THE CRIMSON PLAYGOER

"Curses on that city slicker! He ain't done right by our little Nell!" cries Hiram Stanley, the honest farmer. It's true he ain't and it looks bad for Nell. But virtue triumphs, and villainous Richard Murgatroyd, alias Handsome Harry, is foiled in his wicked designs on the farmer's daughter by the staunch courage of noble Jack Dalton, a son of the soil, beneath whose flannel shirt beats an honest heart. The old homestead is saved, the dastardly murderer of Alphonso Pettijohn is handcuffed by detective Hawkshaw in the nick of time, pure Nell and honest Jack clasp each other in a tender embrace, and an audience worn out with hissing the villain and cheering the hero leaves the Peabody Playhouse mulling over the pleasant taste of the nineties left by the Stagers' presentation of "Gold in the Hills, or The Dead Sister's Secret," a twentieth century conception of nineteenth century melo-drama.

Varying the action with musical interludes ranging from "Frankie and Johnnie" to "Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage," a clever cast mocks the dramatic genre of two generations ago in a superbly entertaining gem of burlesque. The play contains all the legendary characters of the old-time thriller, from the farmer's daughter to the Bowery tough, and all the legendary lines from the villain's "Curses! Foiled again!" to the heroine's "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." Francis G. Cleveland, Wesley Boynton, Edward Massey, and Sally Fitzpatrick, perfectly attuned to their parts, carry the play to the topmost heights of burlesque. If affords an evening of real fun. Thus far the program at the Peabody Play house has been most successful.