Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1901 — McVicker’s Theatre. [ARTICLE]

McVicker’s Theatre.

“Lovers’ Lane,” the summer attraction at McVicker's Theatre, Chicago, has proved itself as delightful a play as its name indicates. All of the charm of idyllic country town life is revealed in the piece. It smells of the fragrant blossoms of spring and shows pictures of orchards in the bloom of May and again when October has changed the green to browns and yellows and rich red apples hang in profusion from the branches of the trees. Under the shade of these trees a drama is enacted in which delicious comedy follows heart-touching pathos in such quick succession laughter echoes the sound of sobs. The play is brimful of quaint characters and the situations are, many of them, side splitting in their power if producing mirth. One of the most charming ’personages of recent dramatic literature is Simplicity Johnson, the charity girl whom Mr. Singleton, the minister, befriends and watches over. Simplicity, or Simple, as the reverend gentleman calls her, is a little waif of 11 years and her sorrows and joys fill the hearts of those who see her. Her simple pathos when she finds the minister, whom she adores and hopes to marry when “she is big,” has given his heart to Miss Larkin,* the art student from New York, is one of the sweetest touches in the play. Simple loves to play with the boys; she climbs trees; she is not averse to a game of marbles; and in other ways she shocks the j prim prudery of Miss Mealy, the I village school mistress. She is I Baid to be the “most punished! child in school” and this is true, for though Simplicity will not lie nor steal and always takes the part of the weak, she likes to see a good fight and she is always independent and ready with her tongue to answer her teacher. But she has stanch friends in the minister and Miss Larkin and they see her through her troubles. Mr. Wm. A. Brady has given “Lovers Lane” a fine production and the company is one of the best which has come to the west in several seasons.