The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-27

l urdmatlC niVe, BelaSCO ana 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 to find an abuse of reform. It's l illustrative case of right motive going | wrong is that of a Gotham Trust Conn.,
 pany. which falls under the ban of crit icism. suspicion and finally denuncia- 1 tion; and Burton Temple. its honest president, is accused of footing it crim- \ inally. The purpose of the author, Will
 liam J. Hurlburt. is to create in this 1 Temple maytyr to indiscriminate
 laborated with him. instead Of merely l editing and producing his composition. | the outcome would be of great instead of merely good success.
 l As 1t is. though. "The Fighting 1 Hope" provides such a heroine as
 Blanche Bates. with her vital vim con- l troiled by David Belasco-held in here, | let out there. and guided to belching l force at cIimaxes-recommends equally 1 to people with or without critical dis 1 crimination. If you ever go to thea 1 tres where the grade of melodramas
 branded "Bowery" is presented, you l can't have failed to see at least one i of the many in which an innocent con- vict Ianguishes In prison while his wife and children suffer disgrace and pri- vation until the real criminal is expos- 1 ed and the honorable felon is restored l to his family and his good fame. 1 Blanche enacts the wife of Robert 1 Granger, who has been convicted of 1 crime in connection with the Gotham | Trust Company; and. believing him in- l nocent she sets out to exculpate him and remove the smirch from her chill l dren. Take heed here. If YOU please. l of a variant from the familiar trash in ] this play of injustice written for | higher order of appreciation. The pris- I oner in Sing Sing Is not innocent, as
 the devoted wife thinks. but inexcus- ably guilty, and the president of the l trust concern. although about to be l convicted as the chief culprit. Is thor | oughly honorable. Those facts about 1 Temple Granger and the wife of Gran l ger are made known to the audience i when Mrs Granger is installed as a private secretary to Temple at his 1 home, where such of his affairs as are
 too intimate for his banking offce are handled, and where she has "a fighting | hope" of so sleuthing that. he may be 1 sent to a cell and her husband let out. l Temple doesn't know that she is Mrs. Granger and at first she doesn't know | he was the lover in her maiden TO- nance. There we are. as you see. with l a woman seeking the truth unsuspect- ing that it will exonerate her employer
 and not her husband.
 Blanche Bates gets her opportunity l l dience when she finds out that the fath- | CT of her children deserves to be a con- l vict, but she has it in her power to l get him pardoned, and that her for 1 mer sweetheart is innocent. vet will be l condemned unless she saves him with | the evidence she has discovered. She no longer loves her guilty husband, | and she does again love the other man; ] but wouldn't it break her maternal | heart to leave the stigma on her chill
 dren when she can remove 1t? Yet 1t | is heartbreaking, also. to permit the 1 innocent man she now loves to go to l undeserved punishment. The dilemma comes upon her suddenly. She has had
 no forewarning that the truth. when l she has ferreted it out. will condemn | Granger and acquit Temple. Her an- guish is acute. For, awhile she is re- | solved to clear the convict for his chil- dren's sake; but conscience prevails.
 
 that's a happy issue, too, as she there by gets an honorable stepfather for the youngsters, as well as a fond and ktrue second husband for herself.
 Two of the currently prosperous plays in New York have only six char acters apiece, while a third nas put four, and now 'The Fighting Chance"
 gets along with five in single un- changed room. If this sort of thing goes on we shall see mass meetings of unemployed actors and stage hands. In this latest instance of short cast for a full length drama, however, inter- est Is so concentrated on the mothers fight to clean her children's name that Miss Bates needs no more aid than she gets from Charles Richman as the good man who's thought bad and Howard Hanseu as the bad man who's thought good. Belascan skill in the best craft known to the stage Is observable from main points down to small details.
 To figure out how few costumes of the great Hippodrome spectacle de- scribed last week. could be bought for all the money represented in the entire nroduction of School Days" would seem unkind: but 1t would not be: for this happy little show Is triumph of cIeverness over cash. You may recall a sketch that has been in the vaude- vile theatres several years in which a schoolroom is made merry with pranks of pupils, iests of the day and melodfous songs. That is the middle and best third of the new play. An Italian. a Russian Jew. a cheese-eat- ing German and a number of saucy Americans are the bows who answer the teachers questions all the way from ancient history to modern poli- ties Who" she asks. for instance. would be the Presidents successor in case of an accident?' Whereupon the bright boy stands up and says. "Wil- liam Jennings Bryan" And the Dem ocrats in the audience laugh with the Republicans; for in this city is Is a pe- culiarity of the Bryan campaign that his adherents don't resent. but relish, Jokes about his persistent candidacy.
 Down the other side of the school room are the girls desks. boy in passing whispers to a little girl. She Is shocked and angry. Teacher asks the trouble, and the tot says: "John- ny whispered a naughty word to me- Teacher wants to know what 1t was. but the girl won't tell My mamma"