The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-10-27

simultaneously may very possibly De
excelied by this supremely popular
playwright himself during the coming
season. He has written The Marriage
Came, in which Sadie Martinot viii
star; The Way of the World. for
Elsie de Wolfe; The Last of the Dan
dies and a new play for Annie Rus
sell. If he continues at this pace there
will be the risk that he viii be judged
almost entirely by the standard OF
productivity Until now none of his
plays has revealed traces of work done
too hurriedly. They all are fertile in
invention and smart in dialogue The
characters. especially the women, are
boldly drawn. the situations are de-
vised with superb craft, the scenes
placed in surroundings that surprise
and please the eye, yet in all the plays
there is to be observed certain in
solidity in the groundwork. When you
consider them StuGiOuSly you see that
this playwright has wit. imagination,
insight and sensibility, but not depth
His active, ingenious mind sports on
the surface waters of the soul. y
thoughtful man, one that has lived and
tried to understand, will be amused for
a time by the fluent i1ippancy of
Fitch comedy. The Drofessedly earnest
side of the play viii hardly convince
him. But there are thousands of men
and women in this great country that
are convinced by the story. The rea-
son of it may be that they lead stage
lives themselves. Family, religion, So
cial life all are adjusted to help and
not hinder the worship of the IDEAL
which is. succeed in career. have
money. and, If you can, have distinc-
ton. The whole aim and effort of the
life of such person in the last analy-
sis resolve themselves into this; 1
want to be looked up to- No matter
what happens, or where 1 am, I want
people to feel that l am what / am
The h1rDaOr- of fS that such nPOniR
never are what they think they are.
OF characters of this type there are
twenty women to one man in our civ
ilizatiOn. Some optimist here has said
with pride and swelling of the bosom:
IN France a wife is a cO-laborer with
her husband; in England, the husband
Is a king and the wife a subject; in
America. the wife is a queen. Now,
/ the most pathetic mortal in the world
! is a certain type of American husband.
His wife may be queen, but as there
/ is only 50 much money to support her
court. retinue and kitchen. and the
/ husband whether he be a financier, or
a bank clerk. has to slave in order to
/ get that money, he begins to remind
one of a squirrel in a cage with a
wheel attached. The squirrel is locked
/ in. to be sure, but if he feels a longing
to climb trees as the best people of his
| family have always done, why, there S
the wheel. 1t goes round and round,
and the sensation is positively as
! health-giving and interesting as any
that can be felt in climbing a tree.
The American husband likes to work,
and the American woman makes of
| him galley slave. But he is the hap
piest man in the world. He win tell
you so himself, and out of an honest
heart.
yet that doesn't alter the real state
of matters; and it Aather adds to the
dramatic possibilities of this sugges-
ton. that a striking modern comedy
might be written around the American
wife of this type. Naturally, they are
not all like the one just described. The
admirable American wife could be
shown as a foil to the one that is, well
not admira BILE. If Clyde Fitch ever
finds himself with a cash order for &
play and without an idea for one. thi:
is a subject that lies just in his field
There does not seem to be any
strong probability that Mr.. Fitch viii
run dry on ideas He struggled s,
long before the first ray of prosperity
showed itself to him that he must hav,
stored a fund of material. The EARL
years of his career in New York were
far from cheerful. He was never il
actual need; but to the young man tina
has just enough to live decently tn
failure to get under way along an,
avenue to Self-SuppOrt is diSheartening
Mr. Fitch thought once of being al
architect. at another time he was sore
ly tempted to try a reporters life
Finally he sought entrance at the stag
door as a playwright. He directed hi
efforts in the most difficult line of tn
three, and his success must long ag
nings-'
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