The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
THEATRICAL LETTER
 FROM FRANKLIN FYLES

Tleanor Robson hold out her hand io boy and order him to strike it wlth, a long paper cutter, because he has He'd to her. He gives q gingerly stroke
 Harder" she says. and he puts a lit- tie more force into d second blow
 Harder" she insists; much harder" The third stroke falls with a loud spat. More of them--faster--harder yet" she commands; 'I must be pun ished for not teaching you not to lie." The lad obeys vigorously, and then, fiinging his arms around her neck. begs
 her to use the rod on him as hitherto. To my mind, that is the best incident
 in the play which Fitch has written
 for Miss Robson. To be sure, 1t relates to but one of her mmic troubles-- the tender care of her dead sisters spoiled children; and for bigger dis tresses she loses a fortune through the lnfamy of her brother-i law, and is
 grieved by what seems like sordid per- fidy in her sweetheart but nothing else affects the audience like her odd pun ishment of the urchin and his inability to stand It. There Is not a laugh. nor
 even smile, but plenty of tears.
 The girl who has nothing but love
 has everything. That may be nonsenical as applied to the affairs of real lie.
 but as declared in "'fhe Girl Who
 Has Everything" Is does, not seem H. logical. The author does not argue for it explicitly, but enables the actress to illustrate st charmingly. The new comedy has littlesof dramatic potency,
 but plenty of humor, both jocose ana
 pathetic. Clyde Fitch is unrivaiied in transferring New York phrases of do-
 mestieity to the stage, In this example of his stage work, he begins in the heroines Murray Hill drawing room, where two children's pranks. an old
 maiden aunt's juvenile frlpperies, and visiting smart belle's cynical wit sends her to her lovers home in
 Harlem fiat with its typicalIy citihed
 adaptation of a New England sitting Iroom's outfit for an appreclative New
 York audience to laugn. at, but also
 with the hero's mother so lovably un-
 fashionable that 1t seemed natural that the society girl hugged and kissed her upon ten minutes acquaintance Clyde Fitch is usually on hand at't the introduction of his plays, not only to
 direct the performance, but also to be called out and compelled to make
 speech. The bill said he had super vised "The Girl Who Had Everything but he was absent on the opening night Few of his personal friends were there, and none of them started the cry of 'Author! It was said that he had fallen out with the management because Miss Robson had decided to traYet WtIn repertoire Ol DRdySp 6AtNf the manner of Mansfield, not using his play any more than her new ones by Jerome and Zangwill. Of course, that means a slower earning of royalties for each piece. Which leads me to fear that our authors, like our managers,
 are imbued with the prevailing spirit
 of commercialism.
 The principal characters in "The AAa York's Mayor Mcclellan, Boss Murphy, and Next-To- Boss Suilivani and when
 the play Is over the orchestra sends the audience out to the tune of Tam many." yat the author, George H iBroadhurst, won't quite own up to the identities. He blandly remarks that
 they are the chief magistrate and po-
 liSical bosses of many an American city. But Broadhurst Is the humorist who wrote Why smith Left Home, and "The Wrong Mir. Wright How ever "The Man of the Hour is in earn est, evn when it is facetious, and t demonstrates that we are, at leasN willing to let 8 dramatist entertain as with such a problematic subject as lcorruption. But Broadhurst knows tue stage game, stacks the cards before | he deals. and wins by playing them trfeIxily. His Mayor Mcclellan IS young man of position and wealth ana social position. who takes nomlna- | tto,,- for office because the girl of his | heart taunts him as to idler ana tets him know that he must become man
 of some account ere she VIII marry him. That congresses the women at the outset: and when his way to fame as 1 an honest Mayor makes him incur the 0Irl's diadain as a seemingly dishonest | lover. the women take him to their svmpathetic hearts, and his fortune as | dramatic hero is assured.
 Then, too, the two Tammany exam ples of grafter are not horritylhs eA anonles They don't know that they lare had men. They think that they are practical politicians, even utlltarlah sta atesnlen; and when Boss Murphy oe- ciares that graft Is universal, from the 1 cIerrvman who takes fee to save vour soul to the waiter who taxes 1 fin to serve your dinner, there IS j responsive round Of applause, | II owe a duty to the people, says Mcc,1ellan. they made me mayor
 SThe hell they didr the Boss Mur-
 pbv sretorts; "'twas I made you may
 or" r.
 The paraquet laughs, the gallery
 wells. and for @ moment 1t seems as
 though the whole audience taxes the
 Boss's view of it--whieh Is that thS
 mavor ought to sign the city railroad Srsncbise which will make millions Tor the boss and a big Wall Streeter pre- tsumably Thomas F. Ryan But when the Mayor Mcclellan Of the play ue-
 cIares that the day of the franchise
 gifts to corporations is done, and that l inc day of square-dealing withs the people has come, there Is ttremehoous Demonstration of approval.
 | The Next-to- Boss, Sullivan IS popu- Iiarized by Broadhurst who depicts nun as the humor!st he is said to pc AS inc play is produced in theatre own
 od b,, suiIivan. the delineaton, pre-
 s,,roahlx Is agreeable 10 the subject oS it He says that he holds the hearts
 snS utomachs of his Bowery section l.onstItutents because he turkeys them in winter and picnlcs them in sum
 r'er" In this stage fiction, as in poilt- ,caI fact sullivan Is with McC' elan
 and against Murphy not because ne IS onrosed to graft, but because ne does not ike to have Murphy, his poiltlca1 enen,t gel an enriching lot or IL, | But if you set out 10 dupllcaee os, iRroadhurst's The Man of the Hour o, 1 Tt1ain's 'sThe Lion ana the Mouse, don't depend on graft politics. or Si,'-.. Sr Rroadharst and Klein did not; iles Tintroduced love stories not ohly' Dut brought them to the front at the pc pc ginning. and kept them there to tne and. Broadhurst ignores the tact tnat Mcclellan is a husband. and makes hlh.
 A bachelor with a private sweetheart' rt' as we'll as public renown' to win o Hose through his probity or dupneitY of office. And without his m'mle @ los
 affair. his real affair Of pollt.cs
 wouldn't render him an engrossi"*