The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-01-24
HOME TALENT AT THE FRONT.

JOhn IL. LOnaS, the poet OF Navarro,
has sent us for review and criticism a
drama, entitled ''She's Over the Sea-"
Mr.. Lonas is going to have this play
copyrighted and will then sell it to any
first class theatrical manager, who is will
ing to pay first class price for first
class product. In private letter to the
editor Mr.. Lonas says:
If this is suitable please correct (criti-
cise) it and publish it. IT, from my ideas
in prose, you will dramatize il and pub
lish it will give you fifty cents. 1t is
copyrighted, do not leave out any verses
if you can help it; rather not have some
of them rhyme than leave them out, or
not have them right Qdeas expressed
right. 1t was not intended for play
at first, but changed it. Take it home
some evening, look over it. By reading
the prose part carefully you can easily
see what | mean by it. II you are crowd
ed in your paper, why just publish it on
a one leaf supplement, and If it lis sale.
able afterwards will give you one tenth
of all | get for it.
JOHN b. LoNAs.
The first chapter of the drama contains
40 verses of diadamit meter and heyde-
guy rhythm. 1t is rather hiCcoughy in
the last verse, which is in the hexameter
style of Homer, but some of the spondees
arelrather too spondyle, or back-boney
to sell well with the giddy and thought
less, who are the principal patrons of
our modern drama. Hence we don't
consider it good policy or acute business
principles to print the whole drama for
one-tenth of the profits. Mr.. Lonas is
not lawyer, but only poet Of nature
and the emotions, therefore he does not
see the legal aspect in which he would
be cast should we print his drama in
full. We would violate his copyright
and be liable for heavy damages. We
have already learned, in several libel
suits, that good lawyers come high, and
we shall only print few snatches OF
verse from Mr.. Lonas's drama, to give
our readers a taste of its flavor. These
lines were evidently written while She
was over the Sea, as when she crossed
back over three thousand miles of brine,
an intimate contact with the poet, who
wrote while the frost was on the pump
kins about Navarro, would have robbed
his verses of their celery tenderness and
asparagus aCidity.
Mr.. Lonas' heroine is Miss Della Vane,
and the ship in which she came over was
called the Dove. The sea was very rough
coming over, and Miss Della threw up
everything she had except her steerage
passage, 50 she landed IN New York in
the hospital department. Here we quote
from the Drama:
Down to the shore | went,
To meet my lady love.
TO the hospital she's been sent,
Says the captain Of the Dove,
But, seeing me; she bid me come:
And at her bedside sit
took her hand, I'm now at home,
How swift the time did fit!
Our trip was terrible said she;
The thunders roared the lghtnngs flashed,
Against the ship the waters dashed;
spewed quart into the sea.
Since am here, although unwell;
trust there's hope for me-
But If I'm in this world to dwell.
May die on land, MT on the seal
But Mr.. Lonas does not allow his hero
| Inc to die. She gets well speedily and
then marries a man, poor but respectable,
| and lives to ripe maturity, and some
eight or ten urchins rise up and call
Della ma.
Mr.. Lonas' drama is somewhat defec-
| tive in details. 1t is the skillfully worked
| up details that give such wierd fasci-
nation to Washington Irving's "Tales of
the Alhambra." The same is true of the
Mother Goose melodies. For instance,
| after Mr.. Lonas' heroine came over the
sea, and death seemed to mantle her
| damask and adamatine cheek, no ac-
| count is given of the remedies that re-
stored her from the gaunt goneness of
that awful ocean voyage to the pink
meatiness of her former rotundity, and to
her adorable John.
Every modern drama has also mer-
cenary side. Here the poet of Navarro
could have utilized the advertising col
umns Of the NEws-DEMoCRAT to financial
advantage. What did Delly Vane take to
restore her to speedy health and fully re-
| Quilted love. A glance at our advertising
pages would have suggested the remedies.
'Paine's Celery Compound" "Tutts
Liver Pills." Hoods Sarsapa-
rilla," Manhood Restored" ayers
Specifics, " "Dr. Williams Pink Pills for
Pale People," "Little Liver Pellets"
"Dr. Allcock's Porous Plasters," Halls
Drastic Cathartics;" Railways Ready
Worms" "Shiloh's Vitalizer, ""Amanda
patent and all pervading remedies, with
out which our modern life would be
scarcely worth the living.
There is another weakness in Mr.,
Lonas' drama, which we fear will fail to
realize us the promised so cents.
1t closes in domestic peace, and not in
startling situations, broken bones and
| blood letting violence. Hence it would
not sell we'll. Domestic peace is entirely
| out of fashion in the modern drama.
| Mr. Lonas is not built for the drama:
but he is admirably fitted for a reporter
on boiler plate organ. He has talent,
but it is OF the surface soil that produces
the early cabbage plants, the succulent
early salads and the spring violets.
Let him seek a congenial field as writer
on some seven.days-a-week for ten-Cents
daily, in some valley like the Mimi
shillen.