New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-18
THE CAST
By Ralph Block

BY Ralph Block
Mr.. Arliss makes the drama OF knee
brooches seem almost worth while.
Under his kindly hand the fading the
atre of high moments and great en-
terprises, OF plots and stratagems, and
the honor of men and women-an
honor that the contemporary stage
has almost lost to view-blooms into
an astonishing greenery; takes on, in
deed, hue that but for the sharpest
scrutiny might be the hue Of life it.
self Mr.. Arliss did it for US in DIS
raeli." He came back last night to do
il once again in Hamilton" another
portrait added to the Arliss gallery.
Mr.. Arliss remarked at the Knicker-
booker Theatre last night, in the
course of an informing third act con-
yersation with the audience, that 1t is
easy enough 20 be good after one has
become q steel engraving. The figure
that Mr.. Arliss has bonded himself to
make Of Alexander Hamilton is not
always good one in the meaning OF
stage morality, and it does at many
moments take on the semblance OF
life. But, like all OF Mr.. Arliss's
drawings, it has the smack of art
about it rather than of life. 1t capt.
Yates quite by its conscious implica-
ton of artistry rather than by its
imitation of life. 1t is always more
recreative than creative.
As for the play itself that Mrs:
HGmlin and Mr.. Arliss have conspired
to present, il is OF a not unfamiliar
pattern. By itself the tale has charmed
many an idle hour-the honest man
involved in affairs Of great moment,
the schemes Of selfish men against
him. the failure Of calumny TO mount
against or overwhelm the stanch wall
of his honor, and, finally. the effort
70 catch him with n woman. But this
is not all by half: The threat OF
spreading the story TO the winds and
the sacrifice Of self and love and repu-
tation for some greater and tremen-
dous cause, and then the capture OF
all men by so much bravery and the
surrender of the world 20 nobility just
before the final curtain.
This is .he tale, Of course, that
convention has woven. But Mrs. Ham
lin and Mr.. Arliss have given il a
neater turn, and IL goes far toward
promising n human problem in what
seems in the main an attractive but
always remote pattern from the past.
In the story of other days, the gentle
manor was Il a lady was always in
nocent, wrongly accused; but 10, this
once, the accusation has truth in IL!
And there is no more surprising mo-
ment than when Alexander Hamilton,
with the trfickers Of his time shaking
the discriminating papers lever the pa
pers) IN his face, gives in and con-
fesses that he is but human being
and that he, quite as other men, mas
straycd II Is moment for high
hopes, for a little faster beating OF
the heart, for an expectation or that
actual sounding of human depths
which the more truthful drama OF
later day has given as the rlght TO ex-
pect in the theatre. But IL is, alas,
only moment; and Mr.. Dlsraeli sur
renders Mr.. Hamilton to the sorry tri-
umph Of the conventional release from
the fell clutch Of circumstance.
Doubtless Hamilton" will find con
tinucd life in the heat which this tale
of sectional differences, even OF so
many wears ago, may invite into being.
The time is Washington's first admin
istration, that precarious moment when
preme but dizzY heights OF new free
dom. There are, it may be SAID, a
number of parallels in the play-con-
scious or not--between that early time
and to-day; and throughout an appeal
to patriotism, which rebounds to the
credit of the authors as compared with
the somewhat blatant patriotism OF
most drama of these autumnal FIX
weeks. Hamilton is at his home m
Philadelphia, trying with diihculty 10
have Congress pass a bill which Will
make the nation. instead or the states,
responsible for the debts of the several
commonwealth. Against him is ar
rayed all the power of antl-federailsm.
Washington is even called traitor
seeking to be king. Hamilton barriers
with Jefferson and Monroe to put the
Capitol in the South in return for their
support. But the opposition is not
through. Hamilton is drawn into the
net OF intrigue with a woman and
caught fairly. When he is accused OF
using the moneys Of his office for pri-
vate ends he reveals his shame, pub
fishes il abroad in the papers, rather
than lose this long step toward ma
tional unity he has tried so long 70
make the nation take. VI COURSE, IH0
bravest Of his foes capitulate, and the
last curtain brings back "Disraeli"-,,
this time General Washington-instead
of Victoria's approach-heralded oy
guard of soldiers.
IA a matter of fact, Mr.. Arliss has
not wholly shaken of the Prime Min
ister. He shines through at times
especially in that epigrammatic manner
which is possibly Mr.. Arliss more than
any OF the figures the. re makes. As
10 whether he is in any part Hamilton
NAV be left for the historical societies
to discuss. ,
The acting is generally excellent
Miss Jeanne Eagsls has gone an men
fairly beyond the ingenue state, and
energies as a siren, none too sturdy IN
her wickedness, but pleasant and DELI
cate addition TO the picture. she does
indeed, add to it touch Of the mezzo-
tint. .. a.. 81
though the Exchange Coffee House IN
philadelphia, where the plot is hatcned
does likewise have more the quality OIL
a work of art than of nature.
Wasn't it Baudelaire who said tna'
-1WV a