The sun., 1918-10-22
|TRUEPATHOS MARKS
DOWNING 10 NIGHTS
Daughter Drags Chief Souse
Away Just as Barkeep
"Sets EN- Up:
18th STREET THRILLED
Star Of Castles Version of Old
Theme Shivers in Pink
Elephant Scene.

| Down at the corner In Gilligan's we'll
known Place Of Business, jammed amid
| the crowd between acts against the talk
! alive side of the mahogany bar. seemed
! TO the volunteer critic who went 10 the
Fourteenth Street Theatre last night to
review Robert Downing's performance
OF Ten Nights In Barroom" as good a
thought of the evangelistic potentlalities
OF the play.
| Corse Payton, who had come down TO
Fourteenth street to see his brother
artist Bob Downing play the leading
souse. was not so sure at the end OF the
first act that the ethical theme of tho
| play was correct Standing in Gilligan's,
| however. during the long wait between
| the third and fourth acts--five years are
supposed TO elapse between Act III. and
| Act IF.---Mr. Payton haS arrived at the
point where, between sobs. he declared
that Novelist Arthur and Playwright
Castle hadn't made the horrors OF Ticker
terrible enough.
Mr.. Gillignn Is Cnconvinccd.
But Larry. the head barkeep in Gill;
gan's. and the Hon. Mr.. Gilligan himself
| were consistently Arm in their opinion,
| first, last and always. that throughout
| the play the arguments advanced, against
the hard stun were overdrawn. And SO
! the arguments OF those who had wit
| messed the great reformation play zig
tagged all over Gilligan's until Larry
threw them all out at closing time this
morning.
Overlooking for the moment the knotty
| question az to whether or not Ten
Nights in a Bar Room will ever reach
Broadway and financial success. the i'm
portant fact stands out that in the very
| first act of the play IL a line which,
studied in connection with the dramatic
situation OF which II is logical out
growth. Is the most sadly beautiful ex-
ample Of aesthetic pathos that has been
shot from the human brain since Dick
ens's day.
Tho line. like all great art. is sim
| plcity Itself. and II achieves It's great
/ and heartrendinR effect because little
| Nary Morgan. who pronounces II, lays
great stress on the final word NOW"
Father. dear father. come home with
! me nor,' weers little Mary And thus
the little daughter Of the chief stew Of
the cast drags old Joe Moroon away
from the ginmill ut the very moment
the barkeep OF the play 's about TO set
'em up all around on the house.
\ lesser artist than Playwright Jim
Castle-who evolved the dramatic YER
| sion being presented this week in Four
tenth street BY Bob Downing-would
have had little Md-r try to get old Joe
of the sawdust ana brass raj, while Joe
vas setting himself back the price of n
drink. But not the little Ndrp OF the
Castle version. Mary yanks the old man
out TO meet the air Just when Simon
SI1de, the barkeep. was in the act OF
buying.
As against this aesthetic master stroke
in the handling. OF the always difficult
element OF pathos somebody or other
fell right down on his foolish face when
! Il came to connecting the lines and
business attending the great alcoholic
fsht later on, In this big scene realism
went by the board with 800 resoundirg
a crash that for moment II looked as
II the play never would see second