Life — March 6, 1913 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

Turning the Kaleidoscope AKING May Irwin's measure is no small matter, speaking of course of the play- wright who has to fit her with a play. Cath- = etine Chisholm Cushing has succeeded admirably with “Widow by Proxy” in giving her lines and situations ex- actly adapted to bringing out her powers of cheering up the despond- ent and planting laughs where there were no laughs before. To be sure the piece is a farce, and has crudities, even for farce, but it serves its pur- pose mighty well. It keeps the star in evidence practically all the time, which is equivalent to saying that the audience is kept in an almost continuous gale of laughter. Her singing is made a very subordinate feature, which will be lamented by those who re- member her superiority in this line to the coon chanteuses who have come into notice since she first set the pace. “Widow by Proxy” will be found an amusing farce, and May Irwin remains personally and artistically the most ex- pert and finished dispenser of wholesome, clean mirth among the women on the stage to-day, oe ne rt F making crook plays there is no end, but Mr. Daniel D. Carter in writing “The Master Mind” has struck rather a new idea. His hero is a master of crooks and ci ploys them and their methods, but not for gain. Revenge is his motive, and not since “Monte Cristo” have we had a play with revenge so elaborated. Picture yourself having searched a long time for a girl you had fallen in love with at first sight, only to find her in a luxurious home, with a staid father and mother and de- voted brother, but reciprocating your affection and becoming your wife. Then when all seemed bliss you caught her ap- parently eloping with a thicf who, with her assistance, had robbed you, and at the same time were made aware that the whole thing was a “plant” and that father was a bank “JT ISN’T AS COMFORTABLE AS IT LOOKS robber, mother engaged in the white slave business, and brother a prison graduate. These are some of the things that happened to the district attorney who had sent the brother of the mysterious Andrew to the electric chai which have a tendency to keep those who go to sce “The Master Mind” from falling asleep in their chairs. Mr, Edmund Breese is the star of this absorbing melo- drama and makes the part of the avenger effective in a fine old-fashioned, stagey way. His poses and pauses take us back a generation or so in the art of acting, but the charac- ter he depicts is entirely outside the pale of ordinary hu- manity, so this doesn't matter. The rest of the company is competent to handle the material supplied. If you check your sense of probability at the door you will find “The Master Mind” giving you an evening full of Bg ew Erbe a HE BRIDAL PATH” may still occupy the stage of the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre when this notice appears, but it will not be on account of its technical merits as a pl: i “COME IN” comicbooks.com —s-