Show F r Optimists vs us Pessimists I By FRANKLIN FRAN KLIN FYLES New York April 28 8 jOSEPH and James H Hj JOSEPH j Stoddart were not superfluous lag ag aggers gers on the stage The public was wan glad to have them them stay StaN there as long Ions longas as they the could and until they were older I think than any other American actor than John W V Jennings who is now in Annie Russells Rus eUs company I once asked Jefferson if It he be tired of ot The Rivals and Rip Van Winkle and why he ho resort to lo a new nev play I shant be tired of Bob Acres or Rip till Ull my audiences are he replied and they will be my last Jast roles for I am too old to riSk a failure In a new on onE When hen Stoddart was for The Bonnie Ronnie Briar Bush Bu he 1 I Iam am too old to study new parts This one must last me out ont Neither of or those rare old gentlemen of o othe the stage survivors of days and excusable e if they had been in ha their views was wad a condemner cond mner of the modern changes chan es in their profession Good old Mrs G H Gilbert the only equal of Jefferson in inthe Inthe Inthe the affections of people who go to the theatres theatres atres spoke admiringly within a few I weeks of lien her death of the new ne ways wa s that had come into stagecraft But I Fanny Janauschek never neVer misad miS d a 3 chance in her het later years ears to berate the j I I innovatory methods and Helena Hel na Mod Modjeska Modi Modjeska i jeska has denounced what hat she declares Is i dramatic degeneracy j So there stand three old optimists optimist against agai St two old oid pessimists and you dont have to bother other to make up your mind as a to I which are right You may prefer to seek theatrical diversion without prejudices prejudices being glad when you get it to your liking sorry when you dont and never much agitated in either case ease Minnie Maddern Fiske does the best stage work that Is dose dORe in the modern method by any American player ex excepting excepting Richard Mansfield and I as assume assume sume fUme that before quitting her theatre for a tour she had bad a hand in the prep preparation preparation of The Proud Laird which is introduced there this week The char characters characters characters look and talk exactly a they the ought to their surroundings are right in every detail and the illusion of real reality realIty ity it raised at the beginning is main maintained maintained I tamed to the end The of Skye are proud to live in their own castle of ot on j own island of and so poor that nut nf p th t 1 root roof nor rags from f Islands s clan The thousand and eleventh anniversary of or orthe the history is celebrated with bagpipes playing peasants cheering the lard laird 12 rd making a grandiloquent ad dress atM ami his mother posing queenly in ina ina a throne chair and next ne t day comes a furious rainfall which drips through the ceiling of ot that same hall ball forming pools on the floor and the ladies of yes yesterdays function now hold up their skirts as they the tiptoe to dinner From the broad broa 1 brogue of the Scotchman to their bare knees and from the bagpipes lpes that are actually played by the actor who carries them lo 10 the rainstorm that is wet as well as noisy the production is as careful as that which Mrs Mra Fiske made of Leah But The Proud Laird is no such play playas as the other Its satire of the Scotch trait of ot canny thrift Is well wen set forth in the impoverished scheme to marry the young laird to sn au American heiress but the authors have I been leste Ie s effective In every other re ra respect respect The title might well be Mooch Ado as the mothers method of bringing her son and the girl to the altar by b privately telling each that the other is pining with unrequited I ed ad love Is the same that matched Benedick and Beatrice I That makes the newer neer composition I seem seeni all the poorer by comparison Likewise the Hamilton and Cartwright CartrIght Cart formulation of the play looks nil all the clumsier along with the Fiske fine pres presentation presentation That freak of fun Frank Daniels has as a new play from London Sergeant I Brue and a new curtain speech of his own native make to go so with it The I speech wanders with wild metaphors from high mountains to deep seas from froin fields of lilies to gilded halls until finally finall it gets somehow or other to the little acorns from which great oaks grow whereupon Daniels gives a cry c cof of delight at seeing his way tray out HP Ht Hohas has not only been worried as a to where his hid hl similes will carry him to but has cast apprehensive glances as usual at atan atan atan an Imaginary director who vho from the wing warns him to stop He has told us of this mans behavior under the el eloquence eloquence elOquence from the time Urne of putting ice iceon i Iceon e eon on his head to a final fainting fit fitAll fitAll All of ot that is very silly and so would seem the plot of Sergeant Brue Bruc if told In words of sanity hut but b t in action it makes as funny a libretto as any of these irresponsible musical farces has had It comes from a London rounder known as Jimmy Davis when he I gives suppers and as Owen Hall when lIe he writes wilten pieces such as Florodora and The Girl from rom Kays especially to give suitable comic parts to Willie That