Arizona republican., 1908-10-24
MOLNAR TELLS WHY
 HE WROTE THE DEVIL
Play Which He Says Truly Depicts Life as 1t Is.

(In Hungary it is customary in signing ones name to write the family name first hence, though we in America know the now famous au- thor of The Devil" as Ferenc Cor Franz) Molnar, his own signature is written Molnar Ferenc.)
 Thou shalt not covet thy neigh bors wife"
 That is the text of The Devir' and continually I bore it in mind while writing this play. So many men in this world covet their neighbor's wife that I thought it a fit subject for a play. I knew that numerous other plays had been sbuilt upon the same text, but in the majority of these plays the man coveted his neighbOr's wife unsuccessfully, and at the final curtain of the play Virtue was rush ing about the stage waving a spot less white flag, while Wickedness was creeping away covered by a black shroud.
 That is a pretty and right theory but in real life, ever since Noah's passengers slipped from the Ark and smelled the fresh green earth and filled their lungs with sweet, balmy air. some men have coveted their neighbours wife with success. So decided to write such a story and hence The Devil'
 I have been greatly amused by the several arguments anent the cause of ''The Devils" success, when the f- r1s in the middle of a dark hall. The reason of my plays success is Love T don't care whether you call it animal love, passion, intrigue of an unconventional attachment it is that yearning Of a certain man for a certain woman-neighbor's wife or what not. It is that desire to feel her arms wrapped tight around his neck. It is the affection of men for women that has made and unmade history ever since history began. The world may call it anything it pleases always the two people most con- cerned call it love, frequently they have died for it.
 But The DeviT' must not be taken as a justification of immortality. In drawing His Satanic Majesty I have attempted to represent in a man the spirit of malign influence. The Devil in the play gives voice to the secret thoughts that exist in the minds of Karl Mahler, the young artist and OlgO Hoffman. his neighbOrs wife. Their wicked thoughts are spoken by the Devil. He eggs them on, step by step, to their desires as Evil Temptation draws men and women to wrong. He effects his purpose and justifies his end with all the subtle sophistry that human being whispers to themselves when they wish to step across the gulf of con- ventionality.
 The lesson of the Devil is a thrOt- tie temptation when first it appears. In telling the story I have tried to show people how they may creep from bad to worse, and thence to worst I have tried to tell the truth to set forth facts as we find them in everyday life. If thin -bloOded peO- pie raise their hands in horror and assert I have drawn an untrue pie ture. then they are hypocrits. "The Devil" differs from the usual play in that I have not sought to draw a moral, save by suggestion. I want the public to draw it's own moral. Plays with happy ending frequently are subversive of good morals. for they straighten out everything at the finish, leave everyone exultantly hap py. justifying right and wrong alike. How utterly unlike real life, where often we find wife despising her husband and loving some cavalier servant.
 And. finally, I wrote "The Devil'' for a comedy, a diabOlical comedy it is true, still a comedy. I am deep ly grateful to the American public for the wonderful greeting extended to "The Devil.'' and I hope some day to visit the United States and express my aDDreciatiOn