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Show THE ORPHEUM. Nothing could so lllustrato tho strides which vaudeville and. moro particularly tho Orphoum. 1r making mak-ing In Its hid for popular and deservedly de-servedly popular approval than the bill which opened last night. Five ves, even two years ago tho presentation present-ation of such a bill would have seemed bordering on tho impossible It suroly is a far cry from the vaudeville vaude-ville once synonymous for the "song and dance" to such a production as "Tho Romance of the Underworld, ' the head line attraction Hats off to tho powers that be In the Orpheum management who have ability and In trepltude to put on for the delectation of Orpheum audiences a production of such pretensions, anu tfils fifty mln-ute mln-ute playlet onlv one act on a bill which comprises five other numbers. "A Romance of the Underworld" In thr main glv-s a view of criminal court proceedure- The basis being an Innocent man sentenced to" larceny, who naturally has a sweetheart. A young lawyer takes up the case and bv fortuitous circumstances secures a now trial, having unearthed evidence that tho prisoner was convlctod through tho machinations of a district boss, also In love with tho girl The picturing of the court scene and the city prison Is naturally grotesque and the slang used is not always understood under-stood bv the audience, but tho story is none the less vivid on that account and the types are all well drawn and well played. Romance, not the sort most ot us arc familiar with, is shown. Society as a whole docs not recognize tho people hero portrayed, nor dees It recognize the existence of even such a class. Therein lies the atrength of IL It Is well that we should strive after the Ideal In our dally lives and oquallv fitting that wo should have the nice things the beautiful pictured pic-tured for us on the Bt9gc, but such sordid peonle and tragedies as are inoi with In "The Romance of tho Underworld" Under-world" help us to realize what tho Ideal really Is. The panorama Is true to the life which It depicts, although the audience laBt evening found considerable con-siderable humor In lines where no humor was intended. A police re- porter or an officer In, tho audience would sec nothing exaggerated or fantastical fan-tastical in the numerous incidents which come before the Judgo to decide upon, but rather a page torn out of the book of their dally life The young lawyer (Leonard D Holllster) Is charming In his portrayal, and the reporter, re-porter, played by Frank H. Bixby, is a faithful " likeness. R. J Move, a quarrelsome Irishman, Is excellent lu his part, as is Miss Very Batcheller as tho girl. The balance of the company com-pany handle their roles In a most effective ef-fective manner It Is strictly one of the best things over put on an Orpheum Or-pheum stngo and well deserves tho title "Tho biggest thing in vaudeville vaude-ville " The rest of the bill Is somewhat overshadowed by tho stupendousness of the hoadllner, and yet not deservedly deserved-ly so. Individually they aro meritorious meritori-ous and would stand out well were It not for the fact that the audience is naturally keyed up for tho big act. Perhaps the Avon comedy four. In "The New School Teacher," scored most heavily of any of the other turns Thoy create great merriment in their "school day" stunt, but it Is their molodious voices which bring tho most applause In their quartette numbers they do not rely on tho familiar fa-miliar molodles usually heard In such offorts, but have some real new songs In which their -.olecs blend most harmoniously. har-moniously. Loa Durbyello does some clever shadowgraphy and creates consider able amusement with some of her pictures on the screen The three Hlckoy brothers do a little lit-tle dancing and some very clever acrobatic ac-robatic tumbling. It Is really remarkable remark-able the number of hard knocks thov deal out to each other with no apparent ap-parent Injury They are all rather quiet fellows, but they don't need to do any talking. Their act speaks for itself. Mindol Kingston, with John W. World, sings two very tuneful songs and wears a "sparkles" cloak which Is novql It would seem as if they were capnble of bottor things It a more suitable vohlclo were provided. The International Polo teams provide something distinctly now In their game playod while mounted on bicycles bi-cycles All tho manipulation of tho ball Is done by roboundlng it from the wheels and tho gamo grows quite exciting ex-citing through tho oxpertness of tho performers. It was a capacity house which, witnessed wit-nessed the initial perr rmance last evening and It is probable that the "S O." sign will- b In evidence the next two tonight and Saturday matinee. |