Life — September 16, 1897 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The New Season. ERE we are again, Mr. Merryman!” cries the clown, and burls himself into the arena with the same happy ‘Ha, ha!” that has heralded all his previous ap- pearances, And the easy crowd laughs with him, glad to see the same old circus again, always old but ever new, . . . “ T is almost time that Mr. E. H. Sothern demonstrated that he can act. He hasa large and profitable following, who like to see him on the stage. He has a gentlemanly -* LIFE: carriage and utterance, he wears his clothes —modern or other — gracefully, and does nothing to offend the most particular mamma of the most fastidious matinée girl. Also, he is supplied with plays bythe most fashion- able authors, with excellent stage settings and with most able management. All these advantages are of course a handicap to abil- ities which he doubtless possesses, but which he holds in reserve. Perhaps some day he will cut loose and show them. The latest demorstration of his harmless- ness is in a play called ‘*’Change Alley,” dramatized from one of Hogarth’s pictures by the authors of that pretty and harmless play, ‘* Rosemary.” The piece contains a few ‘‘damns "and ‘*my gods,” but they are used in a perfectly conventional manner and will hurt no one. It also has a couple of naughty ladies, but no one knows what they are there for, and they would not be noticed by any one but Anthony Comstock and Captain Chapman. “Change, Alley” calls for a large cast, which is supplied by the management at the Lyceum Theatre with actors and actresses who do their parts well. The settings are also good, too good for a play whose sole object seems to be to work uptoa graphic presentation of one of Hogarth’s pictures of a London street during the excitement con- sequent on what is known in history as the South Sea Bubble. As a warning against any present tendency to over-investment in Klondike securities the play may be valu- able; as a contribution to dramatic litera- ture, or even to contemporary amusement, it is not quite worth the powder to blow it. * * * “ SOUTHERN ROMANCE,” at the Fifth Avenue, is harmless, but it is also idyllic, and has something of the charm THE FIRST APPLICATION OF A TARIFF.