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Fields enjoyed Broun's review; he clipped it out and saved it, but he was especially soothed by the remarks in the Tribune, which found fault with much of the proceedings. "Poppy was rather a dull show last night except when W. C. Fields, the tramp juggler, was operating, which was a good deal of the time," the paper's critic felt. "Its infirmities included another sappy Cinderella story, two or three humdrum hick comedians, and a lot of nondescript tunes, all of them appropriate for late dancing. But its tiresome elements were insufficient to overcome Mr. Fields' infectious good humor; and the entertainment is to be set down as laughable though tedious."
Fields considered that the Tribune man, in his lead paragraph, had struck just about the right note of critical inquiry. Some days later, however, comparing Broun's rhapsody with the Tribune3 s peevish complaint, he began to wonder about the validity of critics in general. It was typical of Fields that, although the critics had been unanimously kind to him, he still could find flaws in their deportment. "Why the hell should these fellows think for the public?" he demanded of a colleague. "They can't even agree among themselves."
The Tribune review continued with details of the comedian's performance, saying, "Mr. Fields represented an unctuous faker, ransacking the Connecticut country fairs of a hundred years ago, accompanied by his lovely and honest daughter. While she ( Miss Madge Kennedy) did songs and dancing, her father supplied the yokels with magic herbs and balsams. Also, he allowed them to speculate with him in the shell game and other devices, greatly to the distress of his virtuous offspring. The eloquence of the oldtime mountebank is a rich and comic language, much funnier than that of today's promoter of oil stocks; and Miss Dorothy Donnelly, the librettist, has furnished Mr. Fields with many of its most priceless phrases. Incidental to the proceedings, Mr. Fields
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