Evening star., 1901-02-02
A New Yorker Thinks BE Can Turn
Out Playwrights.
At LEAST BE CAN MAKE IT PAY
Tammany Still Taking Advantage
of Its Opportunities.
DEVERY HOLDS THE FORT
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

very large element of the American pop
ulation is about to start in New York a
school of play writing. His first announce
ment Of his purpose brought him pupils
to-be by the score who planked down, with
almost pathetic eagerness. their advance
tuition fees, although the same are some
what stiff
To paraphrase Carlyle. there are about
eighty millions Of human beings in the
United States most Of whom believe that
they can write successful plays. Just how
many Of these have actually written plays.
or what they believed to be plays. 1t would
be difficult to calculate. but from the state
ments of the managers professional read
ers the number must be vast. And to the
number who have actually submitted the
dramatic nursing Of their brains 10 the
managers must be added that huge horde
of men and women who have with furious
enthusiasm finished one or two acts OF
plays. only to lay the same aSide-to be-
come dog's-eared in trunks or bureau
drawers-for further inspiration. Is 1t eX-
aggerating the matter to say that almost
every man Ueaving the women out of con-
sideration for the presenO whose educa-
ton is such that he can write fairly
diverting letter, who can talk moderately
well, and who Is patron of the theaters.
cherishes the belief deep in his soul, the
while he sits through dramatic perform
ance, that he himself is capable of writ
ing a much better play. could he only
get at it?
It all looks so easy. The figurantes in the
play he is looking at all come and go so
smoothly they converse SO glibly. they are
sorrowful or merry all in such good Sc
uuence, they are so precise in dong the
proper thing at the proper moment-What
could be more s mpie than just to Sit down
hiatt
more brilliant talk than are contained in
the play he Is looking at? And. quite aside
from the fame look at the money there Is
in successful play! Why-compiaisantiy
thinks the man who just knows that he
can write plays that will put the world by
the ears-theres one young chap. who GER
tainly doesn't look from his pictures pub
lished IN the newspapers to amount TO
much intellectually, who's actually getting
royalties to the amount of 5000 per week
from plays that he has written. and none
of these plays .eally seemed so remarkable
none Of them HIT the right note!
Pretty Poor Stuff.
These are the dreams that have caused
the tables Of the professional play readers
to be heaped almost to the ceiling year in
and year out with hopeless, impossible
drivel-that causes the countenances of
these professional play readers to curl into
sardonic grins when the subject of the
Nevertheless the school of play writing
already has enr oiled a sufficient number of
pupils to make the venture a paying insti-
tution from the start, and 1t Is certainty
that the man who conceived the scheme
will grow rich.
He IS a man thoroughly capable OF teach
ing the technique of playwriting, just as
the men at the head of the dramatic schools
over here are quite capable of tns;ructing
their pupils in the technique of play act
ing. But what methods he purposes en-
rloying in the incubation of the genius
demanded for the writing of plays Is a mat
ter wherein the prospectus Is discreetly
silent. 1t may be trite to say that the
playwright is born. not made but 1t Is one
of the most Iriumphantly proven facts of
which this writer mas any knowledge 1t
is just as certain that the actor who climbs
serenely to the sunlt heights is product
Of his endowmentS a birth and not Of the
dramatic schools. There are a number of
quite capable and clever actors and ac-
tresses now before the public who owe their
initial instruction TO the dramatic schools,
but none of them is eminent. none of them
has thus far given any promise Of becoming
eminent.
He Was an Authority.
And. apropos Of this school Of playwrit-
ing. a certain scholarly gentleman, who has
been for many years a professor Of litera-
tIre in a western university. published.
about twelve years ago. book called THE
Art OF Playwritng." 1t was mighty fine
book. too. 1t told at great length. and with
many examples and precepts. Just how the
thing could be done. 1t went into the most
elaborate and exhaustive details as to the
mechanical features Of dramatic work. 1t
really left nothing to be said that could be
said on the art of playwritlng. Well, this
scholarly gentleman has had a number of
plays from his own pen produced. All of
them had runs consisting of one consecutive
night. All of them were intolerably
wretchedly. lamentably bad
How the beng Gn Shakespeare. the tu-
multuous Marlowe. the somberly witty Ben
Jcnson would have laughed over their
mulled sack at the bare mention Of school
of playwriting!
GIVE u.s." they might have bawled in
unison. "a school Of hexameter writers to
out-Homer Homer-give us a school OF
whales-and give us rest!'
Devery Holds the Fort.
And still the puissant committee Of fif-
teen and Croker's anti-climax committee
Of five seem to be as dormant as the dodo.
Devery still sits enthroned as chief of po-
lice. Notwithstanding the ochre newspapers
daily predictons-"We have 1t on the most
indisputable authority Of the police commits
sioners themselves"-they put it. that his
tenure could not possibly last another
twelve hours: and these predictions have
OGeH appearing LOI dDoul l"O Ii
view of which the tenacious holding OF the
fort of Devery is become a common laugh
ing stock over here. 1t has become the oc-
casion of the coming of new word. I'm
going to Devery it out says the facetlous
chap who means that he is going to hang
on against all corners. The new district
attorney. who was going to just uproot
vice from its New York founda tions, ac-
cording to the "authorized' statements of
the orange-hued press. is not In the Ian
guage of the detected small boy. Saying
word" The committee Of f1fteen's corps of
sleuths. imported from other cities, are
busier thar ants in their evldence-collect-
Ing work-maybe. The fact Is not obvious,
at any rate. II they are collecting evidence
they assuredly must have dray loads Of 1t
by this time. for the vice scare has so far
subsidized that nearly every pool room In
New York Is now running at full blast
again, and the other gambling Joints" that
required certain arranged Naturalization
on their electric bells during the preva-
lence Of the 'scare" are now admitting all
likely looking lambs without any apparent
hesitation. The inscrutably mysterious
source whence the word has been passed
around that everything's all right for the
present cannot, of course. be named: but
the source must have been high to permit
of so general resumption of deviltry of
every sort.
Nevertheless and Notwithstanding, the
signs are many and increasing that this
~. tho Of Tan c,utct,