Show I 1 T H 1 UNCLE JOSH TONIGHT Tliomi > ou First Haw 15cm mail Picked Ull ills Great Character of his career Mr At an earlier period Thompson made a business of playing Irish comedy and was accounted very successful in that line He used to travel around doing an Irish act in which his I dancing was one of the most distinctive and especial features While filling an engagement in Pittsburg he was taken down with a severe attack of rheumatism and while confined to his sick room he first conceived the idea of playing a Yankee character of the quiet homely kindone that depended for its effect business The dialo than more upon dialogue result was Josh Whitcomb At first it was the merest sketch not taking minutes more than twenty or twentyfive for its representation and only the is representaton vaguest suggestion of the character in its present state of completed development But it was a success from the start even in its embryonic form for all audiences like a touch of nature when they can get it And even in the original little sketch Uncle Josh was just as happily natural nat-ural as he is in his present threeact play 1mJBut the people wanted more of it as they always do of a good thing and Mr Thompson added to it little by little until 25minute sketch lengthened out to nearly an hour And still the people peo-ple cried for more So slowly and labor lonsly the author and actor for Mr Thompson is both managed to spin out a second act Here was now an hour and a half of innocent fun which delighted de-lighted audiences all over the country But on one point their appetites still remained re-mained unappeased They wanted to see Uncle Josh at his home up in New Hampshire From this came the third act and with it the completion of the play Mr Thompson does not pretend to be a literpry man but for all that he is a practical dramatist and has fitted himself him-self perfectly with a vehicle for the exploiting ex-ploiting of his peculiarities Long may he live to bring us once a year a hint of grasses flowers country landscapes and the atmosphere of the New Hampshire hisfhe |