The times., 1899-08-27
FUTURE OF some NOVELS
Half OF the Seasons DramatiZations
Sure to Be Failures.
A Few Verses of Actor Authorship
and Exceptional Merit-Correspon-
dent Fettis Goes Fishing-Dorothy
Hammack Leaves for the Road
Other Things About other People.

This has been remarkably busy sum
mer in amusement circles-busy though the
theatres have been continually dark and the
European steamers constantly crowded. The
hot weather has relieved only small pro-
portion of the managers TO whom ''vaCa-
| ton" has meant preparation for the coming
season and smaller proportion still of
those who toll foro the credit and currency
! OF the aforesaid managers. Nor has the
professional critic BEEN altogether without
his works and Worries-worry resultant
from the knowledge that space must be an
initiated whether school keeps or not;
| work generally put in over the score of
novels adaptations of which are to come to
his attention within the next few months
for praise or blame. sd
And frequently this labor has lacked even
the promise of reward. No capable review
er can have finished the several volumes
announced for dramatization without paus-
| ing to consider the probability that many
OF the stage versions will never be seen
outside of the cities honored by their pre-
mleres. In previous edition The Times has
made mention of the advantages gained by
/ author and actor in the arrangement of
literary effort and it may supplement these
| comments with the added statement that
too many writer's mistake print merit for
footlight merit, and expect big audiences
| because they have been extensively read.
This seems to have been the case with
large number of the penmen who are to
furnish material for the playhouse during
! the winter, a full half -doZsn stories on
the adaptations of which fortunes have been
| spent, being wholly without chance when
I taken from their covers.
Often these tales have been cut into roles
as result of the vanity of those response
| bic for them Proverbially, scribes are not
capable judges of their own products and
/ conceit has undoubtedly blinded many TO
/ the limitations of their compositions More
| frequently, however, the error lies with the
managers who, having found some tran
| scription profitable have determined that
| all transcriptions are profitable, and are
! acting on that basis. One might believe
that long experience in catering TO an ex-
acting public would have taught these in
dividuals better than TO risk money with
out proper assurance Of the solidity of their
| Investments, but hackers are not more
qulck-slghted than writers, and the most
learned of them have been known to ex-
/ pend immense sums in presenting plays
without vestige of merit. So, between
one and the other, the amusement-lov of
such cities as Washington, Boston, New
Haven, and New York are likely to suffer
during September and October, while critics
OF more-fayored places Will find that much
OF their study has gone for naught
With the less promising volumes perused
/ there is one hope-the injection of new
material. Several of the men who have
4 am nn6 hatv. sv4o
| popular novels for the stage may be sup
posed TO have done so with view to
! gaining by the fame of the works In
question, and probably have used little
| but the familiar names. Others undoubt-
] edly have selected only the threads of the
! stories with which they have been labor
Ing and will make up the remainder of
1 the structures with their own ideas. If
l Henry zJewett, for example has a quarter
of the intelligence with which he has al
! ways been credited. this last will be his
| course with the James Lane Allen book
which he is having prepared for himself.
AS most readers will remember The
Choir Invisible" tells of an individual who
met one girl. fell in dove with another,
and married a third. This proceeding
while highly interesting to those who ad-
mire versatility, can ,heardly prove abb
sorbing behind the footlights, where unity
of yarn is almost the first essential to
success. And, despite this triangular court
! ship, "The Choir Invisible" is not burdened
| with much of a theme. Mr. Allen put
| into the volume atmosphere enough for
Kansas cyclone, language sufficient to daz-
Zle pugilist, but of real plot not even the
quantity Henry Arthur Jones would prob
ably deem necessary in the building of
one of his trifies. How any sane person
could find matter for a drama in The
/ Choir Invisible it is difficult to state
and unless Mr.. Jewett has put the tale
through a very thorough and highly-origi-
nal process. his tour in the adaptation is
not likely to assume the nature of a tri-
umph.
With the Klaw G. Erlanger arrange
ment of Ben Hur' changes equally pro-
nounced must have been made In the
| first place. it is not possible that a tran
Scriber with brains can have contemplated
| using Jesus of Nazareth as freely in the
i play as General Wallace did in the novel
| The Saviour has never been placed on the
| stage excepting at Oberammergau, without
bitter protest and general anger. No one
| familiar with the contemporary history
of the theatre; no one possessed of the
| slightest degree of common sense. would
essay to make Ben Hur of the billboards
| like Ben Hur" of the publishers, "A Tale
of the Christ"
On the other hand. the omission of that
character and all mention of it must rob
the piece of much of the attraction which
it's managers evidently expect il TO have
| for religious folk. Ben Hur' sans the
subject of it's first book, will be less a
spiritual work like "A Sign of the Cross
| than an independent drama turning on re-
venge and resembling The Count of Monte
| Cristo though without the power of that
offering Indeed, unless they have had in
terpolated much that is new and unfa-
u
Erlanger are to evolve play from Cen
eral Wallace's scholarly story Ben Hur''
is really but a series of incidents intended
to stimulate interest in and revolving
around the famous chariot race, the de-
feat of Messala. But for an episode in the
galley TO which the prince is chained, his
victory over paid assassin, his discovery
of his mother, and one OF two similar bits.
the aforesaid chariot race is the one dra-
matte portion of the volume. Klaw & Err
langer are concluding great preparations
for the reproduction of this scene with the
aid of a device by Neil Burgess, but ex-
eept to intimidate habitants of chairs in
the first rows of the orchestra, their eff
forts cannot have much effect With all
this however Ben Hur" affords strong
foundation for a notable production and on
it one may be builded.
Infinitely more promising-if promise
has not already become reality-are the va
rious versions that have been compiled
from "A Tale OF Two Cities" Charles
Dickens wrote the novel with view to its
use on the stage and in consequence it
is filled with the most virile of situations.
Its interest is that of the heart-its story
thrilling stirring, charming. ripe in op-