Evening star., 1931-12-19
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the Booklorer

| Rool," Is q ramShackle French hotel
famous for Its cuisine. The first six
scenes are partly comedy; the last l
tragedy. The personages are all Eng
! lish except the waiter, Gustave, aged
so, the key character, and an Ameri
canized Jugoslavian violinist. The frs
six scenes are In various parts OF tn,
hotel; the last Is on the roof. Dowr
in the restaurant two drunken English.
men are making young Reggie Tanning
abroad with a bear leader" a little
| more drunk than he is already anc
| tormentlng GuStave, who reproves then
! 1or the corruption OF Reggie. In retalia.
ton, Brlce sets a train from a bottle
OF paraftin to Gustaves hat in thu
walters room, just off the restaurant
| and then goes off drunkenly and for.
| gets it. On this practical joke of 6
| drunken man hinges the action of the
| Whole play. From the paraffin train G
flre starts, which rapidly spreads through
the old hotel. Gustave sends for the
fremen (pompiers) and then goes from
room TO room warning the guests anc
herding them to the roof.
|
Scenes 3-6 Of THE Roof" are in thu
! various bed rooms. The elderly Beeton.
are in their twin beds, mildly uuarreling
while Mrs. Beeton reads and Mr.. Beetor
| at her behest gets up at intervals tt
| Kill mosquitoes. At the alarm they
gather up their belongings, including
tooth brushes and sponges, and mount
to the roof. The Lennox family are
IN two rooms; the two children, Diana
and Byrn, in one, having a pillow fight;
their father, novelist, in the other
obviously dying of heart trouble, while
a nurse attends him and his wife tries
unsuccessfully to conceal her terrible
anxiety At the alarm the nurse anC
Gustave attempt to help Lennox to the
roof, but he slumps down, dead, as they
enter the corridor. In another room arc
young woman and her lover, debating
whether they shall make their adven-
ture permanent, which will involve much
trouble, as the young woman is mar
rled. They reach the roof quickly
hardly taking the fire seriously at first
| Also Brice and Baker, now beginning tc
be sober; Reggie Tanning and his bear
leader" Maj. Moulteney, and Froba, the
violinist, meet on the roof. Assembled
there, all behave as their characters
! make inevitable, but it is only SLOWLY
that they all begin to realize that the
situation is serious and every moment
| growing more so.
X
The last scene Of The Roof" displays
all the characters under stress. The
| flames spread and can be seen issuing
| from the windows below Smoke pours
| hn fr-ny VI fn
has been left open. Still the firomen
do not arrive on the roof with the
| chutes for rescue Faced with the dan
ger OF death. the two lovers decide that
If they escape they will go through any
trouble to marry. The Beetons forget
their own danger in trying to comfort
Mrs. Lennox and her children. Froba
| plays his muted violin. Suddenly it is
discovered that Gustave is missing. He
! has gone back after the body of LennoX
because Mrs. Lennox Historically re-
fuses to stay on the roof. deserting her
dead husband. There is a tense mo-
| ment while the men volunteer to &c
back for Gustave Then Brice. who has
started the fire, pushes the others aside
and says: To he'll with youl This is
my shoot and disappears headlong
down the trap. The firemen at last
arrive and, one by one. all are taken
down from the roof in the chutes. Be
fore the last men leave they debate the
chance of saving Gustave and Brice
down below where the flames are seeth-
ing. Then the smoke clears from the
open trap for moment and Brice
thrusts Gustave. limp and in faint
up through the opening. He is graspcd
by the firemen and in the same instant
Brice reels and slips back down the
trap steps. The firemen look down the
trap but are driven back by a rush of
flames and smoke. AS they go down the
chute. the last TO leave, the flames burst
out and envelop the roof. Brice stag
gers from the trap and climbs to the
parapet. crying: Christ! I'm done Tor /!
Up-up-up!' then falls down into the
drifting smoke. The keynote of the
play seems to be found in the words of
the nurse TO Froba in the restaurant. in
the first scene: You never know. Mr..
Froba. The soul has a way Of coming
out under pressure"
X X **
As "Tidewater Virginia" served as a
pleasant book comp2 Mon on motor trips
through the Virginia at our doors. s.
may "Tidewater Maryland" answer a
similar need for neighborhing Mary
land. Paul Wilstach has performed a
task which must have been pleasant for
himself and certainly gives delight tC
many lovers of the whole tidewater sec
tion IN writing these two books The
tidewater country of Maryland is usually
understood to include all the land
drained by rivers emptying into the
Chesapeake-thati is, as far as the first
falls OF the rivers, for so far usually
or IL -
the Lord Baltimore country. Here ex-
tensive lands were bestowed by King
Charles upon the first Lord Baltimore.
and In 1884 his first colonists. under
Leonard Calvert, sailed up the Potomac
and settled at St. Mary's. which today
looks as quiet and sleepy as it probably
did IN 1884 Many old manor houses
are described in "Tidewater Maryland
some OF them within easy reach OF
| washington and open to visitors during
garden week in the Spring The
cities Of Baltimore and ANNAPOLIS, CEN
ters OF business and social life in colo
NAL days, are given much attention in
the descriptions. The impulses which
created Baltimore were fundamentally
moral and physical-toleratio and to-
bacco. The forces which thrust her
Forward Qeaving Annapolis in a pleas
aIiI pdCkWaCeT ana the OlQer capital, 81
Mary's, declining toward the extinction
which was her fate) were wheat and
iron from the fast developing hinterland,
which found their outlet to the sea
through her gates, by the prosperity
thrust upon her during the Revolution
when the war had crippled her rivals
and by the seizure of the sea trade by
her peerless clippers
X X
You have preferred to devote your
llie and the treasures of your mind and
aHectlon to one who is my superior
and, far from blaming you. I approve
your action from every point Of view
ana admit you are perfectly right" So
wrote Hans Won Bulow to his wife when
ne discovered her relations with Rich
ara wagner. Whatever acuteness OF
misery or philosophy of indifference
iurked behind these words, the injured
husband agreed to divorce and his wife
became Frau Cosima Wagner. This
story, as well as that OF Wagner's first
wl1e Minna Planer, who was also sacri-
nced, Is told in "The Women in Wag-