The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-04-15
ADJUSTMENTS.

| AT the Metropolitan Theater last
night the Shaw Company presented to
| fair audience a new play, "A Mes
| sage by Wire'-last night was its first
written by Harry d. Cottrell of Oak
| land. The story is that of a wife i'll
| England whose husband is disinherited
| because of marriage to his actress
| sweetheart, the estate and title going
| to the husbands brother. The latter
proposes, being childless, to adopt the
child, a boy, of his impoverished and
disinherited brother. with whose cut
ting off with a shilling he had most to
do. The father in a drunken fit of cha
| grin, consents in writing for coin. But
the mother, to keep her child, pro-
nounces him illegitimate, the law in
that case leaving her the custodian Of
her boy. BY fire the record evidences
| Of the marriage had been destroyed;
the witnesses We're dead, and the wife
with knowledge of her lawyer a close
friend. destroys her marriage certifi-
cate that no evidence should remain by
which her child could be taken from
her The boy is sent to America and
attains position in early manhood rs
an engineer, due to the toll of his
mother who secured him education and
means. On the eve of his wedding to
girl of his choice, his uncle, thrown
by accident into the situation, inter-
poses with the warning to the father
of the bride that the youth is name
less and that his own mother had so
pronounced him. The family of the
bride break off the match the moth
er of the bridegroom standing mute
before the accusation of shame. Here
III is the one weak part of the plot,
since the only motive for her failure to
defend her sons honor is the absence
of proof of the falsity of her confession
years ago. Yet in the same scene
stands the lawyer, her friend who knew
that she was wife and her son legiti-
mate. His testimony ought to have
been q fair offset to the assertion of the
revengeful accuser. In a Montana
border settlement the storys end IS
reached, the mother INDICATED and the
young couple at last united, while
message by wire" brings news of the
accession of the bridegroom to the es-
tates of his father, the uncle and elder
brother having been accidentally killed
in an encounter Mr. Cottrell haSpro
duced the material of a good dramatic
plot. He proves that he has consid-
cradle ability in putting it together,
and that with closer study and more
experience he will be able. to do good
work There are many clever lines, 4
good deal of humor and some neat COM
edy in his play. It's need is abbrevia-
ton as a whole and far less dialogue
and more rapidity in action. The pro-
logue needs no more than its last five
minutes to build the necessary preface
upon. The three acts following can
easily be reduced by half and the play
improved. In fact the third act omit
ted as whole would not weaken the
story, since with the death OF the ur-
cle-accuser the tale can be as we'll
brought to happy conclusion and
message by wire from over tie sea
break the spell of misery The motive
for the refusal of the mother to clear
away the cloud upon her sons name is
too weak to be long drawn out as 1T is
1t would be more heroic for her, back I'd
by the testimony of her counsel 20
throttle the charge against her fame
at once, and the playwright can As
easily and swiftly fortify her with
proofs then and there as months later |
in the far West. Nothing is more dan-
gerous to success in a dramatic stor:
than long keeping of the hero and cen
trail figure in ignorance of that which
everybody else about him knows. Such