The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-26
Raking the Theatrical Graveyard.
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

| BY FRANK
New York, Aug. 24.-Cheer up, you old
fellows who regret that many things
on the stage are not as they used TO
be. Take heart, you ancients who moan
against much that Is, and wall for
most that was. i give you tidings OF
reactionary joy and resurrectiOnary de-
light. / mean you who remember those
times Of dramatic glory when, of Sat
urday night, the stock company of your
city would put on Jack Sheppard
with the leading lady as the boy ban
dit; or when touring actress some
times gave the play in her Friday bene-
fit program, along with Camille" or
East Lynne" 10 show that she could
be jolly in trousers as well as weepy
in petticoats.
The first actress that ever / saw was
Adah Isaacs, who took on other names
by marrying Menken, a comedian.
Beenan, pugilist known as the Bene-
cia Boy, and Newell. humorist, whose
then famous pen name was Orpheus
G. Kerr Adah wore also the title of
Queen Of Bohemia, wrote soulful poetry
and drank beer with the literary fellows
at Pfaffs. But to me she was no
mans wife. nor any woman at all, but
only Jack Sheppard, the boy who held
up stagecoaches on Hounslow Heath.
played hide and seek with Bow street
runners, sang Nix jolly pals, come
fake away" while digging out through
the wall of Newgate prison, and finally
went gaily to the scaffold on Tyburn
Hill. l don't recall that I lOnged for
a career similar TO that which Adah
simulated. That would have been wild
ly presumptous. The glamor Of her
dark, rich. Jewish beauty made her
Jack look to me far away beyond any
thing that / dared hope for on earth.
Yet in my childish dreams Of romance,
my flightiest Nightmares of adventure,
1 was Jack Adah Sheppard Isaacs, a
dare devil boy and siren girl combined
in one ideal hero
Alackaday, when has Jack Shep-
pard' been acted on the stage? / think
not since Fanny Herring, at the ripe
art age of 90. gave afternoon and even
ing in the theatOrium OF a dime mu-
scum. I went to see the Fanny Ber-
ring OF 1900. I recoilected the Adah
Isaacs Of 1855. and L buried Jack Shep-
pard in the cemetery of bygone.
However. and hooray. I have this
week seen Billy the Kid" That is
why wrote cheer upland take heart"
at the top of this column for those who
yearn for q return to the old dramatic
standards. Here we have play which,
as Jack Sheppard" did. sets forth a
boy as d hero of evil. an example in
outlawry, = human object lesson in
criminology for our youth TO study and
emulate. Billy the Kid is a more in
fluential personation of 6egcneracy
than Jack was, too. for Jack was
hanged by way of moral tag, but Billy
is left to live in honor and gicry. Billy
is so bad a boy that the baddest men
In Texas fling up their hands. when
his finger touches a trigger. Why, say,
when that lad starts i'm to shoot up a
tOun-permit a metaphor Even the
painted targets close their bullseyes and
murmur 'remulously:
Now I lay me down 10 sleep
pray I may not take a peep.
For / shall die before | wake
If any chance with Bill / t3ke.'
The personator of Billy the Kid IS
not another Adah Isaacs, but Joseph
Santley, who looks like a siXteen-year-
old boy of our East Side nsolent, pro-
fame, pugracious and utt arly graceless.
The plays border barroom. gambling
joint and dance hall is made ready for
his hurrah entrance A carousal is in
progress: rival desDeradOeS are drunk
and boastful; one declares himself the
very worst man i'm the southwest; he
is told that a mere boy has come into
pre-eminence as a drinker, gameSter
highwayman and murderer; and re
ward of s.. 900 is pacarded on the wall
for his capture. That's Billy the Kid
Now his little sweetheart plumbers into
the place, and the rufflans won't let
her out The boss ties her fast and
announces an auction sale of
the exclusive kissing of her. a
besotted woman acts as the
auctioneer. The bids run up from five
dollars to fifty. Then the principal de-
bauchee the pursuing villain of the
story. offers a hundred. pays the
money. and seizes her TO take the first
kiss.
"Ah who will save me?" the girl
shrieks.
az will" comes in an answering yell
from a boy in the doorway.
''Who are you?" in vociterous chorus.
BILLY. the Kidr'
Elsewhere in stageland the limelight
may at this moment shine on idols in
temples of the drama. Here and there
ovations may be simultaneously re-
warding theatrical heroes. But no
where, nor anywhere, can there be a
prouder sight than Billy the Kid, be-
fore whose gun all the opposing guns
lower their muZZles in submission,
while the rope unties itself from the
maiden to coil humbly at his feet, and
the poster, offering reward for his
capture, trembles a moment on the
wall. and falls face downward on the
floor in abject surrender.
The Kid doesn't depart with his
sweetheart. but sends here home I'M
der escort, and stays behind to out
drink and oJt-swear the adult des-
peradoes, to beat them at cards and in
the favor of the dance hall woman, all
TO prove that boy may be as depraved
as a man. BY way of climax to this
exploit he puts out all the lamps with
bullets In the darkness pistols pop
and flash like a bunch of firecrackers
on g. Fourth Of July night. When the
lights are turned on, everybody is down
but the Kid.
The theater where this new play is
presented holds more people than any
other in town. and has a larger ratio
OF boys TO men in it's audiences. Not