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Show 1 j W&ith the Fir&t-jyighter H ALWAYS "HER OWN WAYTJ' H , j Mrs. Goodwin, Time has been kind to. you in B ,'s passing. Not that you have had a long acquaintance Bj I I ; with the old gentleman of the scythe, my, no, blit B !s he has lead you cleverly on through all the little B parts you played of yore, as sort of a radiant back- B ground for Nat, and suddenly the door of Oppor- H tunlty was opened, and you rushed in. Achieve- B . . ment was there ready and waiting, Father Time, B i L the prince of match-makers, heaved a sigh of re- B j , lief, and there is no one who has seen you two to- B , ' '' gether since; who does not approve of the union. B But this introduction to Achievement was not H all due to Time. Way down in your heart well, B you always had a yearning to go through the magic B door to meet. this exclusive young man, and you B ' have never had a doubt that when you met, you B would instantly rise to all ot his requirements. You B i ( have always felt your art, perhaps you knew as B well two or three years ago, as you do today that B , , nothing but the chance was missing to make the B I! success you have made in the iirst play in which B ! yauiave starred, and without your glorious beau- B ' ty which is the perfection of all that is lovely, for B ' your exquisite manner, your gentle grace, your B perfect naturalness, you would be idolized almost B the same. B Many an Interview has been printed, purporting B ' to have come from you, in which you have stated B . that beauty is not necessarry for ones success as B i an actress, that in fact when one is beginning to j ' try to have a futuro on the boards, It IB sometimes lfl detrimental to be beautiful, because you are the B y charming cynosure of many yes until those eyes B I !-t begin tti see tliat you are a novice juggling with B ie art dramatic and nobody cares to buy the B ' , A ' same picture twice. B j ' But we mustn't forget Mr. Fitch, who is re- B ; sponsible for building a play exactly suited to you, B and who, in this play he has written for you, seems B to have settled down to real life, without the frills B i and exaggerations so usual in his productions. Say B what they please about the passing of Fitch, he B has given us heaps in the past, and this, the best B 1 thing he has ever done, from the standpoint of B ( , real life, is a morsel sweet enough for anyone. B j To be the least bit slangey, and begging your B J PTdon for the same, I think it was Louis Mann, B 1,, who nonchalantly stated in reference to the cen- B Is ter of the dough-nut or pretzel or some such deli- B ! , caoy, "that there was nothing to it." B j t There's nothing to It with all who saw you, B j,' and you may have your own way any -time you B ''M .favor us with another of your delightful visits. B 1f And now, a minute for the fdlks who came B J !,!. "along. None of them, with perhaps the B ''V .'jexceptlon of Fanny Addison Pitt,. who played the B fl;j tJaricature, could be improved upon, and first of B i . , i all, Bella for mine. Bella, the hairdresser, Qeorgie B i Lawrence when the curtain drops, and every inch B ;i and every minute she is on the stage, a hit. There B 1 1 ' is more humor in the convulsive lines of this sat- B y.jii lsfactory lady than in those that Fitch has put fl Tj ! into the mouth of any other single character he B H 11 has ever created. And the way she says them B II is half the story. B n This for instance: B J 1 This is just the time of the year to buy Chrlst- B mas presents; you can get such bargains. If B 1 there's one thing nicer'n anything else to get B jj ,1 cheap It's Christmas presents. Now, here's an ele- BB 31 I gant pair of scissors for mother marked down Bj 1 because of a flaw In the steel, but she's near- HB j( I sighted, anyhow, and doesn't want to use them B ' I it's just to feel she has another pair. Scissors B J " I Is mother's fad sort of born In her, for mother's H j I mother was sort of a dressmaker. She didn't have B ! i "Robes and Mantucks" over the door she was H 1 too swell for that; she went out by the day. And H i ' here's a real Louis inkstand, only 30 cents, and hasn't a thing the matter with it so long as you don't see the others. If you see the others you'll observe a naked lady missing from the top, which I'm glad of, anyhow, as I'm going to give it to a gentleman. And, again, this when dressing Georgianna's (Maxine Elliott's) hair: "I doTi't know," she observes, "as you're the jealous kind. Judging trom your hair you ain't. It usually goes with blonde or red, and what I dislike dis-like about red hair is the freckles. You can almost al-most count on 'em. You've got sort of trusting hair. Besides, Mr. Coleman, your sweetheart, wasn't a floor walker, like my Mr. Gootch, in the store where there were a hundred lady clerks. I think that's apt to make a gentleman flightier, and him being bald, so to speak, had me at a disadvantage. dis-advantage. I can't judge by my customary signs." Here's something else that is lovely. In speaking speak-ing of her disabled, lover she says: He is much bettor. They're keeping his position posi-tion for him at Snipley, Crawford & Snipley's, though it Is terribly humiliating to be a floor walker walk-er with a wooden leg. But I've seen a perfectly beautiful false limb in a window on 23rd street that you couldn't tell trom the real even has a stocking and a garter painted on it. I'm going to give it to Mr. Gootch for my wedding present." The man deserving the most credit, in a part that Is as real as it is dramatic, is Mr. Carew, who plays Sam Coast.. Charley Cherry's Lieut. Coleman Cole-man was beautifully done, and R. C. Herz as Steven Carley did 'Sowe hard work well. Hard work, because it is harder to be silent and look like he was supposed to feel, than to be the whole thing in the center or the stage with a part as long as the Harriman lines. But everyone was good, better or best from the cunningest youngster, up to you, exquisite Maxine, and thank the Lord and Fitch, there was nothing of the morbid or unhealthful in the play, and nothing to throw off a sort of cyanogen which has the odor of the blossoms of the peach, but which is rank and poisonous. T. G. .t 8 . |