The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-01-26
TO STAGE THE MARTIN WILL CONTEST.

cushions for few moments, with ner hanos
clasped, then she said, dreamily, as though
recalling old memories: 1.-THE first scene
takes place in Weaverville outside my hus-
bands Office. They are sitting on the We
randa. when the stage from the East comes
in. and the driver begins to tell Mr.. Martin
about the widow who is one OF the passen-
gers, as get out of the stage. When the
action of the play progresses, John Martin
falls in love with me and we are married.
sThere is a good deal of humor in those
early scenes in Weaveryille, and it is what
actually did occur. Two rival hotels face
each other in the main street. One Mr..
O'Connell calls the Miners Rest, and the
other-the Brooklyn Hotel, | think. At
any rate the landladies are at deadly war,
they fight over the pump, the chickens
eggs and half dozen other trif1es. There
is one very amusing scene, when the ex-
Sheriff of Trinity County makes love to
one of the landladies.
"Did he really do it? OF course. The
play is not to be fiction. 1t is all fact.
''As the play goes on the situations be-
come much more tragic. My husband dies,
and before he can be buried I am tele-
graphed for to San Francisco to attend my
baby's sick-bed, and in my absence they
break open my husbands safe, and find
$4,000 gone when / return. The people who
prosecute us and try to hound me and my
baby out of existence are DR.. Drake, man
named Slyme and Mrs. Henry Cartin.
Opening the safe is the beginning OF our
troubles, but much worse is to come"
When asked to reveal the identity OF
the three people assigned to play the role OF
villains Mrs. Martin said that the develop
ment of the play would make their per-
sonality apparent to any one familiar with
the Martin will case. ~ am Mrs. John
Cartin in the play" she said. GA man
named Sleiter, whom I once saved from
trouble, is my sworn ally and friend, and
he often anticipates the schemes laid for
us by our enemies. do not mind saying
that Judge Williams appears also as a
friend all through.
at is when the scene is changed to San
Francisco that the action grows really
tragic. One of the strongest scenes is the
one that occurs between Henry Cartin and
myself at the Palace Hotel-you know he
was always in love with me, from the
time ne met me, anu pIOPOSeu W AhO D0'
fore met his brother. The scene at the
Palace is little like the love scene in
Fedora but ours is not plagiarized at
all. Oh, no! it is taken from life and ex'
plains a great deal of what has been dark
in the will case to outsiders.
at have some splendid lines where tell
him to go back to his own home and to his
own hearth.
Another strong scene is the one in
SIyme's Office, when he and Mrs. Henry
Cartin and Snupp are planning to destroy
me and my child by accusing me of the
murder of my husband, but the great
scene is where Slyme is detected by SleiteI
in the act of opening my husbands tomb
in order to put poison in the corpse, that
may be accused of murder"
When asked what scenes appealed most
to her for acting purposes, Mrs. John Mar
tin replied: "The court scene. 1t is short,
but dramatic. The Judge gives the YER
dict, and then I get up and denounce the
prosecuting attorneys, giving sort of re-