Life — March 1, 1906 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

} If we took only one point of construction at a time to show i| you wherein Direct Peerless 3'°:' Motor Cars absolutely excel every other high-grade American and foreign | car on the market and described that point intelligently ina magazine advertisement, it would take us so many months to enumerate them all that you might never get to the last one. So instead, we ask you to Send for Our 1906 Catalogue strates and explains the Peerless features, and gives you all the points of superiority you could ask. Better still, see thecar, examine it yourself, and compare it with every other car made. Téen you'll Know, To that end, we will gladly send you, with the catalogue,a letter of introduction to the Peerless dealer nearest you. t THE PEERLESS MOTOR CAR CO., 40 Lisbon St., Cleveland, Ohio {il Member A. T. A.M. se! SASS] > fies, (Nestor Gianacli CIGARETTES... are the pioneers of Egyptian Cigarettes—stil! Cc inimitable in their true Oriental delicac ® Also in tins of 50 -and 100. Caro and Boston.) Sold by all Clubs, Hotels and Prominent. Dealers, if unprocurable, worite us. NESTOR CIANACLIS CO., BOSTON, MASS. Upholding Rights of Criticism. RITIC METCALFE'S victory over the [+ Theatrical Trust in New York, where it ‘had attempted to bar him from forty-seven theatres because of his fearless censure of some manifestly inferior productions, is a kind of moral triumph “Tt is true,” says the court in deciding for Metcalfe, “that a theatrical manager owes no duty to the public to give performances, He may even refuse sell tickets to some ap- ly disposing of them to others, providing such discrimination is not on account of r2 put, conceding hin these rights, they cannot be held to excuse lagreements between a number of managers to |the prejudice of an individual or class of indi viduals.” We need the critic, if he is a fi cism does not necessarily involve censure, but it does involve discrimination, and the pub- lic, to which the theatrical enterprise is ad- dressed presumably on its merits, is entitled to the discriminating opinion of a writer who has proved himself a fair guide In these days of musical comedy, ‘some oi which is very excellent and much of which is otherwise, the critic is more than ever a con venience, if not a necessity. In New York and in other large cities correspondingly, where a number of attractions of the same class are plicants, while free color, ete on view, the critic’s service is indispensable to the th ing population of particular taste Mr. fe himself recently summed up the musical comedy situation in a few telling sentences. to the effect that very few produc ing managers are possessed of the discernment to judge a combination of music and humorous text, with the result that the public has had tw endure a long succession of these productions in which cither the score was bad or the bo was stupid, or both together were worse than either, and that when we add to-this that there is rarely born a true comic-opera comedian we have some explanation of the public’s ine ing weariness of the numerous monotonous ¢ tertainments produced under the various names |which have been invented to disguise the same old dose. Even the chorus girl is not wha she used to be, and the pink tights of to-day’s chorus girl often cover up or expose only th: charms of yesterday's chambermaid Certain it is that musical comedy is the the atrical piece de resistance, the mainst the present, and when a good one comes Iwe ought to have something more than bil boards to proclaim the fact to discerning tastes That comic opera is still an agreeable thing when well conceived and well presented, ever in these days of the tired feeling due to too much of the inferior article, is manifest enoug! but the difference between the “good shows and the poor ones is greater than ever. Fair reviews should disclose that difference in mu sical productions and every other kind, for the publi The theatrical business is not run in the interest of the public, but it is a mat ter of considerable importance to the public from more than one standpoint. Incontestably the public has the right either to go or stay away as it pleases, and the right to know w critics think about a performance. That th: courts will protect the fights of both public Jand critic is good to perceive—St. Louis Re- | public nic Or Hui As Of Al ‘Tis Seal Beliex Hea Tha w 1B answer ninor 2.0 ald Tod \ BA knoel 1 An comicbooks.com