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Show ill! I tOith the Firt JHghters. Ng )E THAT "BURGOMASTER." Bi i Bi i i B :MIji It is easy to stand for the second company, i iiBl ; I after a dramatic production lias made a hit on i 9 : ' f Broadway, where hits count, but when the theater-I theater-I l;ii going mob chokes a playhouse in anticipation of IN' a feast, and is served with such a mess as that H fi headed by Oscar Figman, whoever he may be, it I ij ' is the limit. It might have been easier to swal-I swal-I i1 I; W low had it never been produced here before, but I i: II there was no way out of making a comparison I ii1 . witn last year's company, to the great detriment I 8' II of the hiShbinders who tried t0 Juesle some fun I i1 1 ! i 1 1 out of the performance. Theater-goers in this t f ' I ' I x town could run a most successful ferry, they've I I I I been double-crossed so often with the musical I & 1 1 1 i productions which are well liked one season, and I i 1 1 come back the next with a third rate bunch of il; ', stormers. ij i Ruth White was as clever a Willie as any one 1 1 would wish to see, and thoroughly charming in Ij I ' i everything she did. And Charles Sharp's "Doodle" 1, was full of humor, but for the rest back to the i j i t quaken asps forever. Htf' 11! And once more, did you see the gush in the H I IJ I dailies? It is hard to see how they can be so H I iS 1 unfair to their subscribers. l 5 i & t Hi y f; fl r "The Prince of Pilsen" this afternoon and to- H '' ' I night, and then the curtain down for a week, with !, 1 1 nothing doing. r & & & f : ! "PLAYS THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN." 'j Mr. Clyde Fitch's "Love On the L." i I That rapid-fire writer of sizzling thrillers, ) Clyde Fitch, has given the world his latest effort, ; J I ji "Love on the 'L,' " with Susan Sourmugge as star. ! Ill ij ... The orchestra played "Hiawatha" ac- j;fl ceptably between the acts. ' I "Love on the 'L " it is needless to say, is a j I melodrama, with a fine old flavor of blood and 'HI f 1 cry of the downtrod. Electrical sensations fairly I rlJyil whizz through the three tense acts that show I j ' i i I K Clyde Fitch to have profitably deserted the patri-B' patri-B' t f l! clans for the virile proletariat. i f$jH The action of the play opens in a, sensational fll scene on a downtown "L" station A. lot of people ;II)j 1 waiting for the train, including a short-skirled H !" 11 b soubietie, who always seems to be wandering i ji 1 about a melodrama in decollete looking for a Hill 1 1, I i chance to sing a waltz song, arc grouped on the I Ml I platform. But this is real realism, when com- fi 1. pared with the awful anachronism, the strange, ji i l unfamiliar traits that Clyde Fitch has given the If I ticket-chopper at the "L" station. This person- jrhf 'II. age actually remained awake during the first act, B y 1 1 i and the audience gasped at that unfamiliar sight. m j i t 1 1 The action of the plot now commences and the B L it h 1 strange conduct is explained iv Us course. He is llli'J a detective! He listens while everybody talks B 1' I H 1 missing will. Ill J Iii IT IS TH0R0XJGHLY UP T0 DATE. jlfhi! 1 Ij) A train looms in sight and Harold Hardface, B I'llll' wv tIie vlan approaches hurriedly, and attempts to B 1JI my throw a "missing will" into the ticket box that Ilril'S' ' may e destroyei lay being chopped to pieces. Hlf lini' Promptly foiled by the detective-chopper, the vil- 1, Jf! I lain grasps the will and rushes aboard the start- i A 1 ng ran Qckly loosening his steel watchchain, i 'lll Ij " Jack Sterling drops it deftly on the third rail, Wz ( l f I short circuits it, and as the train bursts into flame 9y f the villain, with a Kromer "ha-ha!" dashes down 1 ' f f! I a Belasco of scenery. Hj If j "Foiled!" snarls the villain from a distance 1 t9 "but by whom?" H HJj,! "By OW Slouch, the detective!" comes the B - Mfl;'i ringing answer. Wmi fr Ml Tne second act is Iald on an "L" train bound mWS ,u r If for tn0 Bronx, with the detective, the will and Mill ' ' the persecuted heroine aboard. Then comes the pretty idyllic dourtship, uninterrupted except by a comical train guard, who finds time to sing a little song with the chorus: Don't you swear and state The trainman should be in the Other Place, When the little gate Just closes in your face. The heroine and hero in their conversation discover that they both like the same brand of breakfast food, and find their same 'canons of art in the same series of lithographed car advertisements. ad-vertisements. After such proofs of affinity, their troth is quickly plighted. " AGAIN! The villain, rushing past them on a swift express, ex-press, tries to wreck- their train, is promptly foiled, .and, as he hurries to the Bronx to get ready for the last act, his query comes back