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THE WASHINGTON TBIES; MONDAY; SEPTEMBER"10: 1917.

E ARLISS in "ALEXANDER

NOW AT THE

NE NATIONAL THEATER

GEORGE ARLISS

A Great and Serious Actor in a Most Important Play

One of America's Great Men and Statesmen

Written Into a Play of High Dramatic Power

HAILTON"

The story of a marvelous

life, a tragic death,

entwined with the his

tory of this nation, its

Constitution, its great

George Washington.

"When the publication of this page

announcement was ordered by A. L. Er

langer, of Klaw & Erlanger, Mr. Erlanger

was asked, "What shall we say about this

play in the advertisement?" Here is the

reply:

By A. L. Erlanger

Tell the public something about the

able actor, not too much, the public knows

him.

Print boldly the picture of the great

actor who is your star. Show the world

the face of the man who is to interpret the

character of Hamilton.

Then, as forcefully as you cam-tell

about ALEXANDER HAMILTON, the

American giant whom Arliss brings to life

and puts before the public on the stage to

day a great service in education.

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Alexander Hamilton, with the help

of fate, chose his parents wisely. His

father was a Scotchman; his mother was

a French Huguenot.

He was vain of his ancestry, called his

country place "The Grange," bragged of

his blood, and through aristocratic vanity

fought the duel in which he was killed.

The harmless ancestral vanity of

Hamilton was useful to his country. It

made him think himself superior, allied

with greatness and established power. His

counsel gave to the country what it

needed, the staying hand of conservatism.

Guizot the historian said that Hamil

ton put into the Constitution of the United

States ORDER, FORCE, and DURA

TION. Others have said that he tried to

make it too cast-iron in the effort to

govern after his death.

Good fortune put Hamilton to work

as a boy of fourteen. Luckily for the

young man he began to do his thinking

earlv instead of letting teachers do it for

him'until he got out of the thinking habit

The result was proved when he took

charge of the accounting house that em

ployed him with success when he was only

fourteen years old.

He got education and information in

the right way, and did not imagine that

an accounting room man should study

only business. He read history, philos

ophy, and poetry, and THOUGHT as

he read.

Fortune was always with him to the

last, when foolishness in spite of fortune

killed him.

He earned the friendship of Hugh

Knox, a clergyman, who gave him educa

tion without charge. Then having learn

ed something about life and the pa,st he

went into King's College for a while.

At eighteen he was an able writer

and a great orator.

And Hamilton knew the most im

portant thing for a young man to ob

See the Great

The story that underlies

America's power. This

play combines marvel

ous acting, intense dra

matic interest with

highest educational

value.

serve, study, and associatewith superior

men. Because he k'new'tJiatj'HugrTKhox

educated him. - '

And because he knew tht, George

Washington made him his private secre

' tary: Thafdoes not happen to'Jyouhgrrien

who. make pool rooms tHeir specialty.

Hamilton studying, working to the

hour of his premature death, had his hand

in everything; in war, a brave fighter and

capable commander.

And in politics and statesmanship a

.great leader.

He taught this country in its baby

hood that a nation cannot have thirteen

different heads. There must be one head,

and the head must do the thinking, plan-

ning, and ordering.

We are getting a one-headed govern

ment in this country, and freeing ourselves

-from the .notion that the United States

should travel in forty-eight different direc-

tions at once, and we owe it to the early'

work of Alexander Hamilton, whose char

acter and power Arliss portrays so mar

velously in his great play.

Strange are the follies of the human

mind. And strange the endings of many

great men of a Napoleon, landed on St.

Helena by excessive ambition, or an Alex

ander Hamilton, killed in a foolish duel

through excessive vanity.

Hamilton, who refused the office of

Chief Justice of the United States because

he did not look for honor, but preferred

hard work, could not resist the' invitation

of the blackguard Aaron Burr, who chal

lenged Hamilton to a duel, because he

wanted to kill him and get rid of him.

Poor Hamilton, who had boasted of

his blood "as proud and high as that of

any," thought that he must prove his

aristocracy by allowing himself to be

butchered like a dog.

And a hundred and fifteen years ago,

at Weehawken, across the Hudson river

from New York, he stood up and allowed

himself to be murdered by Aaron Burr's

first shot.

That is the story of a wonderful life

a mere bare outline. It is the story that

George Arliss presents NOW to the public

at the New National Theater in Wash

ington. Full of power, intense interest, dra

matic force, this play interpreted by a pro

found actor should be seen by every in

telligent American.

Add as an interesting touch, that

Hamilton left behind him four boys and

four girls and a widow, who died at the

age of ninety-seven, and wore mourning

for fifty years. A rare widow, a powerful

woman. Let us hope that her blood has

been handed down with Hamilton's, by

some of those eight children, and that

some of that blood is fighting for this

country in France now, more usefully than

poor Hamilton, stirred by vanity and fool

ish convention, fought the Weehawken

fight of more than a century ago.

Actor, George

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6ELOR6E ARLIgtSl-A1 ALiEX ATS-PSFL MAM I LTglST

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George Arliss As Himself

Arliss, in "Alexander Hamilton"

Study the face of

Arb'ss in real life

then study the face

of the actor-student

above. Marvelous

the power that com

mands the inner

mind. It enables a

great artist to live

and BE the character

that he represents.

r ... r .

Jeanne Eagels As The Intriguing Woman

Now at the New

National Theater

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