The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-11
ADJUSTMENTS

That morbid craving for sensation that
crowds the courts at murder trials, that
gives the yellow journals their circula-
ton, that leads emotional women to
shower flowers upon the most depraved
criminals, is the same force that fills the
theatres when such plays as "A Desper-
ate Chance are presented The Grand
proved to be no exception last evening
The popular play house was crowded TO
the limit of its capacity to see enacted
what purpOrts to be the drama of the
Biddle brothers. The Incidents of the
crimes of these young men and their deS-
perate and unusual attempt to escape 20
Canada from the Jail in western Pennsyl-
vania some years ago were intensely in
teresting as related in the papers at the
time, but they do not furnish the basis
for a successful play. There is too much
crime and sOrdidness depicted, and there
is not enough of the bright side of human
nature TO light up the dark picture. Nor
do the events lead up to the proper eli
makes to sustain the interest of theatre
audience.
ties with the facts in his endeaYors to
construct a play. He makes Jack Bid
die out to be a fine fellow led astray by
his older brother; he works in hypnotism;
he works in a Dutch comedian and red
headed soubrette; he works in a small
child. the daughter of the sheriff; he
works in an old widow silly in her love
for Ed Biddle; he works in a desperate
encounter in the Butler county jail in
which two prison guards are murdered
by the Biddle brothers in their attempt
TO escape; he works in many other de-
tails that did not appear in the accounts
of the crime at the time. No doubt he
has done as well as could be done with
the grewsome material, but after all that
has been said. it still remains to be said
that the play is not a good one. There
were a number Of bitches last evening in
the shifting of the scenery that detracted
from what merit the entertainment pos
sesses.
The company is quite a large one. w.
II. McDougall and Bernard Johnson take
the parts of the Biddle boys; Catherine
Courier portrays the wife of the sheriff
who assisted in the escape of the prison
ers and accompanied them in their flight;
]. j. Fritz takes the part of the father Of
the infatuated woman, and William Cour-
Ter takes the part of her husband, the
sheriff. There are a number of lesser
parts. Nora Johnson is altogether sweet
in the part of the little daughter of the
sheriff. the link that in the end drew
the estranged husband and wife together
George w. Demo- as Rudolph, the Dutch
man, is a good funmaker and his spe-
ciaities were entertaining The diff
Guilty is that much of his fun seems out
of place in the shadow of the gallows
and in such an atmosphere OF crime
"A Desperate Chance" is given i'm four
acts. The first presents the Kenny gro
second shows the interior of the Pitts
burg Jail and the preparation for the es-
cape; the third shows the escape the
murder of the two prison guards, the
tight in the snoWstOrm, in which tho
prisoners are wounded and recaptured:
the fourth shows the death of the Bid
dies in the corridor of the Butler county
Jail and the reconciliation of the sheriff
and his wife. The play will run through
out the week, with the usual matinees.
This is tonights bill at the Orpheurn:
A Night With the Poets: Mason & Kee-
Ter. in Hooked by Crook: Mason &
Bart. novelty gymnasts: Christie Duo
Russian dancers; Elmer Tenley The
Manhattan Man: Les Aubn- Leonel, du-
etists-fantaisists, the kinodrome and the
orchestra
Ralph Stuart. as. the college-bred In
dian hero, ''Strongheart." in the comedy
drama by William c. DeMille is the Of
fering announced for the Salt Lake the
atre for three nights and the usual mat
inee. commencing tonight.
Berton Churchill. who plays the Indian
chief IN THE Squaw Man" has accom-
plished task that few men would have
undertaken. In this play Edwin Milton
Royle, the author. has made his Indians
speak only in their native language. the