on the breeze. "Foiled! But by whom?" "By Old Slouch, the detective!" is the ringing reply. The final act is on an "L" station In the Bronx, where the shameless villain confronts the lovers and seeks to have the detective arrested for being be-ing a bribe-taking walking delegate of the Oyster Shuckers' union. Foiled, he gains possession of the will, which meanwhile has been left around for that purpose, and which he tries again to destroy by throwing it down on the third rail. Seeing that it is everything but lawyer-proof he rushes down to make another attempt and gets his deserts. As the third rail sizzles merrily and the gallery gods cheer, the faint whisper comes from below: "Foiled, but by whom?" "By Old Slouch, the detective!" New 'York Telegraph. & & Sarah Truax, who has many friends in this city, made her debut in Elizabeth, N. J., last week, in the role created by Viola Allen in "The Eternal City." Miss Truax made a great success. fc$ fcjv lJ Dorothy Scott, a pretty San Francisco heiress, . is the latest recruit to the company which will support Nat C. Goodwin in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," says an eastern theatrical journal. Miss Scott, who is a relative of the late Irving H Scott dean of shipbuilders of the Pacific coast I is 1G years of age. She was an undergraduate I of the fashionable Mills college last spring when I Mr. Goodwin visited San Francisco. The comedian I heard her sing and recite at an amateur musicale H and offered her an engagement In his company. I Miss Scott's parents objected to a stage ca- reer, but tears on the part of the young woman and compliments from the comedian prevailed, and an extended contract was signed, by the terms of which Miss Scott will be seen for several sea-cons sea-cons with the Goodwin company. A French governess, an English chaperone and a German maid will accompany the young woman on her tour with "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Anyway, she says they will. t?V fcyV (J Two great concerts are being planned by the Orpheus club for this winter, and eastern talent is being communicated with. The new officers for the coming winter are Fred Bennett, president; Mr. Halm, vice president; J, W. Curtis, secretary; Mr. Munger, treasurer, and Mr. Zulich and Dr. Ebaugh, directors. & t & SNAKE ENDS CONTRACT. Miss Ina Goldsmith of Mrs. Langtry's company com-pany will not accompany that actress to South America next spring. Miss Goldsmith loves travel, is a fluent French scholar, and has some knowledge knowl-edge of Portuguese and Spanish. All these things argue special fitness for an engagement in the Andes district. A rooted aversion to serpents Is the reason assigned by the actress for declining to go to South America. A picture of the Buenos Ayres theater, in which Mrs. Langtry will play, was shown to Miss Goldsmith yesterday. Colled over the proscenium arch was a robust python, some twenty odd feet in length. 1 When Mr. Alward exhibited the picture to Miss Goldsmith she promptly canceled her contract con-tract to appear with Mrs. Langtry in any part of the world where such monsters infest the playhouses. play-houses. iit & & Of the many thousands who have been entranced en-tranced by Mme. Nordica's superb voice and great art, in her appearance in grand opera and at important im-portant musical festivals during -the past few years in this country, few know of the early struggles and triumphs and the gradual but steady growth of her fame with the causes that led up to it. Her first engagement, when still a young girl, was in the choir of the First Church, Boston. The following year she was engaged to sing at Dr. Putnam's church with tho highest salary ever yet paid for a choir position. A little later she appeared ap-peared as soloist with Gilmores' band, New York, then in the zenith of its success and subsequently she made a tour of America with this organization, organiza-tion, and another through England. Those tours provided means for her operatic training, and after aft-er many brilliant triumphs on the continent Mme. Nordica made her first appearance in opera in Boston Bos-ton as Marguerite. Her real American debut was with Henry E. Abbey company at the Metropoli- tan Opera House, New York. Nearly every sea- son since she has sung the great dramatic roles , in German, Italian and French operas in New York, Bost6n, Chicago and as far west as the Pacific Pa-cific coast besides important appearances as so- , loist with the leading symphony orchestras and at ' Important musical festivals, but never before has she been heard In recital as she will be this sea- I son. Loudon G. Charlton, who is her exclusive M manager, announces a trans-continental tour 1 which will cover 80 to 100 recitals which promise I to be a series of ovations to the great American I singer. |