“What Happened to Jones."

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 36, 12 February 1901, Page 3

“What Happened to Jones."

What really did happen to Jones is a question which has been troubling a large section of the public for many weeks past, and on Saturday night, at tho Theatre Boyal, when Mr Charles Arnold makes his bow oiice more to us as the pushing American bagman with wares of piquant contrast, hymn books and playing cards, he will doubtless explain all tho complications. “What Happened to Jones ” was an enormous success in London, where Mr Arnold and.his company ran the hilarious comedy for 340 nights at the Strand Theatre';,,'it likewise reaped a bountiful harvest in South Africa, where it was frequently played until martial law, and has .done just as well in Australia, tortured -with anxiety over the appeal clause in the Commonwealth Bill and the advent of the bubonic rat. The farce comedy is suggested by a study of the worries of Mr Jones, a Y T ankee traveller, who foists himself upon a hapless family for reasons that are amply sufficient excuse in roaring farco. He practically takes possession of the family hostess, and the boss, and kisses the women (of which latter commodity there is an unusually large assortment), and has things entirely on his own while it lasts, even to the extent of subjugating so tremendous an ecclesiastic as the Bishop of Ballarat, in whose official togs the card hawker happens to be . masquerading. Nevertheless, “ Jones ’’ is conspicuous over all other farce comedies in the absence of anything approaching coarseness in word, situation, or suggestion. A young lady .of the present day can not only take her mother, but her grandmother, to see “What Happened to Jones,” without raising a blush upon the cheeks of the old folks. Yet with all its absence of double entendre, it is one of the most irresistibly mirth - making plays ever produced. Everybody will be more than delighted to welcome back Mr Charles Arnold to Gisborne; he has always been a particular favorite here, and that everybody wishes him a most successful season goes without saying. The bos plan is at Miller’s.