The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-08
Dew York CbeaMcaLs
BY Franklin Fyles.

under most romantic circumstance.
So people rally to Mr. HaCkett because
he. ike Mr.. Crane in his different way,
wisely sticks to the kind Of role in
which he has prOspered-a profitable
constancy which more than one Amer
lean star would do well to emulate.
So much for the success Of John
Ermine." There is a critical view to
take. and in that view Mr.. Hackett
would probably agree that the new
play is not Of the very best. What
Louis Evan Shipman evidently tried
TO do when he took the characters and
atmosphere of Frederic Remington's
story and pictures to build a play on
was to show the effect of a refined girl
on an Indian-bred fellow, who is hon
est, manly, yet still half savage Mr..
bennington did that in the novel. Be
tween book covers an author can ex-
plain clearly that a mans herOism is
inspired by an ennObling love. and can
keep that consideration uppermOst. But
on the stage herClSm. to be worth while.
almost necessarily becomes the en-
crossing fact in itself. Overshadowing
completely its source. Thus, when John
Ermine rides out to save a camp of
people solely that he may rescue a girl
he has not dared TO raise his eyes to,
the deed as described in the narrative,
and Mr.. Shipman built upon. may have
seemed chiefly an expression of a hui
man passion. In the stage representa-
. ton, nothing OvertOps the brave aot it
self In the spectators mind; and so
/ John Ermine." between scenario and
completed play. crossed the line from
romantic drama to melOdrama.
In his policy as q manager, as we'll
as in his individual performances, Mr..
Hackett keeps his finger on the public
pulse-a reason why he is able to COM
/ bine two functions seldom undertaken
by single man in America, though in
London the aCtOT-manager is usual.
Besides this sagacity in selecting John
Ermine,' he has shown it In alter
atoms since the production in Boston
two months ago. Immediately he felt
I that his audiences didn't like to see the
I brave scout die, though that was a
more logical conclusion than to marry
| the untutOred mountaineer to the sensi-
tive lady. The happy-ever-after eli
max was tried. and by popular appro-
val il remained so. He started by Civ
ing himself the disguise of a Reming-
{ ton westerner, but found that his public
wanted him as he is himself. But Mr.
I Hackett has artistic ideals. and the in
I telectual equipment to realize them.
/ He is building up gOOdly fortune with
Which-Well, Of that later. For the
| present he is giving to his admirers
I just what they demand in John Err
mine, - and they are thanking him pro-
fusely in cash.
/ Frank Daniels likes to break into a
/ new play with violence He does il in
geniously in The Office Boy" That is
/ a song and dance farce. and its girls are
I shown first as typewriters in a law
office where the opening chorus is
stopped by their dismissal for fOoling
/ In business hours. They demand pay
/ ment Of their wages. and the money is
I in vault. the lock combination Of
/ which is lost. Two burglars are en-
ployed TO force the door. They blow It
open with dynamite. and from the
wreck the office boy steps forth. You
( have but 20 recall the short-legged.
/ brOad-bodied. mOOn-faced comicaIity
\ which Daniels was doomed to by ma
ture. and the stage use to which he has
I put it in hard-luck characters, to com
prehend that his aspect in this en-
\ trance is laugable. And are you old
/ enough in theatre-going to remember
/ him as the chap who. in "A Rag Baby"
was proud of having grasped the hand
\ of John L. Sullivan Since then he has
/ been droll as an impoverished or other
wise miserable king, or kings substi-
/ tue, in half a dozen nonsense plays.
/ But now he is once again an aspirant
\ TO sporting life. A chum is a horse
/ jockey at $4,000 a year. So this time
l it is the turf, not the ring. which in
/ cites his ambition. Once again in
sporting life, but this time unwiIlingly.
he is mistaken for an expert jockey
and compelled to mount a destructively
/ vicious horse. The beast is not visible.
/ but Daniels terrors and maltreatmen
are put into evidence so funniIy that
/ The Office Boy is as readily accepted
IN Broadway as Miss Simplicity was
I rejected.
/ The singing comedian to be merrily
satisfactory must be an original tester