Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-28
THE CAST

- NsfASA
WIN Canton ..............'' .Ihurston Hal
Allan BOrlan. n................ John Nebste
Laurence Delaney. ....... .Iuelus henderson
browning ...... ..s......'.. 'AHen thWcet
John wilton. ....s....-.---. Louis Breesel
DIR. Shields. ..............,. George CaldWel
DIR. Morton. .,.........s........ X. A. bFess
Rev. Charles Clavering. .......... Charles Ga!
Clerk, .........''...'''. JACK Barne
Head Waiter. er...,............. Gus Brimme
KOrberg. g...............,.....F Frank Smither
May keating. ............. .FanchOn Campbel
Mrs. Jack Wilton. .........,.-.. ELSIE Scot
Miss Hester Canton. ....... Ruth TOmhnsoI
Stenographer. ............... Emile CaLaWa!
Nurse. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Florence GIem
John Canton. n................ George Fawcet
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE
In "The Fighting Hope" we saw the
man of millions virtuously victorious
and our reason reeled at the paragon
even as our sympathies remained i'm
mune to the victory. In THE Greai
John Ganton"-far inferior in the arti-
fees of stagecraft-we see the COM
mercial Tamerlane bruised and suf-
fering, battered and crushed even in
his material triumphs by the power
of love and by his innate humanity
He is real. He is human. In the rev.
elation of his frallty and his sorrow
we feel pulse of kinship. His dol
lars are what divide him from his
fellow men, even from his son. They
are his idiosyncrasy, his insanity, II
you will. His sanity is in his suffer
ing, and his suffering is his cure. The
synonym itself is synthetic.
The play which we saw for the first
time at the Auditorium last night does
not settle the labor problem, as Olga
Nethersole bithely proposes to do IN
her forthcoming vehicle. 1t leaves the
labor problem precisely where John
Canton found it, when he made his
earthly peace with it by buying of
three grating union leaders, with the
understanding that they spring their
strike later, when 1t would be to his
financial advantage. Mr.. Manners ap-
pears to have followed the Eddy novel
with rather unnecessary fidelity. His
climaXes are frequently weak, and
their preparation undesirably talky.
Each act seems as If it might be a
chapter from the novel, and we can
fairly see the blank space at the bot
tom of the page when the curtain
falls. Something of this clumsy effect
IS inevitable in a book-drama, oil
which type the present play is rath-
er better than the average. It holds
the interest despite this handicap
which attests the strength of the basic
idea and the masterful acting OF
George Fawcett.
The plot itself is not dissimilar to
that Of THE Lion and the Mouse" but
the characterization varies materially
from that of Mr.. Klein's play. The
minor parts are real human beings
and the average of humanity bulks
heavier. This is well, for the narra-
tion proceeds much less vividly and
smoothly than did that Of Ready
Money" Ryder's battle with fate. The
latter made the better play in the
spectacular sense, though much less
closely akin to life in the net total ef-
feet.
I seem to be speaking by the balance
sheet. Well, that was the way John
Canton spoke. There were many
things in heaven and earth not
dreamed Of in his philosophy, compact
and formidable as 1t was for purposes
of welding the packing business into
an engine of commercial terror and
golden efficiency. One of these un-
computed things was the love of his
scatter Drained son for the daughter
of the man he had driven to suicide in
competitive conflict. That love John
Canton chose to combat. The boy
was beggared in an amateurish at
tempt to bull the market on the
strength of tip given by a profess
sional stock gambler. In defeat and
debt, the youth refused to renounce the
woman he loved, and his father turned
him out of the firm. To reconcile
father and son, the woman offered to
give up her suitor. A dramatic scene
between her and John Canton culIni-
mates in the latter in an apopIectic
stroke.
The great John Canton is on his
knees, but the fighting blood still
leaps through his veins. He consents
to the union of his son and the girl,
but he defends his way OF conducting
his business to the end. While the
surgeons wait to perform the operation
which one feels will be fatal, the griz-
zled old warrior coolly advises his son
to abandon his Ideals and become a
practical man, Whether he obeys, we
may only conjecture. The Great John
Canton goes into the operating ROOM
and the curtain falls.
"All that a man has belongs to his
business" is John Gantons axiom o1
life. In that little white walled room
where the surgeons calmly bend ani
ply the knife he will learn perchanc;
just how little a man has after all Il
call his own. 1t is grim lesson. but
then John Canton was ever a grim
pupil-grim master, too.
George Fawcett is one Of our bes
character actors. He proves it in his
depletion of Canton, ST. Despite the
preCariOuS mannerlSn or a mounting
enunciation, in which he INDUCES the
character, we followed his every mood
Particularly impressive was the in
sidious progress of the malady which
strikes John Canton down. From thu
first twinge in the first act we see It'll
deliberate approach, and we see JohI
Canton feebler, his underlying love fol
his son overhowing in his speech anC
ways, even when that son is most de
fant. and to the fathers notion mos
lnflial in his defiance. The dry wi
with which Mr.. Fawcett adorned hi
PheIan in 'The Man of the Hour" pal
Hates the coarse grained stubbornnes
of John Canton. His humor make
him tactful on occasion, too, as whel
he devises an errand for his clerk, tina
lie may talk alone with his SON
fiancee. The old mans native vigo
survived on the eve Of his operation
and we saw him, haggard an
shrunken, directing a last successful
raid on his commercial foes over tn
telephone, while the protesting ply
sician waited nearby OF all these dl
verse and delicate elements was MI
Fawcett's impersonation composed.
was a work OF art and memorabl
one.
Another admirable piece Of work wa
that of Allen Fawcett as the packer
confidential clerk. Deferential an'
sweet souled. for all his service of TN