Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-21

pulled off just as the police whistle is
heard outside. Granger unbuttons his
| overcoat and shows his prison garb.
He has not been pardoned. He IS
merely a trusty who has escaped, and
whose life. resisting arrest, is the prey
| Of the law. Answering his last cring-
ing appeal, the wife gives Granger
| chance to escape, Temple and his
lawyer permitting. The lights are
lowered in a typical Belasco effect. A
moment later we hear a shot outside.
! Granger is dead at the hands of his
pursuers. Temple and Anna are free
| to wed. Even the possible objections
! Of those who decry remarriage after
divorce are adroitly silenced in flash
| OF powder and a bullet crack.
This is 1.-THE Fighting Hope" II Is
clever. It IS brilliant in its bigger mo
ments. It is faithfully acted, with
slight exception. Miss Bates has full
scope for her indubitable power in the
| enaction Of emotion, both suppressed
| and at flood tide. Her delicacy and
nicely OF touch in the impassioned
| scenes are almost fiawless. In the be-
ginning she shrewdly makes Anna
show greater fear Of Craven, Temples
brusque adviser, than of Temple him
Iself. Hate gives her courage. In her
| marvellous pantomime this actress
shows the effect Of fieeting emotions
with the clarity Of still pool suddenly
swept by wind-stirred ripples. Until
the last act her every mood is tense,
subdued waiting the issue which she
! feels will be tragic, but which she can
| not divine 1t seemed that Miss Bates
/ did not make enough of the shlpWreck
! Of her trust in her husbands honor in
| the second act when she read his
damning letter. But even this is con
| sistent with her method, If not quite
so with the verities. In the last act
her torrents of wrath and grief were
unchecked, or at least they seemed so.
discerning was Annals absent
minded fumbling with the telephone
| receiver while her soul was IN the
IL oes Of ultimate torment. or IKE
| quality was her writing OF the Ietter
| that crushed her confidence IN her
| husband and her folding own Of the
! desk with the desolate murmur, 1t
| is the end" The fighting hope was
| dead, but the heart of the woman lived
| to blaze in a splendid wrath and
supreme. contemptuous pity.
Mr.. Sills made Temple frankly ro-
mantle The character is so drawn.
| and faulty, it seems to me. HIS
high-minded sympathy with Anna at
! the moment of her avowal almost per-
| suaded us. Yet for a captain of in
! dustry he had amazingly loose control
| Of his emotions, and 1t is hardly con-
| ceivable that such a man could COM
pletely forget the indictment which
hung over his head, even to moke love.
| This is the fault of the play, but 1t 10
Mr. Sills fault that he was woodeny in
expression and demeanor at the mo-
ment Of Annals confession. Some
facial denotement of the conflicting
emotions within him is requisite here
Mr.. Sills merely looked steadily at the
fireplace.
Mr. Cope was real and true TO type
as the attorney who could see only
good in his rich client and only men
dacity in the despised press. And Mr.,
Novel; did a brilliant piece of work
as Granger, the character who con-
sistently gets the worst of it at the
hands of the playwright. In the scene
showing Granger's utter desplcablllty
the player did not finch in its por-
trayal He made US hate him, and our
innate sympathy for the under dog
had prepared US to give him at least
a chance for his life, even as did his
wife. 1t is brave art to so enact a
role, and Mr. NOVEL; deserves the ut
most credit for his portrayal. Loretta
Wells had one strong scene-that Of
her abandonment of Anna. She played
it strongly and well.
Astute as David Belasco himself are
the artfully contrived falls Of the cur
tain on each act, with the business OF
the play still going on, and yet with
a certain degree Of finality to each de-
scent. Similarly admirable were the
letters of her boys to Anna-the acme
of brief-sentenced realism. The play is
forceful, there is no denying.
But its principal thesis is inescapa-
bic, and on that it must be judged.
Willingly or unwittingly, 1t is a pole
mic. It's teaching is that the big man
in business is entitled to all he can
make or get. He is entitled to it
merely because he is strong There Is
no fair discussion of the general bust
ness conditions which bred the idea of
, easy gains in the mind Of Granger. He
was weak, and he fell. We miss the
massive fact that Temples strength
and the strength Of ruthless competi-
tive methods helped to shape Granger's
weakness. Temple is one of our old
friend Bernard Shaw's Supermen--a
very idealized creature. His claim is
the claim Of sheer might. He uses
| that might in pitying tenderness
toward Anna because he loves Anna.
Granger is 10 him but a pawn in the
game.
Temple does not materially change
That is proof Of his unreallty, his mere
duplication of the physical and mental
giants who dominate our Industrial
life. He is a force, not a man. "The
Fighting Hope" crowns that force with
laurels Of bay, but it cannot make us
admire that force Our pity is still for
the tragedy of a wrecked home. and
for the source of that tragedy we must
probe deeper than in one mans con-
ceded turpitude. When we find that
source we shall not condone Granger's
SIM but we shall find that sin but one
strand in a cobweb of social injustice.
And I think we shall have found a
tolerably substantial answer to Mr.
Hurlbuts polemic and defense of the
men at the top and of things as they
are.
Something new." Joseph Harts the
atrical motto as lyricized in one of his
songs. is reflected in the novelty and
variety Of his big Bathing Girls" act,
which occupies the honored position on
the Orpheum bill that opened yesterday
| afternoon. There are six elaborately
constructed scenes, setting off the
more or less charming presences Of half
a dozen gaily gowned women. Hart is
the soloist, and sings well except when
an insidious temptation to shout over
lpowers him. We get views Of Madison