Plot of Deutscher Verein Play

For its tenth annual performance the Deutscher Verein has selected a comedy entitled "Der Steckbrief: ein Lustspiel in drei Aufzuegen," by Roderick Benedix. The scene of the play is laid in a German village on the Rhine.

The plot of the comedy centres about the receipt by the village chief of police of a warrant--"Steckbrief"--calling for the arrest of a spy who is supposed to be hiding in the village. The description of the spy is given in the most general terms, and the ambitious chief of police mistakes every new arrival for the man he is to arrest. Two travelling salesmen and a doctor are held as suspects pending the arrival of the police commissioner, who is summoned from a neighboring town. All three succeed, finally, in proving their innocence, much to the discomfiture of the village chief. It turns out that he himself had been seen by some one wandering about the fortifications and that the warrant--"Steckbrief"--was intended to apply to him.

Strenge, the chief of police, has a sister, a widow, and a pretty niece, both of them looking for suitable husbands. Ripphard, the wealthiest man of the village, who has been courting the widow, transfers his affections to the wealthier and prettier niece, using the power of his money to force her uncle, the chief of police, to consent. Naturally enough the wilful and pretty niece falls in love with one of the three suspects, the widow bestows her affection on another, and a pretty mix-up ensues.

The play shows the petty German bureaucracy at its best--or worst--and in so far as it illustrates the officiousness and ignorance of some of the less important public servants of the German empire, points a valuable lesson.

There will be two public performances, the first at Brattle Hall, Cambridge, on the evening of March 15, and the second at Potter Hall, Boston, on March 16. Tickets for either performance at $1.50 and $1, may be had at Koehler's, 129A Tremont street, and at the Co-operative, or may be obtained from G. Cheney, 27 Holyoke street.