The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-04

New York, Aug. AT One Horse
tain somewhere on the California
coast, an army post has been aban-
0Oned. A bigger cannon than ever
was placed in a fort or on a warship
is left behind. Why it was taken there
is government secret. Perhaps to
surprise the JaDs if they sneak across
the Pacific to attack US Anyway, the
enormous gun is there, with a bushel
of powder in it, and a fuse adjusted,
but it contains no prOjectiie. Along
comes poor little Sylvia, chased by
Black Pete. Humpy Jones and Devil
Dolores. They desire to kill her, and,
because she scratches and bites to es-
cape, they would like to do it with I'M
common cruelty. How?
Why not put her in the cannOn?'
asks Humpy Jones, and fire her off ?''
There amt no why not" says Black
Pete.
Not that I can think Of" says Devil
Dolores. But, look, Yonder comes
Jack Diamond, her lover
Sylvia slumps limp with fright, and
is TOO weak to scratch or bite any
more: but her vocal chords stay taut
and she yells high G. Jack hears the
call, but several bullets have been shot
into his muscles, and his running gait
is impaired. The girl is thrust into
the cannon to be fired against a rocky
precipice, on which Jack appears. Her
arms reach out from the muZZle in pitt
full appeal. The fuse begins to sizzle
Jack, by proxy of an acrObatic double
leaps TO the branch of a tree and
hangs head downward. The powder
boomsi The girl, in the form of a
facsimile boy, floats through the air.
And her lover catches her by her
hands.
Like that the New York season
first melodramatic gun is fired in
Tine King and Queen of Gamblers.
BY Theodore Kremer? No-Owen Da-
Wis: and l think it is going to be nip
and tuck between Davis and kremeI
which shall turn out the best plays OF
the worst kind. Jack Diamond, the
king of gamblers, has never dealt g
crooked card, and Devil Dolores, the
queen of gamblers, rarely a straight
one. Dolores wins unfairly the deed
Of a mine which Sylvia is heir to
Jacks sits into the game to win it
back. A square deal won't do it, sc
he rings in a cold deck, and cheats
for the right Up TO this point Jack
has been Bret Harte's inVariable gam
bier picturesque in printed descrip-
ton; but on the stage, in high hat
and long frOck coat, he looks like an
unGGTIdkeE dt q Gollln ; SiuS iltOAN tiie'A
a noW-a-day dealer at faro table;
and his professional calm is solemn
~ suggesting a funeral at the end OF
The play rather than a wedding. over
and over has Harte's sentimental
gambler failed in a drama. Davis
seems to have popularized him, at least
for cut-rate theatres, by that exploit
with the stacked cards. On the open
ing night although capable SEVERN
de Deyn acted Jack carefully, he made
little Roadway until. taking a fixed
hand at poker from his pocket. he laid
four aces down on the enemy's four
Jacks. and so saved the mine to Syl-
via. Thereupon, the dollars at the
front of the parquet jin8led in ap-
plause with the dimes at the rear OF
the gallery, and Jack instantly lnched
up to the stature of real hero
Is any new thing left to do on the
stage? Arthur w. Pinero wrote his
first serious play twenty-seven years
ago for the Kendals. IN the scene that
gave it value the wife of gambler
is urged by her husband TO swindle a