The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-08
ADJUSTMENTS


Eugene Walters. who has written both
Paid In Fulri and THE Wolf - may rest
content in the knowledge that he has ere
ated two of the greatest plays of recent
years. If The Wolf had not come her
aided as by the author of paid In Fulr'
1t IS doubtful whether it would have been
greeted by such an immense audience as
| that which witnessed its opening at the
Salt Lake theatre last evening. The crowd
came curious to know whether the same
author could write another play anywhere
near as good as his first. They were not
disappointed. although they saw a totally
different sort OF drama.
Paid In Fun deals with comedy and
tragedy in a conventional New York flat,
where the surroundings are humanity in
mass and nature is nowhere lInremOdeled
by the hand of man. 1.-The Wolf" roams
through the vast forests. along the
streams and among the mountains of the
Canadian north, where nature is supreme
and undefieG. where men are few AMI
where passions and emotions are prim-
evaL 1t is vivid contrast. and there
must be a master hand to portray botn
1t must be confessed that there is one
| touch of the conventional in The Wolf
Under the disseeting knife it will be OBJ
served that there is a resemblance to the
good old melo'irama where the villainous
city chap seeks the ruin of the rural
daughter, only TO be fooled by the rural
sWain-the here. There really is 4 wicked.
polished villain from civilization, an limo
! cent child of the woods, and hero of the
Wilds who saves the girl. But here re-
semhlancc to the conventional melodFaria
| ceases. The theme is worked out with
such wealth Of color, original charac-
ter and situation that one forgets even
/ this parallel.
The characters are few which Is fortu-
nate. as it permits the securing of good
I players for each and every part without
swelling TIE total expense of the pToduc-
/ ton beyond reason Each stands ont
clearly and brilliantly, having been cut
and polished oy the author until every
/ one is a genuine gem, There is Andrew
MacTavish, hard old Scotch settler of the
/ desolate region, "God-feariBg" ard strong
| n his faith. but so harsh and stern with
] his only daughter, his sole relative on
earth that her hope and happiness are
erushed-the kind of a religious father
/ that made Robert Ingersoll an agnostic.
The daughter, having lived all her life II
the wilderness alone with this harsh Ia
/ Their, is at rs years simple creature with
/ an unawakened soul, but who has the
/ better instincts of her sex and who is
beating at the bars of her cage. Jules
! Beaubien. the hero, has wealth, youth,
| strength and might naturally have drift
/ ed to the sensuously gay boulevards Of
| Paris or any other city where youth finds
pleasure in vice and vice heads off or
grips old age. But six generations Of men
/ and women who lived in the free air Of
/ the Canadian frontier have preceded Jules
| and he cares more for the ripping Of
/ the stream in tn wilderness, the rustic of
| the primitive forest and the lure of the
4 mountains than for the designations of
| civilization. and he comes into the plag
strong. true and capable. Ba' tiste, French
| Canadian trader and frcntersman, has
| less intelligence than his comPatriOt. but
/ is a good hater, and withal a loyal slave
/ to his friend William Macdonald, the
4 American engineer. is the only conven-
| tional character in the play. he is the
/ typfcat polished villain. who finds his
/ principal recreation in the betrayal of
/ women. His assistant, George HGntley, is
a rOilicking, sood-hearted youth. ready TO
I the Of
when the issue is defined. These are the
The action starts almost with the rise
/ OF the curtain. The story is unfoided
of the betrayal of -Ba' tistes affianced wife
and Jules half-sister by some American
1 engineer, and her subsequent suicide. Mac
I Donald sees the barTenness and desolation
of the life Of Hiida MacTavish. He be-
/ gins his Vaccinations against this other
1 victim, deceives her unloving father into
/ cooperation. and seeks to take the girl
l away with him. Jules, who loves her
throws down the gauntlet, and war is de
| clared between the rivals. Jules carries
away the girl in honorable love. and re-
/ turns to meet and battle his rival in the
I dark. amid the bowling of the wolves fl
nally triumphing.
This is the merest skeleton OF the plot
! It is impossible to do justice in short
I space to the skillful handling Each act
leads up 10 a tremendous climax, and
/ there is not a false note throughout. At
/ the end Of the first act, after il has de-
veloped that Macdonald is the man who
| betrayed the sister OF Jules and sweet
I heart of Ra' tiste, and caused her to COM
/ nit suicide rather than bring a name
! less child into the world, jules tells Ba'
tiste that he Jules must have the first
opportunity to kill Macdonald. If he fails.
/ "a tiste may perform the mission. Ba'-
( tiste is left alone on the stage. He raises
his hand toward heaven and crosses him
/ self Then. in tense ejaculation. he
urays that he tBa' tiste) may be the one
I who may slay the betrayer- The second
act closes in a dramatic struggle between
/ the villain Macdonald. aided by the IN
| loving and somewhat mercenary father,
| on one side, and on the other the girl, who
even in her innocence has detected the