Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-02

| DIR. stephen HeDshaw. 80. Elmer Ballard
Judge| G.ud heardsley i;oIs Elmer andrews
Baxter, Armstrong; servant Willis Marks
ierkins ''''''''.'''.. ''''... .1aVln Young
Martin. .............,.. Warren Ellsworth
Walters at the Metropolitan cafe.
Fairy Observation-Disclosures. Evelyn FOshia
EOOi. :............,.... Henry StOckbridge
Iehcoch. '''''''''''' .bura van
nI ncu Ica,ner, a, .''''''''''' ,ENelyh ABDUL
! Prince Charming. g............F .FanchOn Lewis
Nightingale '...,...........L Leslie Catheart
ZaKlt ..................... Norman Heap
Dorothy Fitzgerald, of the BiJou
Miss sharpe, society editor of The
Tribune. ...................M .Margo Dunet
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
66IT1 HE Greater Claim" is not
problem play. 1t is solu-
tion. 1t is not an attack upon
the church. 1t Is a reaffirmation of
that clause in all the creeds of Chris
| tendon which voices belief in the for
| giveness of sins" And that reaffirma-
ton, with its logical corollaries in
human conduct, is the solution for all
| the problems-human and churchly-
| which the drama frankly raises and
| bravely fronts.
For If there is one note which Lin
| ton Tedford has sounded in this Virile
marching order which he has given
| unquailing authority-the authority
of a moral code in the lives of men.
II you are afraid of being preached
at from the stage without knowing it,
shuR 1.-THE Greater Claim" Mr. Ted
ford may tell us from the footlights
with that modest smile of his, that
he does mot pose as a moralist.' 1t
is true. He does not pose at all, any
more than does Bishop Mcclure or the
little woman who reads that prelate
a passionate homily in the ethics of
his religion. But "The Greater Claim"
is moral, as life is moral. in the broad,
leveling harmony of the marching
centuries. With all the constructive
flaws natural to a playwright's maiden
effort properly debited, one must ad-
NIT that it f1ings its defiance at the
sneering problemists who have ended
their dramas with a sigh and an un-
solved equation. 1t solves the equa-
tion, and its solution is as rational as
it is romantic. AS rational as was
| the practical advice of Him who said
to the wanton, GO. and sin no more"
AS romantic as the history of the
Christian church, which canonized the
! repentant Magdalen.
The Rev. Cuyler Armstrong is bit
| of an egotist, bit of a coward, a bit
| of a saint. He is every inch a man,
and a manly rector of ST. Luke's.
| He was an egotist when. in his wild
young years abroad. before his con-
version, he betrayed a woman who
trusted him and then thrust her from
him in a drunken fit of jealousy. Still
an egotist in his clerical habit and
little of coward, too. when he de-
| nounced from his pulpit rich par
! ishioner whose alliance with vice was
the fostering cancer at the vitals of
city and parish - denounced him
anonymously, yet in such a way that
everyone knew at whom the shaft was
leveled. And a bit of a saint when he
faced the consequences of his attack
and dared the rich man to duel in
which the odds were all against the
side of deceney. His faults were the
faults of youth and ardor. His mo-
tives. even when obviously colored by
his personal grudge against the man
who had threatened to run him out of
town in three weeks. were those Of a
very human hero. The crowd at the
times at the clergyman. He was the
kind of clergyman who was not
ashamed to laugh at himself. on occa-
sion. But when the issue was pressed
as between him and his worldly per-
secutor. the gallery was all on the
side of the angels, as the gallery
usually is
This exaltation of the ego in his hero
Mr.. Tedford did not mask in the least
in that first scene with the bishop, in
which the rector boldly repeats his de-
fiance to BOSS" Stone: "I will preach
what I please in MY church" We ad-
mire him. but we feel life has much to
teach him of humility and of disci-
pline And in the next act our instinct
is justified In the scene in the private
dining room of Colonel Stones bohemf-
an cafe the rector, for all his pluck i'm
coming ma sked to watch the orgies of
his hypocrtical parishioner, is at dis
advantage. The colonel knows his story
knows that he the clerical apostle of
purity. has wronged the very woman
whose stage career he has attacked as
immoral without knowing her real
identity. And with that in mind and
the knowledge that she still loves the
man who has wronged her, the cum
nine layman of double life plans to
confront the pastor with his shame and
disgrace him among his supporters.
Too much a man of the world to
credit the clergyman with real af-
! fection for the woman, Stone has no
| idea that the clergyman will stand bv
| his colors in the face of dishonor. and.
| playing upon the woman's jealous love,
he sends her to the rectory at midnight
! with a check for $4,000 as the price of
| her connivance. to compromise the Rev.
| Armstrong. Stone has also the canny
| object of dislllusionizing his own son,
! who has fallen in love with the dancer
| and asked her to marry him.
| The trap is laid. and the rector walks
quietly into it. He meets the woman
| he has wroneed, as the Salome dancer,
and with the transparent honesty
which is q massive trait of his char
acter as his creator has conceived it.
ignores the unconventionalitv of her
visit, and discusses his attacking SER
| mon with her. He denounces her eX-
hibitien, vet with charity. and she
winces Then. in a moment. she loses
herself in an impassoned plea for the
wronged woman as against the wrong
inc man. reaching a climax with the
revelation of her own identity as she
| cries. "Who are YOU? What right have
You to condemn me?"
with the instant of recognition, swift
| contrition comes to the rector and
swifter surge of rekindled love. "I will
make you my wife" he cries forgetting
his role of accuser in the naive, uncon-
ltrollable passion for restitution TO the
| woman against whom he has sinned,
j., amazement and with jov size faints.
| and he carries her to a divan just as
| bic friend stones son bursts in AZ his