Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-18

asperating az Hamilton was. According
to Burr, when men enter q duel 1t Is
taken for granted that both are In
earnest and are going to fire to kill
and 1t wasn't fair of Mr.. Hamilton to
make a martyr of himself and put Burr
eternally in the wrong.
The baroness fools the other con-
spirators and Mr.. Burr fools the baron
ess, or at any rate his violent and
poetical declarations Of love for her
seem prompted less by passion for the
lady than by his hope to use her to
get q passport back to his own country.
But Mr.. Burr Is q bit hard to make
out. He Is clever, dashing, romantic,
sardonic, impudent and imperturbable.
Nobody can tell just what he really
thinks. In these days of historical de-
bunking. of explaining pretty much
everything by economic circumstances
or the traits of ones grandparents,
probably Mr.. Tarkington's story doesn't
throw any very nourishing light on the
character and inner motives of that
curious adventurer who dreamed Of
being Emperor of Mexico and killed
one Of the greatest Americans.
Colonel Satan" is, in short, an old
fashioned romantic melodrama. 1t is
full of Tarkingtonian touches-hiS early
fair for gentlemanly romance in the
manner of Monsieur Beaucaire," a
sort of big brotherly tenderness for
humble nymphs like Zephire and Mile.
Tou-tou, in the play, and the final cur
tain goes down on a bit of that folksy
kindness which the natives of the
corn belt used to think peculiar to
their habitat until inconoclastic moral
lists like Mr.. Mencken and Mr.. Sinclair
Lewis assured them they were all
wrong.
The play Is a bit talky at times, es-
pecially in the scene in which Burr
fairly talks the clothes of the back
of the slightly dumb British conspirator
and exchanges costumes with him. but
1t Ia well acted and makes a pleasant
enough evening for those not too young
still to cherish q liking for sword-play
romance, and especially for those whose
literary memories go back to the early
'90s, and who feel toward Mr.. Tarking-
ton, whether they have ever met him
or not, a. to an old friend.
TN his new comedy, philip Goes
Forth" Mr.. George Kelly consents
to indulge in an evenings interesting
shoptalk about his own job and to give
some fatherly advice to that innumerable
army Of wistful Americans who dream
Of making fame and fortune writing
successful plays. 1t Is inside common
sense from q man who can do" it
to those who can only talk lot about
it, or fancy that II something or other
in their surroundings were different
they, too, could do o play.
To this end he has a nice youngster
break with his contankerous business
man father and 60 to New York to
become o famous writer. Once in the
wilds of Manhattan the boy writes one
terrible piece and meanwhile succeeds,
in spite Of himself, at the business Job
which he takes merely to tide things
over until he does something Of real
emotional significance" He decides
before it Is too late that he wasn't
cut out for play writing; at any rate
that he could just as we'll slog along
at it In his spare time back in his
home town as in Mrs. Ferris Lexington
avenue boarding house, and he goes
back to his fathers factory. And the
father, somewhat Gained down by this
time, confides to his son that he will
give the boy a privilege nobody else has
ever enjoyed, and let him see the first
10 pages Of a play that he, the father,
had written when he was young!
But this story, as such, and Mr..
Kelly's moralizing-which gets just the
least bit insistent after the middle of
the second act-isn't 50 important
part Of the evenings real excitement
and pleasure as the Characterization
and humorous embroidery which ac-
company 1t and the splendid playing on
the part Of everybody concerned.
The first act when the young college