The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-19
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs-

that alight on the estate of a widow
and her daughters and pick it clean.
Misery Tor the family ensues The
motner Is crushed in. spirit. one girl is
Wild with despair and the other is made
a maniac by the desertion OF the fiance
whom she has too fondly trusted. To
THIS home comes one of its plunderers.
a cruel and senile old man. who offers
marriage TO the sane yet distracted
daughter, and she accepts the revolving
suator for the sake of his fortune. This
pay Is IN the repertory of the Coincide
Franchise.
- =
People with the interests Of the Sc
Iious American drama at heart cannot
but deplore the attitude often assumed
against our native authors The Dro-
duetion Of The Crows brings the fact
10 mind that if an American play rises
10 exceptional merit cry goes up that
IL is OF foreign origin. and some of our
CRITICS turn detectives. That was done
IN the recent case OF Leah Kleschna. >"
put no proof of plagiarism by Mr.. Nc
Lelian was found. 1.-THE Crows was
cited as the original Of THE Climbers
Tor no other reason than that both
pieces presented an impoverished fam
liy striving to get up from their low
cred social status. The only real re-
sembiance is in the black gowns worn
py the women in a scene where. after
the funeral OF the husband and father
tHey learn that he has left them in nov
erty. For the rest Fiteh's work is diff
ierent from Besquo's and better Is it
oesire TO display familiarity with
the foreign stage that impels us To ac-
euse our playwright of thieverv which
we can't prove? Or is it the ieaIousv
OF men who think, not unres soma olv-
that they are able to write plavs sr-
peTlor TO many that are produced? 1t
- marc 10 say. But we might well find
happy medium Of temper between tha
SNUG self-sufficieney of the fFrancb
stage and the disloyaI, unpatriotic fouI-
ms OF our dramatic nest.
a very funny play. which doesn't
.Iedh 20 be ludierous, is Fast Life i'm
New York" the last of the seventeen
melodramas within a wear from Tbn-
ooore tromer's pen--or his TYPEWRITER
OF MS scissors. The plots are so near
ene same that perhaps they are made
WIN ruoper stamps and stencil plates
one each Tor the falsely accused hero
11 eooucted heroine. the Iicentjous
II nam ana the Jealous wanton. A few
htio- made sentences here and there
would be sufficient to connect tbo -,
aTrIh Sements OF the story. Really that
Is not Iibelous misI representation 81 ~
hTeIher method and process EIa 1,,,Iet
De cieFer, however, else he wouldn't he
H.OSI prOnhc and prosperous of
american playwrights. He gets no
more more than third as much in Tovalties
III III ms work, by the piece. as Clvde
I, ltch and Augustus Thomas do for
tnelrS' but there is more than tbrea
Tunes as much of it.
Ia TINS play the good young 1-ictip,
"a "a, cliIcIumstanttal evidence is named
Johh Drew, and. the fame of the orio-
ILdi John isn't hurt thereby. exce1t
lIlat the fellow is a maudIin sanbaa6
aIildteur1shly acted. But Guv Stead
ing, VINO was advanced by Frohman
several years ago from stage vices To
virtues. appears here. by nauesal(p as
d SWlhqIer. kidnaper and murderer And
ElIta Proctor Otis. hitherto known in
PIdyS as no worse woman than Nancy
Sykes' Lena Despard and ForratNI
NOT, STANDS sponsor here in a wav for
an Eilta Proctor. opium fiend. nara
Hlour, thlef and murderess of her lover
ana OF herself Nor are those the linn
Ils OF hremers practical jokes with
personalities The subway tavern that
PlShop Potter dedicated phiIanthropi-
calIy is shown as n place of resort for
eNh as Wei as moral drinkers Of both
sexes and the gambling house that
DICK Garfield conducted decorousIv he
comes a rendezvous for women in
decoIIette gowns and men who drug
ana bunco unwary visitors