Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-22
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE


Doyles new morality play,
n appears at least to have
kindIed the fires of controversy,
and that in summer season
when an agile thermometer would
seem to preclude any very vigorous
mental employment on the part of the
ianguid Londoner. The creator of Sher-
lock Holmes mas tilted lance at moth
ing less than the very modern theory
that man has a right to end his life
if he deems it irreparably blighted by
insidiOus disease. He has stirred up
the materalists, and very likely he in
tended to- He has also agitated the
professional critics, some of whom
agree with his principal thesis but aver
that his denOuement lodges the issue
he has raised and merely compicates
without solving the problem.
Sooner or later The Fires of Fate"
will come west Charles Frohman al
r&dy has contracted to produce it in
New York next season. and Sir Arthur
has promised personal supervision of
its premiere. Apart from the intrinsic
interest in the problem. therefore. the
plot of the drama is worth detailing, as
1t is compactly summarized in the Au-
gust number of the Theatre Magazine:
Colonel Cyril Egerton is appar-
emily in good health, but he has
curious twinges of pain. and so
consults the great specialist. Dr..
Roden, who tells him that lie can
not live for more than year a the
most. Thercupon Egerton, hearing
that death will come in the form Of
a gradual degeneration of mind and
body. states that he will put an end
to himself at once. Privately, the
doctor. a materialist believes that
every man may do s. he will with
his own life. but this doee not pre-
vent him seeking to persuade the
colonel that it is his duty to go on
till the end. He is aided i'm this by
his brother the ReV. Samuel Ro-
den. Under the argument of these
two, Egerton promises to see things
through to the end, however bitter
the end may be. Incidentally il is
stated that i'm only one case of this
illness has there been q cure. and
that was caused by Great shock,
The two RodCnS are about to leave
England for q tour in Egypt, and
they persuade Colonel EgCrton TO
accompany them Aboard a Nile
tourist steamer the colonel falls in
love with Sadie Adams. He, know
ing the state of his ..ealth, dare not
aVow his love. She. not knowing,
cannot understand the strangeness
of his attitude. There comes
day Che play is set in 1890 when
the party aboard the steamer Tor
an excursion to the Abousir rock,
though some of them know full
well the risk they run. They have
reached the top of the rock and
are admiring the view when they
are attacked by Arabs. Egerton is
knocked on the head. and the rest
of the party are taken prisoners.
The colonel has Just strength to
wave a signal to the troops he
hopes are coming to the rescue, but
he cannot see, and then falls IN
sensible The prisoners are marched
into the desert. and are halted on
an oasis. Colonel Egerton follows
their tracks, and joins them They
are given a chance Of life on con-
ditlCn that they swear belief in the
XCran. This all refuse to do, and
they are facing death for the sec
ond time when a rescue party ar
rives. At the same time, by an in
Eenious piece of stage business, it
is proved that the shock has cured
the colonel. Thus all pass through
the fires of fate and emerge
cleansed. proving that everything
IT. this world makes for good.
This denouement upset the London
critics terribly. Some We're openly
skeptical as 10 the scientific possS
bility of such a recovery. Others, cons
ceding this point, argued that Dr.
Doyle had lodged his own dilemma by
permitting the man to live. since. as
they saw it, the happy issue out Of
EgertOn's affections itself detraCted
from his fortitude in bravely bearing
them. To demonstrate the heroism OF
patiently awaiting a slow. and painful
death rather than choosing q swift and
painless one, these objector@ asserted
the playwright should have let the
colonel die tina slow and painful
death, instead of rescuing him at the
eleventh hour Such critics saw only
chance in his deliveranCe, and dubbed
the play mere melOdrama, which to
the mind of a certain school Of critics
is the final and irrefutabla word of
condemnation.
IN reply, Or. Doyle-himself a man
of no meager scientific atTainments-
declared that his puryose had been
misconstrucd; he had written the play
with intent to rebuke the men Of
science who believe their knowledge
Of tho human organism is complete
and who do not take into consideration
the rights of the spirit The morality
he intended to exemplify was the sim
ple and biblical one that "no man
llnoweth the things of the spirit that,
however hopeless and desperate the flu
turc may have appeared to Egerton, he
had no right to ignore the existence
of an inscrutable Providence or lose
hope in the possibility of its DEGREES
including for him a Communication of
sentence. Speaking in the language Of
mental suggestion, that hope itself