The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-04-17

recently rendered into slang by DOwie's
use of it. Peace be with thee"
You Will never see two of the new
plays. They are dead at the early age
Of six days. Then why write more
than obituary items? Because their
brief struggles to live were interesting
TO those VINO like to watch dramatic
phenomena An African Millionaire
and The Superstitions Of Sue" will
not be charged up against the reputa-
tons of Fred W. Sidney and Paul Arm
strong to discourage them. Who re
members BeIasco's Younger Son"
which was killed in half a week. or
Gillette's Ninety Days After Date"
which survived miserably d month at
a cost 10 him Of 100000? Those two
men have grown wealthy and wiser
and SO may the other two. What
proved q mistake was made with An
African Millionaire" by placing il on
the very stage where The Amateur
Craftsman had prospered three
months. Because a gentIemanly bur
glar had been a favorite i'm the one
play il was expected that a gentle
manly bunco sWindler would become
as popular i'm the other. This conf
dence man operates against one vic
tim only--a millionaire who has
wronged him financially and SO ex-
Cused. if not justified, "A recourse to the
eye-for-an-eye doctrine.
Colonel Clay sets out with his wife
To get by tricks and devices compeu-
satory amount of Sir Charles Van
drifts wealth They sell gold bricks to
him i'm the form OF paste diamonds
that seem to he rare gems. a bogus
painting purporting 10 be an old mas
terIieCe and lot of counterfeit COM
mercial paper NTUdriCt is "a selt-made
and self-saUsfed millionaire. and Clay
is So clever rogue that under the
Mitigating circumstances. the author
was not 20 blame for counting on him
To- amuse audiences. He is a char
acter Of the kind once theatrically
called ''proteun-" He assumes the di-
verse DISCUSSES Of a detective officer.
cOmWissary of police. clergyman and
"a ueCromancer. II. Reeves Smith, the
actor who assumes them, is sufficient
~ versatile for the job. The episodes
read well i'm "a series OF short stories
published by the late Grant Allen. But
Sidney. who is an English actor, put
them into play SO maladroitly that
they are utterly Intellectual
The other siN-day-old play that is
dead. The Superstition Of Sue had
farciral ideas enough for a long and
merry life IF they had been made the
most Of And ] should say that Paul
Armstrong might resUscitatc il for
vaudeville. for which he has written
hitherto. by Condensing IL TO twenty
minutes. Sue believes that nothir g
i but bad luck can come OF a betrothal
made on Friday. that happens to be
/ also the 18th day Of the month. and
Z for that reason she declines Jim's Of
! fer Of marriage. although she means
/ To- accept il on the morrow. In the in
( terval the detected Jim, instead Of sui
( eide by his own hand, hires a stranger
7 20 kin him in the morning. When he
. learns of Sues purpose he strives 10
. escape the execution Of his own sem
/ tence. but he doesn't know the assas-
| sin by sight. nor the nature Of the pro-
posed homicide. and therefore is in
mortal terror of every unknown man
} who comes nigh. Among his innocent
visitors whom he suspects are an Or
iental fakir with a poisonous snake a
subway blaster with a red flag of dan