Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1908 — Commencement at St. Joseph's [ARTICLE]

Commencement at St. Joseph's

The Commencement Exercises which will be held in the College "Auditorium, Wednesday morning, June 17, will be fittingly introduced the previous evening by the rendition of Shakespeare’s play Henry IV. The play has been adapted for college presentation, and we are modest in stating that an exceptional treat awaits our patrons and friends. The cast has been 1- chosen with utmost care and severe discrimination from a large number of available material. The character of Falstaff especially, Shakespears master creation of the comic, the embodiment’ of wit, wisdom and folly, is in the hands of the competent actor, Mr. Ott Muehlenbrink, who leaped into prominence on his very first appearance before the footlights. Henry IV is a play that appeals to all classes of people, intellectually to the cultured and, perhaps in a higher degree, in its comic scenes to everybody. The opportunity to witness a Shakespearian play does not present itself often and Shakespeare, when rendered well, even by amateurs, never fails to be interesting . and instructive. A cordial invitation, therefore, is extended to all. The play opens at 8:00 o’clock P. M., Tuesday, June 16th. Admission 25 cents. It appears Just now that the patrons of the Garrick theatre and everybody else in Chicago who enjoys something new and novel in the way of a musical entertainment are likely to find an agreeable surprise at this theatre. “The Flower of the Ranch,” which is described as a musical comedy In three acts is being offered there nightly-* with the usual matinees. The company recently closed a successful engagement at the Majectlc Theatre, New York. Miss Mabel Barrison who leads the company and Joseph L. Howard who wrote the book, lyrics and music, and plays the principal male part, awoke one morning to find themselves famous and learned through the morning papers that “The Flower of the Ranch” was “the one real big musical comedy hit” of the current theatrical season. Had this play been produced on Broadway earlier in the season and had the benefit of a cast of principals whose names are familiar eyerywhere; had the book been wiitten by the most renowned playwright and the lyrics

by Cook or Rankin, or the music by one of the three American composers whose names are best known, its success could not have been more pronounced. If the .crjtics are to be believed, Mr. Howard has written a book that might have been played as a comedy drama without the music and been successful; but it Is to tbe musln that the measure of praise has been fullest. The play which is a musical comedy in three acts, tells the story of the love of a girl who has grown to young womanhood as the adopted daughter of a cattleman, her mother having been killed in the wreck of a stage coach from which the child was a survivor. Among the foothills of Southern California, she has romped and ridden among the rough but kind hearted people of that region. She has fallen in love i with Jack Farnum, the owner of a ; nearby ranch, whose possessions have been coveted by an unscrupulous sheriff. The latter aided by a Mexican contrives to steal certain documents in an attempt to betray his associate. Little Flower aids in recovering proofs of ownership to the property and eventually turns out to be the owner herself.