The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-03

John Doe procedure be taken to. firstly
identify Bragdlon and Postance; ana
to secondly. in case they are proven to
be Charles Z. Blaney, the plays pro-
Queer. force him to tell which, the
editor or the mayor, is its villain. Ana
such a graft-smirched murder-dyed
villain! Why-but bye and bye for
that.
Timothy Mccormick. the political
boss in The Governor and the Boss. :"
is for a while puzzle, because he is
Tammany boss, and so who else than
Charlie Murphy? Pretty soon, though
the evidence is conclusive that he is
Big Tim Sullivan, the Tammany boss
absolute of Manhattan borough south
Of Fourteenth street, which includes
the Bowery. The play reveals, too, a
Sullivan domestic and paternal past
never suspected by his east side con-
stltuency. 1t seems Boss Big Tim
hasn't lived all his life in New York
but has taken time enough away from
here to marry, in some midwest city,
woman whom Editor Hearst. or
Mayor McClellan-one t'Other or ANAL
gamated both-lured away from him.
Thereupon, Tim the Big Boss shot
Hearst, or was it Mcclellan? and ran
away. Here, now, in New York he
finds the daughter of that lOng-ago
wedlock in Governor Hughes combined
secretary and fiancee. An involved
campaign, this, with Hughes, Hearst,
Mcclellan and Sullivan fighting SEN
timentally as well as politically.
And Boss Tim Sullivan the Big is
the hero paramount for the populace
in 'The Governor and the Boss" oh,
my, yes. Hughes probity, as shown,
is rather too prim to find full favor
with New Workers promiscuously.
Hearsts and McClellan's duplicity, as
libelled against them. passes beyond
permissible craft of the polls into de-
spicable criminality, when they, blend
ed in he, Jimmy into Hughes house on
election night to assassinate him. Big
Sullivan, the Tim Boss of Tammany,
is different. He is a square dealer ac-
cording TO his moral lights: he rates
Hughes politically as a duffer, but pre-
sumably as fit TO be a Tammany boss
sOn-in-law; so he goes in cahoOts with
Hughes i'm d canvass which lands him
in Albany. Incidentally, he carries a
gun loaded to kill the libertine who led
his wife astray: and on finding him
in Mcclellan, or is it Hearst? his
vengeful vim captivated the audience.
X X X
All this space is not given to dol
lar-parquet and dime-gallery play
merely TO be facetiOus, but partly to
show the change which next winter
Will bring in stagecraft for the popu-
lace. The melOdrama of gun-pop and
knife-prick has slumped. Time and
again have l described even the crud-
est of audiences as getting diversion
from such pieces by derisiOn. They
roared with laughter at episodes meant
TO thrill A puncture by a bullet, or
slit by a blade. became a Joke The
cOerced by deserved ridicule
of their heroes and herOines, retired
their romantic lovers up stage at acts
end, and sent their obtrusive comedians
and impertinent soubrettes to the fronl
for the climaXes. l noted often that
While hilarity greeted situations too
absurd to get sober attention, any rea-
tenrse or plausibly exciting in
cident hushed the guyer While it was
being presented, and evoked hearty APP
plause after the curtain went down.
The decline and fall of melOdrama-of
plays with no real newnesS apart from
the titleS-rendered the winter of
1918 improbable to many managers
who had prospered i'm 1867. The losers
are throwing down this spring the stuff
that was rejected by the people, and
think that next autumn they will take
up better matter generally. But of the
thirteen theatres in New York which,
a year ago, were given over TO plays
titled like why Mothers Hands Seek
Spank Spots and THE
Death Notch on Shoot En-
Quick's GunstOck," all save one are Oc-
cupied this week by musical farces, |
starred players in coherent plays and
other entertainments not crazy nor
very foolish.
1t should be taken gladly that THE /.
Governor and the Boss" is a sign of
the time when melOdrama so bad as to /
be burlesque is past, and that better /
kinds of low-cOSt yet not lOW-bTOW /
plays are coming along. This new one /
In "a reckless misrepresentation of
New York politics, of course, but it is (
a distinct gain for originality never /
Lheless. Take its last act as illus /
rrative. 1t is the night of the election |
day when Hughes was voted governo: /
and Hearst almost. Hughes household |
is alert at ticker and phones in his Ii |
Drary for figures from upstate. (
Hughes sends the family to dinner /
while he sits smoking. His chance of
success has been lessened by Hearst |
publication of a charge /
that he is foul. instead of clean. as to /
women and the enemy has had him
q
drab placed as a spy typewriter in his
office; but at the last stress she avOWs
the falsity of her accusation; and the
returns indicate Hughes victory. Then
the enraged Hearst Mcclellan enters
like a burglar through a window with /
a pistol in hand gets the drop on
Hughes. points to the girls written
confession on the table and says: De /
strOy that paper or l viii kill you"
Now. no matter how distOrtive the /
showing of New York politics has been I
in this play; how brightly il shines up
a halo of heroism for Boss Sullivan as /
well as Governor Hughes; or how de- /
famingIy il turns the good-parented 4
gentlemanly hammered /
Mayor Mcclellan and Editor Hearst
he politically antagOnistic two of them /
into one scoWling. leering. sneering, /
type of district lead
sr; still a not altogether unreasonable /
interest has been worked up. A rap is /
heard at the door. The beaten candi-
late for governor hides behind
l. Ii 81