New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-04-10
Nemesis 'nCet You
If You Don't Watch
Out, Says Corrigan
By Harriette Underhill


dialogue, the smart gowns, the acting
of some of the members Of the cast,
the chance to see Ethel Winthrop on
the stage, the beauty of Marie Golf
and Olive Tell and the lovemaking of
Pedro dc Cordoba. What we didn't like
was the -bloodedness of the villain
and the untimely death OF che hero.
Aye, there's the rub!" We learned
later that MIR. de Cordoba wasn't the
hero at all-that he was the villain
and by acknowledging our error we, of
course, put ourself in a class with
the character in the play who said:
Tell me again the sad story of that
poor Mrs. Potiphar and Joseph"
But in justification of our attitude
in regard to the play, let us say that
there were plenty of people who felt
Just as we did that first night, in
GLIDING our Aunt Elizabeth, con-
ventional and God-fearing woman, who
has, however. seen every play that has
been produced for the last forty years.
She said she thought it was awful to
put the hero in the electric chair and
let him remain there while they turned
on the current, and all the women in
row II were on the qui vive waiting
for that last-minute pardon to arrive.
1t was only after we talked to En-
NETT Corrigan that we learned we were
wrong. 81 don't think that the critics
scratched below the surface" he said.
They missed the true meaning Of the
play
But don't you think" we ventured,
timidly, that play should be so clear
hat even a critic could understand it?
t is just another triangle play, isn't
it?-only the hero, the heroine and the
villain are not as noble and as weak
and as wicked as the usual hero,
heroine and villain. Now, you, the viii
lain, had lot of good qualities which
one doesn't expect in a villain. Your
greatest fault was that you were dull.
The next worst thing that could be
said about you was that you murdered
Jour wife"
Il am not the villain in this play"
said Mr.. Oorrigan, and we thought he
was going to be angry with US, but he
only laughed. "Jovaine, the sculptor, is
the villain,"
Mr. de Cordoba? ~ we said, incredu-
lcusly. But he is such candid, fasci-
mating person in the play, and he
couldn't help it if he fell in love with
Mrs. Kallen. 1t wasn't her fault, either
1t was your fault for not keeping her
interested at home. She said that you
read lot of dull magazines which we
won't attempt to name, because no one
IN our house has ever read them, while
she read the Satevepost, the Smart Set
Vanity Fair and Life. Now, if you had
been better Informed she wouldn't have
gone ever to Jovaine."
"But she did, and think that no one
watching the play could feel that fate
had not dealt her winning hand when
killed her. If she had gone to Paris
with Jovaine he would have tired of her
as he did of al the others, and she
would have been in the gutter. Jovaine
was philanderer.''
'But how do you know that? Marcia
seemed to be the love of his life and
there were no Others"
ON the courtroom scene he tells of
the models You know his wife was so
Jealous of them that she left him and
then divorced him, and later killed
herself. He must have been all wrong,
always, this Jovaine."
"Oh, but you know he said that none
of that was true; that his wife had
jealous fancies"
you didn't believe him, did you7 He
said, too, that there was nothing wrong
IN his relations with Mrs. Kallen, but
think no one out in front believed thai
he was anything but thief who stole
into my house and accepted my hospi
tally and took my WIFE"
"Mr. Thomas may have made 1t plail
to all the others, but not to US; we be
lieved everything Jovaine said on tn
witness stand. We still believe tina
such innocent relations are possible, II
plays, and we think that you, we meal
Mr.. Kallen, were altogether too har
on the young people. OF course, it vii
be lesson to them, but it's doubtful
if they will profit by it,
''Well, it was not supposed to be
triangle play, anyhow. 1t is q story o
circumstantial evidence and of hov
simple it Is to furnish the most con
elusive proof of guilt when a person 1.
innocent. Even the fngerprints ca
!. easily be planted, as you saw"
eyes, but we knew that severa
months ago, because, like the heroine
or the villainess, or whatever she is
we read the Satevepost, and there wa
story in that about two counterfeit
ers who framed cop by getting hi
firgerprints in wax and then havin
rubber stamps made of them. And
then, We like the story of the triangl
better than the one of the finger prints
You see, we always did prefer geometr,
to physics. If you are so nice and at
tractive in the first act, and you are
why should you be so horrible in tn,
other acts? When we see Mr.. Thoma
we intend to tell him how to improv,
his play. 1t needs happy ending"
Here We half expected Mr.. Corrigal
to say scornfully, as Carol McComa