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Show 111 With the First-Fighter B lr i iflli II I I Ml jlmj "ZIRA." B I Mj 1 ; I The latest unpleasantness, "Zira," a rosurree- Hhi ffJl ! tIpn of "Tne Naw Magdalen," with the scene of Hi ilf oil I the prologue laid In South Africa during the Boer i? ill ' 1 k war to bring Ifc within reach of the modern public, 1 iff I I J a was the damp and dreary offering brought us by I!M i ! MIss nIn wno aftor an absence of several H I 1 III If months returned as a star. H I I Ijl L Thirty yearn ago, when the mothers of some of Hi H III ft V us were at that particular age when the emotional H 5 J lii U I f drama appeals strongest, Wilkie Collins' "New Bji ' gll ft I Magdalen" kept the tear ducts busy once or twice IB Ir ! i I ' eac soason and now it is upholstered for the sue Vi II t I 08edInS generation "by J. Hartley Manners and III! I II Henry Miller" and "founded on certain incl- HI I JS dents in a novel by the late Wilkie Collins." Hi 1 1 I I suppose that all of us have a right to drama. Bi' 1 1(3! J I ' tIzG anything we're a mind to, but In the trade HI ! I II i ' and SQems to be a tTaae of late) of revamping Bjj I l tg j What the others have done, there Is room for dis- Bi, f 11 ' cretion, even if there is nothing new under the H 'Ijl j I ; Really it seems as though the enterprising au HE ,'J i I thors of the present day cannot construct an emo- B i tional drama unless a woman is ruined before the HE j i J curtain rises, and then they take you through BBI I tjlj 5J JLU many a painful scene and tearful act, to be assured BK'i III lill ' of lastinS happiness about 11:15. And there are HI V lill so many ways of trQating the object of their best Hf HI : gH endeavors, that it is difficult to understand why all IH1I " 1 1 SB i of them treat the lady alike. I w It reminds one of an address made by that I I IlBfj eminent electrical engineer, "Walter C. Kerr, who i I lliBl In speaking of lost opportunities, said: "There 1 1 WB are traditions that Adam, William Toll, and Sir K! ' 1 1 H I nlH i Isaac Newton each had an affair with an apple, W f PI 1 I'll but wIth clIfferont results." HB j j J P "Zira" Is a drama In a prologue and an epilogue. MM " I M The program did not announce that fact, but after mak Aj h J the exchange of apparel in the Boer camp when BHh j' Hester Trent begins her journey to England, the HfT SSI H solution of that which is to follow is so plain that H'i mi I 1 tne reasonmK is no effort for anyone. F' jfflg I Miss Anglin as the central figure in the evolv- H Mk I ( Ing of this drama is artistic she Is always that Hf B $ I and she has all of the power that caused us to Hf fl 1 wonder at "Mrs. Dane's Defense," but Miss Anglin BB m IB; has grown stouter, and in the growing something B H 8 B' nas t)0Qn lost" Some of tno expressions of her iii face, something of her daintiness, a general indls- igj 1 i crlbable something, the lack of which causos a re ill semblance (it Is hard to say) to Blanche Walsh j! ! Particularly is this so in "Zira," which calls for a I I paper white face, though not necessarily such an BJB g if 1 i unbecoming style of coiffurQ. wXfc 1 if 1 But niy in maite-uP not jn art des ,ne com B 1 8 t ' !8 parlson hold with Miss Walsh, for Margaret Anglin HlJli Hi is a great actrQWI' nnd "Zira," is apparently just IHlfli ,m an experiment, for "Zira" is neither great nor in- iK 19 ill teresting HI Kfl 'ill Frank Worthing was the same worried intense Hf H km Iover as of old' but Eawara BmQry ag Captain Syl- bV9 'Jifl vester was decidedly a new conceit, and he played Hulfl iH the part admirably. His work is marvelously clev- HBH H er, and his personality is of that fortunate variety IHfjiB ' H which asserts itself as soon as he appears. But RflBllBI ' H for llim ana dear ol(1 Mrs Whlffen there would 1HH 9 ' llRve been 1Ittle occasion to smile through the lKtfil! Hf three acts which constituted the epilogue. I Hi ! T. BBIthHI tifli ' u n w. |