every one, but manages to more than
| hold her own and even win Eleanor
! back in the end, with the aid of an
| overdrawn snob whom she has con-
| verted TO common sense before the
| final curtain. In spots this is delight
| ful. But the characters with which the
| combined authors have peopled their
/ house party are so false, so unbeliev-
able, so utterly lacking even in wit to
I give them point that the pleasure of
the good stretches is spoiled in the an
noyance of the bad.
/ Booth Harrington and Julian Street
/ appear to know what they are talking
| about when they write about people
/ from Ohio. But it's asking a good deal
/ OF an audience to believe that even the
/ loose and outer fringe Of any so-called
smart SET" are quite as shoddy and
| quite so utterly bad as they are made
| out to be in "The Country Cousin"
( As comedy in spots it is fair enough.
/ When it arrives at melodrama, it isn't
merely theatrical, but hackneyed as
well.
/ Miss Carlisle helped a good deal. So
: did Mr.. Gallaher Eugene O'Brien did
! as well as he could with the snob, and
/ Grace Elliston almost succeeded IN
! making the stepmothcr convincing.
! But il was a heavy burden.
/ Even with the help of the Colonel.
I