Morris’s Multon—The Reign of Fashion—The Rain of Sympathy—The Reine of Emotion.
In the course of the act of the old maid, who pretends to hate children, gives a Christmas part to a score of poor boys and girls, and the sight of their happy faces decides Miss Mutton to accept the situation for the sake of being near her own little ones. That children’s party alone would give a send off to any piece, and redeem the worst act of “Sandy Bar.” The sight of the little chaps dancing, eating, grabbing, pulling the string for a wooden jumping Jack, and having a jolly good times in earnest, started the dry pumps in many a head and brought into active requisition the mouchoir of many a powerful dame. As for Matilda Heron and me—well, Tilly rose in her bombazine and waved her handkerchief like a crazy woman, and I settled down to the pleasurable contemplation of a spirited race between eves and nose. In this act Miss [Clara] Morris displayed a head of superb gray hair, much regulated feeling, and a pair of peculiar shoes, over which her too short skirt declined to down.
From this time on it was cry, cry, cry. When the curtain disclosed the motherless children (Bijou Heron as the daughter and Mabel Leon as the boy) with their venerable tutor (Mr. John Parselle) fast asleep, like a second Thiers, in his easy [Illegible], a conversation ensued in which the clever boy, the solicitous girl and the tender-hearted tutor participated—sober, minor and confidential on the most sensitive of topics, a dead mother’s love on earth, and place in heaven—it was “cries all round.” Mrs. Sheridan Shook forgot the house and the people and cried to her heart’s content. Matilda Heron lived again in Bijou and alternated between waves of emotion and waves of handkerchief.
“Miss Multon” at the Union Square Theatre—Clara Morris as the Heroine.
The two children, played by Bijou Heron and Mabel Leon, made a hit.
Bijou Heron, and little Mabel Leonard, as the two children, are all that need be desired.
The Sun 11/26/1876: 5. Print.