The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-27
BY FRANKLIN EYlES.

New York, Sept. 25.-Busy BIS in
dramatic hive, Belasco and Bates, Da-
vid and Blanche, were buZZing angrily
a little while ago and threatening to
sting each other. Now they have be-
gun to make honey-that's to say,
money-again together with THE
Fighting Hope" This new play is re-
markable for the attack it makes on
the undertaking process of uncovering
dishonesty. Several dramatiZations of
evils in commercial and political graft
have been extremely popular. Here Is
one that thrusts a rake into the muck
TO find an abuse of reform. Its Illus
trative case of right motive going
wrong is that of a Gotham trust COM
pany. which falls under the ban of crit
icism, suspicion and finally denuncia-
ton; and Burton Temple. It's honest
president. is accused of footing ii GRIM
inally. The purpose of the author,
William ]. Hurlburt, is to create in this
Temple a martyr to indiscriminate
hatred of wealth. II Belasco had col
Elaborated with him. instead of merely
editing and producing his composition.
the outcome would be a great instead
of a merely good success
At is 1t. though. The Fighting
Hope" provides such a heroine as
Blanche Bates, with her vital vim con-
trolled by David Belascc-held in here,
let out there, and guided to belching
force at climaxes-recommen equally
TO people with or without critical dis
elimination. If you ever go to theatres
where the grade of melodramas brand
ed ''Bowery' are presented, you can't
have failed to see at least one of the
many in which an innocent convict Ian
cuisines in prison while his wife and
children suffer disgrace and privation
until the real criminal is exposed and
the. honorable felon is restored to his
family and his good fame. Blanche
en- It's the wife of Robert Granger. who
has been convicted of crime in connec-
ton with the Gotham Trust company;
and, believing him innocent, she sets
out TO exculoate him and remove the
smirch from her children. Take heed
here, II you please, of a variant from
the familiar trash in this play of in
justice written for higher order of ap-
probation. The prisoner in Sing Sing
IS not innocent. as the devoted wife
thinks, but ineXcusably guilty. and the
president of the trust concern. although
about to be convicted as the chief Gull
prit, is thoroughly honorable. Those
facts about Temple, Granger and the
wife of Granger are made known to the
audience when Mrs. Granger is in
stalled as a private secretary to Tenn
fairs as are too intimate for his bank
ing Office are handled. and where she
has "a fighting hope" of so sleuthing
that he may be sent to a cell and her
husband let out. Temple doesn't know
that she is Mrs. Granger, and at first
she doesn't know he was the lover in
her maiden romance. There we are,
as you see. with a woman seeking the
truth unsuspectng that ii will exoner-
h..
Blanche Bates gets her opportunity
for emotionalism that reaches the audi
ence when she finds out that the IA
Their of her children deserves to be q
convict, but she has Il in her power to
get him pardoned. and that her former
sweetheart is innocent, yet VIII be con-
demned unless she saves him with the
evidence she has discovered. She no
longer loves her guilty husband. and
she does again love the ether man; but
wouldn't II break her maternal heart
"a leave the stigma on her children
when she ian remove it? Yet it is
hcartbreaking. also. TO permit the IN
nocent man she now loves to go to I'M
deserved Imprisonment The dilemma
comes upon her suddenly She has had
no forewarning that the truth, when
she has ferre.ed il out. win condemn
Granger and acquit Temple. Her an
guish is acute. For awhile she is re-
solved to clear the convict for his chill
dren's sake; but conscience prevails
and she does her manifest duty: and
that's happy issue, too. as she there
by gets an honorable stepfather for the
youngsters, as well as a fond and true
second husband for herself.
Two of the currently prosperous
plays In New York have only six char
acters apiece. while a third has but
four. and now THE Fighting Hope"
gets along with five in a single I'M
changed room. II this sort of thing
goes on we shall see mass meetings of
unemployed actors and stage hands. In
this latest instance Of a short cast for |