formerly American com corn comedian comedian edian edlan one of oil the early earl Hoyt actors in inA inA inA A Bunch of Keys U came here to show how he had made London laugh at hl lila phrenologist t In Florodora FIb rod ora but we like him well enough to get him i instead of Sam Bernard for f r the bound bounder er in The Girl from Kays nor to want him rather than Frank Daniels D niels for the cockney policeman in Sergeant Brue This bobby is a worthy worthY but and timid officer on the London police force whose hos most Suc Successful luc service has bas been ben to lift his hand in a signal sigal to stop traffic on the Strand at congested congest times t It I Is thus that he betokens his hidden by of a pedestrian I no e alluring l ring than th n Blanche lanche Ring In Inthe inthe the guise of a mercenary yet merry noblewoman By a comic opera kind h ind indof of will trill wi Brue inherits a fortune if It he indicates indicate his worthiness bl b earning the place of an Inspector After A ter falling in inmany inmany many attempts to distinguish himself himsel he hires two crooks to let him arrest arret them in his titled bedroom with Wih her connivance He hides under her her couch conch to be ready But she giver given givel I Ithe I the alarm too to soon and Brue himself Is hauled out by b other policemen He re i trieves himself however however by holding a a baccarat party art In his own house and L I Ithen then raiding It I as a gambling hell hel That seems a strange story for Liza Lehmann of In a Persian Garden and Daisy Dais Chain fame to set to mu music music music sic Well Wel she has expressed L Lin in tunes her contempt for it Mrs Irs Her Herbert Herbert Herbert bert Bedford Beford as that talented musician I i is when among her friends in the fash fashionable I society of ot London and Rome let herself down to the requisite t light melody of ot musical farce For the j bost best of or verses however and they the are extremely clever she has written L blithely music A merry m tune tutu i gives point pint to the ballad of three crooks 3 who ho sIng for the tho the Janet jailer to put me m me In i it I Imy my little cell They are freely wan wandering wanderIng dering dening In society two of or It I as an at I army officer and a 0 clergyman and one om serving it as a waiter waler But they tey look forward with wih pleasure to being locked up again where they will wil feel so at home the warden will wi call cn me just as you rou used to do and they can know what they have ha e for breakfast without the bother of ordering it T hat is sung in the calm languid manner of the late Dan Daly Day and when the three men mep dance lockstep It is with the same smooth weary wear grace gace It t is the song hit of the piece although Daniels and Blanche Ring have have supplied themselves with wih ditties pf of a popular lO ular sort Daniels funniest advises the audience never to tobe tobe tobe be born brn on a 3 Friday and tells of IsIs his mishaps through having haying made that mistake arid and excuses excuses himself with wih i j Id Pd not not have been born on Friday i If I have stayed at home 9 1 Blanche Ring got into Broadway fa a a vor von from the Bowery Bower by singing mini inimitably it ly The Good God Old Summer Time and arul ard stayed there with Bedalla Upon her he reentrance after after two years ab absence absence absence sence sence she tries ties to repeat those tri triumphs triumphs tn She nearly nerl does doe it it too with another Ia called ce My Irish Molly Moly 0 O helped by a a string stig of at chorus girls that tat winds its it way in and out and round roud about about without entangling Itself with a a string ot 01 chorus boys bo s sim aim meandering The other song hit hi the peculiarly After two verses VelSe the sneered among themselves at what a mere the tune was Then out came cae the breezy bree Blanche Blancne and sang saS their their own criticism to them theta in a a stanza in iu which she said she would tell tel in the chorus where the theair theair theair air came from and she did It by sing ing leg to almost the same annie notes the re of the uie new non ballad balad a composite waltz Walt song os with wih old Annie onie Rooney Rooney Two Littre Girls in Blue lu and The Good Old Tune Time Co dovetailed In It was a case cas of putting Into practice Robert Hitchins famous advice Reg Beg gle gie wa wa nois very ver frank frnk When he be witty he often told the naked truth and truth without its is clothes on frequently passes for epigram epig Charles H Hoyt had a knack of ot finding in obscure places place exactly kack the kind of q actors he needed neede for his farces farce Frank Daniels who had been an in inconspicuous Inconspicuous conspicuous negro n O minstrel mistel was wa selection for the rural sporting m in 11 KA A Rag Baby the fellow who ho was proud to grasp the hand band that had grasped the hand of John ohn L L Sul livan Ihn Hoyt had the peculiarity rare among muong the people of the stage of lack ing lag confidence in his bis work work His method of making maIng a a play was wa to first write It i out roughly send a company compan on a tour of towns with wih It alter It it aler daily daU until he got it into a satisfactory condition and then t en bring it into New York but never until then no