The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-10-14
HENRY ARTHUR JONES.
A SUCCESSFUL ENGLISH PLAYWRIGHT
NOW IN NEW YORK.
His Work Is Reid in Very High Reputs
in England. and One of bis Plays Is
America.
Especial Correspondence.


NEW YORK, Sept. 2S.-There have come
| to New York recently two or three OF the
most famous playwrights of Great Britain.
| Perhaps the chief of all the modern play
! wrights is Mr. Henry Arthur Jones. vino
| has thought it worth while to come TO
America so that he may see one OF as plays
staged and satisfactorily produced There
| will be good deal of dispute about Mr.
Jones' rank IS a playwright, for there are
many who do not like his methods, and
there are others who find serious fault
with his subjects Yet, in Great Britain
Mr.. Jones is esteemed the most successful
of the more serious writers OF plays, and
his plays have certainly made the fame,
and to some extent the fortune. of one of
the most talented of the younger English
actors, Mr.. E. S. Willard
Since Mr.. Jones has been in New York
he has lived a rather retired life, yet his
society has been sought, not only by those
who are prominent in social circles, but
also by the best of the literary men and
women in the city. Therefore, he is a
celebrity, although his personality is little
known. While his play, The Dancing
Girl, was in rehearsal at one OF the thea
tiers Mr.. Jones was as patient, as tireless
and as thorough in the work of rehearsing
as though he were an inconspicuous stage
manager instead of the most fortunate Of
modern English playwrights
There has been some disposition in New
York to match Mr. Jones plays with those
Of l,,f ofo
think seriously of making any comparison
between these two writer's Last winter
they tried to create an I5sen craze both in
New York and Boston. 1t seemed for
awhile as though possibly it might sue
coed in Boston, but the failure of the at
tempt in New York was immediate Pub
fishers say that Ibsen's plays in book form
have had quite a large sale, and that those
who have read them, and who at the same
time have seen some of them played, as
sert that they are much more delightful
in the reading than the acting. That is
because lbsen's plays are all talk.
Encouraged by the success of the Ibsen
publications, a publishing house has
brought out in very nice style, in clear
type, broad margins, flexible bindings and
heavy paper, Mr.. Jones play of Saints
and Sinners" and, strange to say, the sale
of it has been exceedingly good. 1t makes
a very interesting story, and the wonder is
that play which reads so well in covers
should have proved SO strong when it was
acted in England. 1t was not strong when
played in this country, although it was
produced in one of the finest theaters in |
New York, under the eye of the ablest di- |
rector of dramatic amusements we have |
ever had here, with exquisite stage setting |
and scenery, and with Mr.. Willard himself |
in the chief character part; yet it was not a |
great success, and people wondered why
play which held the English boards so
many months and brought thousands of |
dollars into Mr.. Wizards and Mr. Jones'
purses should have had such scant success
here. Those who read the play may say
that the very thing which makes it at
traCtive in the reading is the cause of its
failure as play in America
Mr.. Jones has had hard work to win his
present great repute. He is now about
fifty years of age, and is just beginning to
realize upon his expenditure of energy, his
his trials and his disappoint-
nents. He began to write plays when he
was not much more than twenty-one years
If age. Like Bronson Howard, he had
5runkful before any of them were accepted.
His first success came after he had been
some fifteen years struggling for it, and he
hen experienced the truth of the saying
If Alexander Dumas that the writing of
plays Is either feast or a famine for him
who does it. 1t was a famine for a long
line for Mr.. Jones, but now the days of
casting have come.
His best known plays are Saints and
sinners" Judah" The Middleman"
md The Dancing Girl" and they are ali
Dlays of contempOraneous life in Great
Britain. Americans are apt to think that
us sentiment is mawkish and false and
lis humor is not very humorous TO the
,eople of the United States, but his situa-
ions are strong, and his plays contain
ealthy moral lessons and almost all deal,
0 some extent, with problems of the day.
Mr.. Jones has made money rapidly since
e won his first success. He is reported TO
e worth now nearly 100000. and ne is
the management of a Lon
on theater as we'll as buying an interest |
q a theater in New York. These ventures
7ill either add greatly to mis- fortune or
lse will strip him of that which he now
as.
Few authors have become successful
managers. Mr.. Harrigan has made good
cal OF money in his double venture and q
sw years ago young man who was writ
lg funny paragraphs for n Boston news
aper wrote funny play. and has since
rtten half a dozen more. In ten years :
lese plays have brought him half a mil E
on dollars. and he has now become the :
roprie,or OF the beautiful Madison Square
NJ ! 2
OF write the kind Of fsrces which Charles ,
|. Hoyt does. If be did he could safely
ecome an authOr-manager of an Ameri-
iu theaJer Z. j. EDWARDS c