The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-22

per and under natures of man, the ex-
allied and degraded, the soul and the
body; and many a sermon of his did !
report in which he elucidated with fer
Vid eloauence the contests for suprem-
acy between good and evil in individ-
uals. He was wont to depict in emo
tional diction-for he never wrote be-
forehand more than the briefest notes
this eternal warfare of virtue and
vice. Then came the Beecher-TiltOn
scandal, and for six months | sat in a
court room writing descriptions of his
trial in a lawsuit brought by Theodore
Tilton, for damage done by the clergy
mans conduct with Mrs. Tilton. The
evidence convinced even Beecher' S
closest friends, think, that he was
guilty; and the jury's disagreement
was caused, il seemed to me, by the
disclosures of Beecher's bigness and
Tilton's ittleness; but what I thought
OF mostly, as the trial proceeded, was
the great preachers theory that no
man is all good, or all bad, but always
both, and il is an everlasting fight be-
tween his procliVities for dominance
j became admiringly familiar with
Beecher, and years after the trial I
asked him if he had read Robert Louis
Stevenson's then new story, DR. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde?"
Yes. " he said, land its physical sep
aration of the good and the evil in one
person, so that one day he looks saint
~ and the next fiendish. is a COnceit Of
genius. God knows-my dear fellow
God knOws''-and then he broke off
abruptly
1t seemed to me sure that the grand
old man, had ne finished the sentence,
might have said: God knows I have
striVen to be a Jekyll in years. even
though / VA a Nyda In 60
far as I know, the only play that
Beecher ever saw was an acting YER
sion of his sisters Uncle Toms Cab
il" which Mrs. Stowe is said to have
never seen at all. l felt sorry that he
did not attend a performance of the
Mansfield dramatizatiOn of DIR. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde" because, while Hyde
overcame Jekyll in the play, Beecher
had at least fought out the same kind
of fight with a result the other way.
K
What has that to do with present
theatrical affairs? The answer is that
the Jekyll-Hyde idea of virtuOus versus
vicious human nature, as set forth i'm
Beecher's sermons and StevenSon'S
story, is the making of this weeks new
drama in New York, 1.-The Secret Or,
chard." In it the Duke of CIuny has
inherited the noble and ignOble propen-
sites of his royal Stuart ancestry. A
girl named Joy has for a heritage the
goodness of an unknown father and the
badness of a VIGOROUSLY known moth
en- In both Cluny and JOY the good
IS paramount; they are Jekylls almost
all the time; but it mishappens that
they meet in an hour when the Hyde
In both is in control, and they sin
spontaneously. furiOusiy, very wicked
Iy. That is set forth in the novel of
THE Secret Orchard by Agnes and
Egerton Castle; and the authors made
out OF II play that was used a little
by the Kendals in England, but that
David BelascO decided not to in Amer
lea after thinking it over seriously.
Charming Pollock Obtaired the right to
turn the book to theatrical account
and he wrote a play that was tried last
summer with a stock company in New
England. Later it was taken to Chi
cagO, thence to Philadelphia and
Washington, and now is brought into
New York. Pollock strikes into the
story at the point where Cluny's young
duchess fetches Joy to the ducaI castle
10 adopt as a daughter.
Right OFF there is a dramatic incident
when the duke and the girl are as
founded to recognize in each other the
companion of guilty encounter. The
ensuing play is in spirit much like those
that were transferred from Paris to
New York in the prime time of Clara
Morris; but those were eXpositions of
lechery and nothing else, while this
presents prOblematically, also. the
Jekyll-Hyde. Beecher-Tilton everlast-
ing and never settled problem of virtue
ana vice inimical in single individuals.
Cluny had been loyal to his wife until. !
on night Of moonlight on the sea. he
responded to the ancestral Stuart's call
10 the lewd; and Joy, in an outing
from rigorous convent school. for the
frst time in her innocent young life. !
was overcome by the Unborn lust from
her mother. The problem of good and
evil duality is kept above the story of a |
liaisOn, and the outcome is a very I'M |
usual drama. The playwright has
however, from the novelists' |
adherence TO a logical conclusion. The |
castles let TIE Duke of Cluny kill him |
self IN TemOrseful expiation of his one |
evil deed, just as the bad HYDE |
brought the good JekyIl to death: but |
sad endings to plays decrease the cash |
income; and who will complain be- |
cause Cluny gets a living chance to /
regain his wife's love. and Joy wor-
thy American lover keen to marry her
her single misdeed?
X x
The theatre was packed with friends
Of the variOusly interested parties at
he introduction of "The Secret orr
chard;" and the ushers' ever ready
hands We're available; for our cynical
irst-nighters are not given to the open
approval even Of a play that plea>es
hem until they have read praise in the
next days newspapers; but this time
hey took uncommon pride in the dis
,oVery OF a new actress. whose name.
he program said, was Josephine Vic
or and became noisy over her natural,
rot artful spells OF Clara Morris emo
ion. I hope we have got in1this young
girl Worthwhile actress. She made
Toys grief exceedingly Pitiful.
At that time the maker of the drama
If sin and sorrow was getting joviaI
amusement in another theatre from
A Knight for a Day" This new and
I'D show would give to genealogist
he opportunity for research in descent
or should / say ascent? A year ago
{ was christened Mile Sallie," after
laving been rehearsed as "The Old
4ocket;" and that too. was an aItera-
ion from THE Medal and the Maid"
sumptuous production of three sea-
ons earlier That, In its turn, was new
My TO this country. il being an
american version of a London musical
omedy. and the English piece was J
racea5le to 2 French source. There 7
Il US leave the inquiry: though doubt I
ess the lineage might be traced still {