matter mater if he spent a n whole season on the road rad which therefore was a hard one for the actors to travel His farces seldom failed under this slow process So everyone concerned in one of them felt sure of oil its is success S by the time tem its it travel felt and travail brought it at last to Broad Broadway way wayver everyone one but Hoyt himself His HisS courage usually failed on the day of S the opening and he tried to brace it alcoholically but pouring spirits down downS send his spirits spirit up and during S the he first performance he paced the lob n y confiding to his friends sometimes even e ven to newspaper critics his dIs Us faction action facton f with his chief chIe actors a a a aIn j I In the te case of or Frank Daniels Daniel and A AS I Rag Ra Baby Bab he struck his finger S through t a buttonhole of of my coat and I put p ut his lips Ups confidentially close to my myar ear e ar earI q I 1 told em so he whispered with tipsy t tears In his voice I told em so and his face was wa a a study of woe I The play was doing doIng well however and and next day I met Hoyt and Daniels in i n Broadway Their faces face were ra diant d The author introduced the actor ator r slapped lapped s him admiringly on the back and a aI nd exclaimed with wih laughter aughter this time timeS in I n his still sti tipsy voice I say saY ay S Id rd I d told em so What he r y had i told old t them them I find out I Iry A S a a a My Ml ry account of The Freedom of Su Suzanne Suzanne SuS zanne anne z last Sunday lacked the foot of or S Suzanne and as a the foot was bare It was too a novely novelty to belt bel out The play play was brought out before an audience so late in the week that I c wait but went vent to a dress re h At the end of the piece after Suzanne Suzane has tired tred of or grass widowhood and a nd returned home to her husband at S midnight she puts not her hand in his but her foot as a token of fond recon reconciliation c In the rehearsal that that was wa no nomore nomore more nore than indicated in the action acton but in I n the full tul performance It Is the thing most and I feel I ought to tomake tomake tomake make the difference clear cear to you ou In the previous act the divorced two have ha e emet met accidentally at a 1 summer hotel where the woman finds out through that she wants to get tile the man mun back bak so she impulsively chases chaes him and a girl companion to London in an anau automobile au When we see her next in ini i she Is a funny funn figure in inthe Inthe the t he getup of of a chauffeur with wih the skirt of her dinner gown fastened up under the coat and her shins in i n view vie below She and he warm up to each other on champagne but one of or I her feet remains cold because it has ha be by b rain rain He removes the shoe sho and stocking and she rests her bare foot in his hand Oh you OU tickle she exclaims but when he lets go KO she says not that it is unpleasant and puts her foot back in i n his hand i i Now the author of the play is Cosmo and the actress is Marie arle Tempest He knew that she had shapely little feet and it is reasonable to suppose that he was glad gla of them but notwithstanding that he is the cousin of an n English duke dul some of us are ae in doubt as to the good taste of his dramatizing one of those feet for public exhibition However there is no un uncertainty Uncertainty Uncertainty certainty as to the business value of the exposure It I makes the fashionable I town talk about the play and the the theatre theatre atre is filled filed by people whose carriages tle line Une Broadway as a on A a grand gandop op opera ra a night Marie Tempest is a neat actress and her feat fet with her foot f ot is nicely done don But the assistant actor Allen Alen Aynesworth from London is to be pitied so r I think for the te service he has to render He cant like to do that sort of thing before folks Uc The text compels him to discover that hat her feet et are nrc wet He offers ofer to strip and dry them She demurs at first for they are no longer lo r husband and wife but at husbad length consents consent He removes one shoe she pulls off of the thi th silken hose hose and the audience focuses its glasses the he glasse on foot which is left on 01 view long enough for fora a critical examination The foot i J good but is the feat teat t C 0 By putting her boldest if it not her herbest herbest best foot forward Marie Tempest gets get a long step ahead of of her countrywoman man Hilda HIda It chances that Marie and Hilda Hida are simultaneously im impersonating impersonating personating giddy wives wies The one that Hilda Hida stands for in The Firm of Cun Cua Cunningham Cunningha the new nev comedy by Willis I Steel Is less courageous than the theother other She is making a n collection coleton of boys j but desire to exhibit her young lovers loyers and she Is delighted when Jo Joseph Joseph Joseph seph Choate hushes up up the scandal and forestalls a divorce When I say sy that the advising lawyer Is our former am ambassador ambassador at the court of or St James I repeat what the theatre manager maager said beforehand that the diplomatic friend would be bein In the writing and in the act actIng acta lag Ing a study of Mr Choate The simi similarity larity discernible And while the lawyer in the play |