The San Francisco call., 1909-04-17

RIGHTS MIGHT HAS
VITALITY OF TRUTH
Jack Gleason and Frank Me-
Glynn Produce Real Play
With Original Weave
Story OF Graft Depicts Struggle
Between Right and Wrong
in Mans Soul
By Walter Anthony
Especial Dispatch 10 The Call


PETALUMA, April 16.-Jack Gleason
and Frank MeGlynn did not need to
take their new play to Petaluma to try
1T on the dog Cor is it the henE), 1or
though it is a real play and needs no
apologies, 1T needs a little fixing Ihere
are too many soliloquies and too many
asides. 1t is old fashioned in places,
but. the end of each act is adroltiy con-
trived to leave the audience in doubt
like a story continued in our next"
The audience was enthuiastic, to be
reportorial, and not critical, and the
climaXes Were received with wide eyed
enthusiasm. Such faults as may pc
found with any new play, whether pro-
duced in Providence.R. l., or Petaluma,
Cal, are in the case of the Gleason
McBlynn play easily remedied.
The thrill of the story is carried over
the footlights and the builders OF the
play have succeeded in establishing
plot which develops interest as the
story progresses in spite of proliXity
here and there and an unnecessary
character or two.
VITAL PLAY AND. ENTERTAINING
The point is that Rights Might IS
vital play, based on a vital theme ana
developed in lively and entertaining
manner. 1t should go in San FRANCISCO
and elsewhere, even if it does not burn
UP Broadway.
The story is of an original weave
Though it is graft" play, 1T is not
like The Lion and the Mouse, nor
The Undertow," nor yet like The
Man of the Hour" It is different in
this respect, that it makes the strug-
| gle between right and. wrong IN
mans soul the center of interest, ana
it succeeds admirably in developing
this theme.
trfV, n1i
tician. instinctively honest, falls under
the influence of grafters who want to
defeat bill in the legislature grant
ing a franchise for a competing rail-
road.
HERO'S. FALL DUE TO LOVE
He falls because he loves the daugh-
ter of a banker, who, in a spirit of
coquetry has told him that she could
not be happy with man who nad
not wealth. He goes out to get 1t.
He tramples his conscience, human
| like, and in his effort TO earn the
wealth that his crooked work is worth,
persuades his fathers old time friend
and comrade to stay away from the
senate on the day that the bill
comes up.
In, a splendid scene in the first act,
Major Joel Hardy, the honest senator
tells the story how Jims father saved
his life at the battle of Shenandoah.
1t is a good piece of description and
paves the way for Hardy's recapitula-
tion to the son. in the third act, when
he promises to stay away from the
lsenate He says: Il Will test the
Il son of my friend" and he places his
honor in his hands. ~
| Then comes the caucus scene. where
! In the boodlers say, Every man has
his price, and Major Hardy has his
STORY OF BOoDLERs TOLD
| Cynical remarks of workings draw
the fire of Jim, who declares that he
has failed in his efforts to lure the
honest senator Then comes the sem
ate scene. where Jim, aroused by his
sense of right. tells the story of the
boodlers. 1t is a frank disclosure of
| his own weakness that wins with the
audience as it wins with the senate
Even the boodlers are afraid to vote
against the franchise.
| The story. sundered from it's romance.
might sound like a report by the clerk
1 in Judge Lawlor's court, if it were told
ro better than / have done; but IL has
] life and action, and its subject is vital
and immediate. Two romances are
/ tangled in the web of politics. and there
Is comedy injected now and then. There
should be more comedy relief, by the
way.
DRAMA OF GENUINE INTEREST
What will surprise Gieasons friends,
and McGiynn's friends. in San Francisco
is the fact that Rights Might" is a
Preal play, asking no odds on account of