The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-12


assistant. The agents only companion
is his wife. After going without sleep
until he can't keep awake any longer,
he is lying in fitful slumber on a bench,
while she listens for the telegraphic
instrument to. click the signal that
there is a message for him. When the
call comes she rouses him with much
difficulty He receives an order that
the next train shall wait on a certain
siding for another to pass by. He
drowsily blunders in delivering Il, and
does not discover his error until it is
seemingly too late to avert dreadful
disaster The only and very forlorn
hope is that he may send warning
over the wire in the nick Of time. In
case this desperate effort succeeds, the
whistle of the intercepted locomotive
viii be heard not a minute later than
ii o'clock.
If you and I were on the spot at
such crisis, we would be frantic with
excitement, or else paralyZed TO still
ness. But If we saw it on the stage,
why should we let it disturb US?
Wouldn't we know that, besides being
all sham.- anyway. the whistle was
bound to be heard? Sentimental deaths
for heroes and -heroines are frequent in
ffiction;s brave men sacrifice their lives
and devoted women suffer unto death;
but never, never does The hero fail in
an endeavor TO save people from a dis
asteT. The audience which watched the
scene / have outlined was of Broadway
two-dollar sophisticdtion, yet 1t allowed
itself to get into a stirless, breath hoId-
ing state. After the whistle had been
heard, and the station agent had
thanked God that two trainloads of
passengers would not be killed, the as
semblage sneered at itself for having
been affected; but all the same it had
behaved just as though the whole oc-
currence were real.
Isn't the potency of stage illusion
marvellous?
II was a playlet by Charles A. Ken
yon, THE Flag Station" presented by
Arnold. Daily in a bill with two others,
that the incident of The station agents
blunder was enacted. Although the
idea had been derived from the one
familiar in THE Girl / Left Behind
Me-" it was worked out with much
originality of circumstance and detail
ito render ii freshly effective. The
agent. embodied by DAILY. had lately
married girl as young and sweet as
blanche Rings young sister, Frances,
and she was enduring exile with him
at this out-of-the-way station. A
message came over the wire that as
Reward for his three days OF unre-
llieved duty during the storm, he would
be promoted to service in a city sta
ton. So the loving youngsters were
very happy for a few minutes-and
then very miserable with the belief
that not only would he be dismissed for
his mistake, but a hundred lives would
be sacrificed dreadfully. Suddenly the
'sleam of hope was thrown across the
black prospect that the trains might be
warned by wire in time. A clock on the
wall pointed its hands at two minutes
to eleven. and if its stroke of the hour
hafc tel %
why, then-then-it was agreed be-
tween the husband and the wife that
he should kill her and himself. The
tense silence was broken by nothing
but the ticking of the clock and the
blasts of the blizzard.
Ten seconds left" he says, hoarsely,
''fVe-tWO-One-''
her iii his arms and lifts pistol The
audience shudders. Seven strokes of
the eleven have sounded. Then the
distant steam whistle is heard,
X X X
Arnold DAILY, who fioated into celeb
rity on a wave of Shawism. seeks to
keep in the current of success by doing
here what Andrea Antoine IS doing in
Paris; that is, give three plays in one
bill. Days initial entertainment be-
gins with the serious drama which 7
have described, and next gives 1.-The
Lemonade Boy" a seriO-comic comedy.
The writer of it is Gladys Unger, a
young and pretty girl whom the mil
cionaire, Yerkes, enabled to develop her
abilities as a dramatist Her first act
ed play, Sheridan" failed In this coun-
Try and then succeeded in London.
= AS the title character in THE Lemon
ade Boy is a young fellow who sells
lemonade at the English seaside resort
Of Eastbourne, 1 can only guess wheth-
er her directions were that Puppy, the
lemonade boy, should go without shoes
and stockings. A bathing master, who
would surely go unshod, on duty, ap-
pears without showing his bare feet
and ankles, while Puppy. who might
reasonably cover his walkers. exposes
them 10 view. Perhaps she meant that
both should patter the sands with their
own unleathered soles. But in the first
stage use of the play, the star actor
monopolIzes the Trilby opportunity, by
Wearing neither knitted fabric nor shoe
leather, while the fellow supposed to be
ready for the surf has on full-length
trousers and substantial CATERS. Daily
made mistake, though, If he expected
10 get admiration in that way. He is
q good-loOking young fellow about the
head, and his hands are well enough
but no mans feet are lit for publicity.
Don't you know how it is with the
handsome actresses who show their
naked tootsies as Trilby? Even a wo-
mans small foot. spread fat on the
floor. looks big and ill-shaped 1t is
always a rather shocking Illusion. I
ask you TO imagine, therefore, the ex-
preston In the face of the audiences
girls when Arnold Daily came into view
with his trousers rolled up to his knees,
and his calves, shins and feet painted
10 look dirty. There were other things
in the clever play-such as the lemon
onade boys love for the girl who kept
sweetmeat stand. his jealousy of the
bathing master, and his pathetic deliv-
cry of the coquette 20 this honest rival
TO save her from a minstrel singer; but
Arnold Days feet, looming in the scene
like number tens, and Overwhelmingly
earthly, nulified all of Miss Unger's
clever composition. Mr.. DAILY may ac-
eompljsh his design of an Antoine the
k,.+ h. o1.~