The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-05
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

New York Dec. 1.-Two dramas in- struct Broadway audiences in things of family welfare His Name on the Door" imparts knowledge in the pri- vate and pirate practices of snide life insurance. Divorce" Is an exposition Df the subject mentioned in its title.
 District Attorney Jerome goes out of office because his refusal to prosecute millionaire life insurance thieves rem dered him too unpopular for renomi- nation. His assistant and chum, Frank Lord, writes play on life Insurance crooks who go free of punishment. There Is no more observed figure in the night-long cafes and restaurants of Broadways white light section than Jerome. His frequent companion Is Lord. What is Lords play? Exposure? Defense? Confessions? Tenderloin peo- pie crowded to see 1t quite as eagerly as they do to a highly heralded show of reyelry. A rumor that Lord had quarreled with his chief, and sought revenge by peaching on him. buzzed through the theatre. The tension re- laxed though. as the play went along in friendly fashion; and there was a further disappointment when the am- ateur dramatists work didn't develop crudities to warrant ridicule.
 Doors of many law officers bear oth- CT names than those included in the firms title. Under the inscription, "Jones. Brown, Smith and Robinson may be seen in smaller letters the names of several juniors in the con- cern. Lord calls his drama His Name On the Door" because at the outset, the name of Frederick Brent is being painted thus on tho office door of J. Bradford Hunt, legal adviser and crim inaI pal of John Martin, owner of a
 rafI plunderer of its widows and orphans. The upheaval in this field of robbery has come and the big lawyer and his big client fear Imprisonment. They scheme to make partner and scape- grace of young Brent, who has had no hand in the frauds, and induce the District Attorney to prosecute him as the only guilty person
 Jerome isn't shown. nor any explicit defense made of his conduct, and he is tacitly assumed to lNe an officer whom insurance rogues couldn't befool or corrupt. Lord seems to have no other purpose than to utilize a play plot that was suggested by his familiarity with the insurance cases. He gives it a love twist by having Brents sweetheart come to him with policy which ought to yield $3.00O to her mother. but the company will pay only S30o Brent has to decline as counsel for her. as the Enlde concern Is the very one that his firm represents, and 1t Is he who has advised that, owing to a trick in the policy. only 10 per cent of Its seeming promise need be kept That complica- tion, and not an exculpation or ex- posture of Jerome, is what his assistant nsed to make the play go. He eXhirits the nighttime activities of Martin. up- town as well as his life insurance op- erations day-tim downtown. Chorus girls are among the luxuries that Mar tin buys with his swag; and as Brents sweetheart happens to be the show girl of his present desire he gives to her the whole s3.OOO morally due on the policy that her lover has endorsed ''Pay only $300."
 There's an estransement between the girl and her f1ance; but a liaison with the libertine doesn't follow. for she is no siren. Brent thinks he has lost hel to Tenderloin vice. however. t&l him self to a feion's infamy; but she saves