Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-24
"MAN OF THE HOUR PRESENTED
AT THE MASON
DRAMA PROVES TRUE PICTURE
OF CONDITIONS
Author, However, Has Succeeded N
Telling a Vastly Interesting Love
Story In Connection with
Political Expose
BYas1DLE LAWRENCE

practical politics 1t visualizes conditions
which have made the local governments
of American cities reproach to the ma
ton and a aughing stock to foreign stu
dents of municipal affairs. 1t Is, perhaps
overdrawn in detail, but the facts are
there and the facts are ugly things, sc
ugly that were 1t not for recent expert
ences In Philadelphia, Minneapolis ano
San Francisco they might readily be
charged against the melodramatic I'M
pulse of the playwright and their obvious
lesson be disregarded.
There is little theorizing In the play. II
has to do with actual conditions, forcibly
presented. 1t is a pitiful, shameful
story, and pity is tbs true. If Mr.. Broad
hurst has exaggerated his characters
and Horrigan is exaggerated-he has done
so to draw with surer lines the picture
he would present. His is not painting
that requires careful hanging and special
lighting for it's appreciation. 1t STANDS
out from the canvas boldly, frankly, FOB
trusively. There is no getting away from
it. 1t is study in black and white-a
A Familiar Story
The story is too well known, though
this is the first time the play has been
presented in Los Angeles, to require ex-
tensive comment 1t is an exposition of
the boss system and its corollary, the
graft system, In municipal government.
In brief the plot opens with the boss,
Horrigan, in difficulties. With a cam
paign approaching he discovers the ne
cessity for nominating clean man for
mayor If he would win. The man is
nominated and elected Then a franchise
steal is introduced and the boss seeks to
bully the mayor into signing 1t. This
fails. An appeal is made to HIS ambition.
He is promised the nomination for COVER
nor. This, too, fails. Then he is offered
the woman he loves for his wife. but
still declines His own record unassail-
able the boss unearths unsavory facts
convicting his dead father of graft and
threatens their publication if the fran
chise grab is defeated. Even to this ap-
peal he remains obdurate. The bill is
vetoed; the boss and the man higher up
face prison terms for bribery and the bill
is withdrawn on the day and hour it
was to have gone to vote for the
second time.
To make his play practical for stage
use Mr.. Broadhurst has cleverly inter-
woven an interesting love story with
the practical politics of his plot and he
has. as 1 have already stated, exagger-
ated some one or two of his characters.
Horrigan, the Boss
Such a man as Horrigan never could
have risen to be boss of city. He might
have dominated slum ward but beyond
that he could not go. AS he himself says,
he knows nothing of diplomacy. He is a
political bully, his one weapon the big
stick; intolerant OF opposition but always
opposing 1t directly, never by indirection.
He is boss without craft and without
guile. Such men do not attain to the
power he is depicted as swaying
More natural is Alderman Phelan, hon
est for the once because anxious to pay
off grudge against the boss; an Irish
politician, boasting that he knows the
first name of every voter in his ward,
including the ''Dagoes and Polacks;" and
that he knows how many children each
of them has. Phelan is the Devery type
of man, and those familiar with the
personality and career of that curious
figure in New York municipal politics
doubtless will regard the character as a
more or less exact portrait.
Perhaps the most Informative thing
about last nights performance of this
exceptionally timely play was the at
titude OF the audience. The theater was
well filed Business and professional men
were there in numbers 1t was repre-
sentative gathering; such an audience as
might be expected to assemble at the
Mason to view play which has created
the talk accorded to THE Man of the
Hour" Therefore it's attitude toward the
play is of Importance; and its reception
Of the moral sought to be conveyed,
doubly important.
Laugh at Graft Speeches
Into the mouth of Horrigan, the boss,
the playwright has put several epigram-
matte speeches having to do with graft.
In one of them Horrigan explains that
nowadays everyone CRAFTS, and proceeds
to illustrate his doctrine by taking up the
professions seriatim; the lawyer, who tells
his client how far he can be dishonest
and escape prison; the newspaper pro-
prietor, who accepts lying advertise.
ments; the United States senator, who
becomes a millionaire in a year, on a
salary of $ovvO; the railroad man, who
grants rebates, and the shippers who ac-
cept them. The list might be extended
indefinitely. Horrgan goes just far
enough to prove his point-and the aud.
ience laughs.
There are several such speeches and
last night each one of them was re-
ceived with laughter. Obviously this
means one of two things. 1t means
,S4fiaano that we have come to regard
,,olicv &, at its worst as merely a
offense; or that we go to the
reiieVe so completely absorbed in the
terests for amusement that we are ready
tariff .gh at anything, If 1t Is only clev-
moro ephrased. The point is one for a
49,. fher or a sociologist. Doubtless
tioii Ibis, you have decided that it is
foundone for a play-reviewer.
the A Strong Company
tureihe company presenting The Mar
this the Hour" is strong one and the
coeveral roles in the main are excel
,lently handled. Louis Hendricks a.
the boss plays the part as the author
designed it to be played. 1t is, II
truth, a caricature rather than a char.
acter, but Hendricks is not responsible
for that. Frederick Perry as tn,
mayor is convincing and he is mo-
STACY" for which we would forgiv,
him much were he in need of such dis
pensation. Frank Sheridan likewis,
gives a good portrait of the mar
higher up" and Felix Haney is ad
mirable as Alderman Phelan, the fat
test" role in the piece. to make use o
an expression much employed amonl
stage folk. Ruby Bridges plays tn,
role of the young woman with whom
the mayor is in love.
The locale Of the play on the pro