The San Francisco call., 1908-09-15
ACTRESS ELUDES
THE IT,. 5. MARSHAL
Nance 0'NeiII and Mckee Rankin
Are Able to Keep Out OF the
Clutches of the Law
Their Attorneys Say Swickard,
the Governments Chief
Witness, Is ExtOrtiOnist

Miss Nance ONeill and her mana ger
Mckee Rankin, who were indicted by
the federal grand jury in this city last
Friday for alleged piratical use OF
The Fires of St John" had not been
taken into custody in New York city
up to late hour last night. Marshal
Elliott, however, felt confident last
evening that the tragedienne would be
arrested within-a couple of days
!. Charges and counter charges have
! been made by the respective parties to
the case. and such ugly words as
"blackmail'' "extortion" and "hoIdup"
have been used freely. StockweH. who
ion that Swickard would not seem very
large when the affair is closed One
thing, however, he said he would ad-
NIT, and that was that Swickard was
the champion bad actor of America.
1t was admitted yesterday at the
United States marshars office that the
federal authorities are looking for Miss
O'Neill and her manager. Mckee Ran
kin. A process for their arrest has
been issued by the United States at
torney's Office in New York city and
news of their being taken into Gus
tody is expected momentarily. They
will undoubtedly be returned here at
once to plead to the indictments found
against them.
ATTORNEY OWENS REPLIES
Yesterday afternoon L. r. Stockwel
the local Snowman. also under indict-
ment, was asked concerning the mat
ter. In reply he said, through his at
torney, II. NJ. Owens:
This is nothing more than a case
of 'holdup. and when we get finished
with Swickard he will look like 20
cents. While Swickard was in the
employ of Mckee Rankin as an actor
he translated Sudermann's play, Johan-
mis- Fuer.' and asked Rankin to produce
it. The latter suggested the name
The Fires of ST. John, which Swickard
adapted. and the play was produced at
the Columbia theater in Boston, with
Miss O'Neill in the cast Swickard was
paid a royalty of, l think, 8 per cent,
although he did not have the transla-
tion copyrighted until September of
that year. which was seven months
after its first production.
After the play had been on for q
time Swickard demanded an increased
royalty, but Rankin's backer. John
schofel, was Disguised with the trans
lators acting in the company and re-
fused to pay the increase. AS a result
Swickard was discharged from the COM
pany. and then Rankin retained Otto
Won Klock of 143 Federal street, BOs-
ton, to translate the play from Ger
man into English. This the latter did,
and Mckee Rankin himself adapted the
translation for stage use. This is the
version used by Rankin ever since and
Rankin was under no obligation to pay
royalty TO Swickard.
The complainant in this case has no
right to exclusive use of the play, be-
cause as matter of fact he had offered
his own version to the public seven
months before he complied with the re-
quirements for copyright, and this
made the production public property.
This would hold even though Rankin's
was not different version. Swickard
sold his book to the Red Elephant pub
fishing company in Boston.
CALLED FOR BY CONTRACT
'sMacGregor and myself are mixed up
in this matter simply because we man
aged the coast tour of Nance O'Neill-
We made an agreement with Rankin
by the terms of which he was to fur
nish us with Miss O'NeiI in repertoire.
including the plays Magda' and The
Fires of st. john
''AlI of the trouble came when Swick-
ard was released by Rankin because
OF poor acting and I will say that
Swickard has brought bad acting to a
greater degree of perfection than any
one 1 have ever heard on the stage"
Stockwell has also begun suit against
Abe Cohen of the American theater for
Withholding s1S990, alleged to be due
from the proceeds of Nance O'NeilI's
performances here. The complainant
says Cohen withheld this money be-
cause of the receipt of a letter from
Swickard's attorney. which said that in
fringement OF the copyright would be
prosecuted. and without any order of
the court.