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

and wishes for the 81 900 with which to
pay off the mortgage on his property.
The money comes to him as a gift from
the electric company which has en-
pioyed his son, but as a recompense
for the death of that beloved son in a
dynamo accident.
A mistake in the performance of
THE Monkeys Paw" and the way in
which 1t was rectified, showed that one
Of the old "don'ts' of the stage, don't
slight the plot lines" is a rule worth
keeping. A plot 1ine"--is a sentence
containing matter essential to a COM
prehension Of the plays story, and
therefore ought to be spoken so dis
tinctly and significantly that the whole
audience will hear and heed it. Much
worse than to merely slur a plot line I"
OF course, is to omit * altogether. Now,
the old sergeant who told about the
supernatural power of the monkeys
paw should have said that the person
who invoked its potency to get a wish
must suffer an accompanying evil re-
suit. AS the case given in the play
turned out, the wishcd-for money came
with death. So, yca see how desirable
II was that the plot line" covering
that point should not be sighted. When
the time came for it, it was omitted
through a failure to give a cue. But
Werner Charges. who played the SER
geant, is a reliable old stager, and he
got that plot line" in, although to do
it he went back and started in again
twice. The audience thought he was
the 1umbler, while he was commenda-
bly, mindful Of the don't" about plot
lines"
That reminds me. On the years-ago
night that Annie Russell started star
ring with THE Girl and the Judge. 4"
good 7o-year-old Mrs. G. H Gilbert
should have put brooch on a table,
while making a call, so that Annie's
kleptomaniac mother might steal it.
The story OF the play turned on that
point. And Mrs. Gilbert, with her
three-score-and-tan weak memory, for
got to leave the brooch behind her
when she ended her visit. She said
good-day, and started for the door.
pinning the brooch quite safely to
fasten her mantle. The author, Clyde
Fitch, who directs the production of his
plays, made frantic gestures to her
from the wing, but Mrs. Gilbert didn't
guess what was the matter with him.
Annie Russell interpo'ated, Must you
go?" and why hurry sou but it gave
&c hint to the dear old lady.
What pretty brooch you wear"
Annie next improvised, desperately:
indeed, you must leave it for mamma
to see.''
Not till then did Mrs Gilbert under
stand that she had all but cut out the
reason for gentle Annie's ensuing sor-
rows. She was appalled, by the peril
which she had brought to the starring
venture of her fond foster daughter,
but was able to stammer, Certainly.
RI ha -,
table before tottering from the scene
X X *
That Is depression. This letter is
devoted to short plays. They are as
much easier than long plays to write as
short stories are than full length nov
els. In either form of brevity in fiction,
no technical skill of construction is re-
CURED, nor an accretion of interest
from an involved succession of incl
dents; and if a single episode of suffi-
GENTLY engrossing singularity is pre-
sented, writer of no more than fair
facility may turn the trick TO win.
However, that is a big, big of" have
spent an assiduous week, which
CHANGED to be devoid of new whole
evening play. seeing many brief ones.
Most of them lacked sufficient oddly
to warrant so much as a mention here
by name. An exception in vaudeville
Q matinee idol in a stage piece, but
found freshness, inconsequential vet
peculiar, in I'm Car Two-Stateroon1
One" A railway train stands ready to
start. A young man comes imperson-
at1ng director of the company with
pass, and the conductor gives him
stateroom one in car two. A girl comes
similarly Impersonating that identical
directors wife. ard the joking conduc-
tor puts her in the same sleeping quar-
tiers. The fun that ensues is jolly, and
has sentimental touches. as the two
tricky travellers discover that they are
childhood sweethearts; whereupon thew
qualify for joint rComing by getting a
clerical passenger to make them hus-
band and wife. The author VIII NJ
CTessy, hasn't let in an immodest word:
Mia Allen is as neat a soubrette as
the role of the impromptu bride needs
for Clearly personation; and most of
the action takes place in a train to
which a rather effectual Illusion of
rapid travel is impaired. The inter-
state abolition of railway passes has.
OF course, nit the plot such a blow as
to knock II out; but Cressy wasn't a
prophet when he wrote the play, and
you couldn't ask him 90 throw ii avav-
because Roosevelt made it legally OBJ
sciete.
X X X
Smart society folk were in and out
and round about 1.-The House of a
Traitor" one of the weeks new PLAY
let's. OF itself it was a tabloid tragedy
by Prosper Merimee, the French fic-
zionist. That is to say, it had been
made out of one of Merimee's hundreds
of brief sketches, "Mateo Falcone," in
which a Corsican brigand Judges his
son to be guilty of betraying a robber
TO the authorities, pronounces a SEN
tence of death upon him, and then him
self acts as the executioner AS Meri-
NEE wrote the story, the father places
the boy at the edge of a precipice
while the mother prays for the rest of
his soul, takes eteady aim with a rife,
shoots him through the heart, and the
dead body falls into the abyss. Rather
grim? To be sure But quite within
tie scheme of the Partisan Theatre An
tome, and really a better play for Ar
mold Days purpose than either of the
three which he presented.
The twenty-minute tragedy of 1.-THE
House of a Traitor is used as pre-