Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-10-13
PROHIBITION PLAY
Arthur Gillespie, Song Writer,
4 Visitor in City, Tells of
New Production.
TO BE STAGED By SHUBERTS
Author of absence Makes the Heart
Grow Ponder" Has Newspaper
Man for Collaboration.

Arthur Gillespie, the famous lyric
writer, spent last evening and this
! morning in Rocl, Island. Mr. Giles
Z pie is the man who wrote the words
5 and music for the song absence
Makes the Heart Grow Fondcr." ana
is well known here. In addition to
this song and several others, almost
as widely known, ne is constantly
writing lyrics for different plays and
J. songs, and some of his work has re-
>sceived wide attention. ~
At present he is Interested in
5 play of which he himself and Harold
+ Ward. a young newspaper man Of
Sterling, Ill.,, are the authors The
. play has met with the approval of
the Western Theatrical company,
which is a wing of the Shuhert syn
dictate, and it will be staged under
their direction in the course cr the
next few months. It's first appear
ance viii be in Milwaukee.
= Prostitution play.
The play is called The Question
of the Hour and it deals with the
prohibition movement. Tho scene is
laid in Rapids CITY, No. and Tho
as far as possible. There are about
1Qrof them in the play, including the
president of the Aqua pura' society,
the states attorney and the sheriff
of Sage county, and 2 prominent sa-
loonkeeper in the city. The play
aims to show that the prohibition
movement is folly and that the adv0-
cacy of temperance is the proper rem
edy of the present existing evil cor
ditions. A very pretty love story is
wound into the movement of the
play and some features are intrOdUc-
ed which ought to make y hit. Fer
instance, in one Of the acts news
paper office is shown on the stage and
a paper is actually printed and sold
in the audience. The r3per contains
scandulous stbries about the heroine
of the play and the events leading
up and following the publishing o.
the play are very interesting.
The themC of the song. Absence
Makes the Heart Grow Ponder" VIII
characterize the music Of the play
and in addition there viii be one
song written especially fer it and call
ed Fall IN Line" It IS prohibit
tion song and is likely 10 hclomo pop
ular with the people WHO are ii the
prohibition movement.
Flow ward Net Gillespie.
The story CT how Mr.. Gillespie and
Mr.. Ward became acquainted IS q
very Interesting one. The lyric writ
or was in StcrlinS on business and. as
usual. he was led into Il conversation
about music. one Of his hearers in
formed him that tpe city Of Sterling
boasted CT Il lyric writer of some cal
eibre also, whcreUpCn Mr. Gillespie ex-
pressed Il desire to meet him. When
he did so he expected that the af-
fair would turn out as it had in 4
dozen other places, he would meet
a person who fancicd he had talent
and who would bore Mr.. Gillespie
with his writings. one glance at
Ward, however, convinced Mr.. Giles
pie that Ward was somewhat out of
the ordinary and that he might pos
sess something that the others did
not. A little talk and the looking
over of some of his work convinced
Mr.. Gillespie that his surmisc was cor
rect and before long they had struck up
an acquaintance which mas grown in
to close friendship.
Mr. Ward through his association
with Mr.. Gillespie became known in
the theatrical world, and he has been
offered and has accepted the position
of press agent for the Garrick theater
in Chicago. Herbert Duse, the mau-
ager of the Garrick, is personally Sc
lecting the caste for the new play
and Will take care of staging the pro
duction.