The San Francisco call., 1910-08-07

teaches are passed along to the next
woman. No one accepts Frances as her
horrible example, but instantly thinks
of Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Jones. who
would profit by the play. The success
of the production hinges altogether
on its appeal as an interesting. vital
story. The sermon that may be
found in It is always hitting the other
woman.
THAT the personality OF Frances is
a real one I have no doubt. Indeed, I
have known women just as hopeIessly
stupid about business affairs as
Frances was. 1t seems incredible. but.
it's true. She had never wanted for
anything. There was always check
to pay for the automobile or the gown
or the costly bric-a-brac or the dia-
mond tiara. Hubby took care of that.
All Frances had to do was to order.
The delivery was prompt.
II myself knew a woman who had so
little knowledge OF the ethics of bank
ing that she thought as long as there
were unused checks in the book there
must be money IN the bank Look
she said to her husband when he told
her he was overdrawn. how can that
be? See, 1 haven't used up all my
checks yet That's fact from life.
Frances was no more ignorant than
that woman was. When Mr.. Ward tells
her that he is a bankrupt, she replies
tenderIy: You poor dear! You need a
rest; you're overworked. wen take a
trip to Europe
THAT makes the women in the audi
ence angry at Frances. 1t doesn't
seem right to create so silly a person
and make her a woman.
But Frances has cuddled herself all
her life in her little cocoon of pleasure.
The chrysalis is real woman's soul.
but it needs winter of misfortune be-
fore Frances spirit develops
she struggles with all the despera-
tion of pampered egotist about to be
robbed of a luxury. against the catas-
trophe that will set her adrift from her
fashionable environment and into com
parative poverty. Her acceptance of
the 1000 from her admirer' has been
criticised as the action of woman in
trinsically bad. 1t is not so at all The
amount is nothing to her. She doesn't
realize that it is fortune. He who
gives it to her is multimillionaire
He will never miss 1t; but the money
will, first, tide over the stringent mo-
ment. put her husband on his feet. save
their home and conserve her continued
ease. That is why she takes it. She
condones the act with the self-delusion
that she is accepting it to help the hus-
band to whom till now she has been
but hindrance- Thus she reasons
herself into the sophistry which her
selfishness pictures as true. OF the lies
to which she is driven by her act. the
same holds good as with all guilty ac-
tions. They make equivocation neces-
sary. seem so at least.
But Frances. when she does give up.
gives up all over. She makes total
surrender to her better self. Her vic
tory is complete. Nothing had ever
touched more than the cuticle of her
soul She had never been so much
as Jared amid the cushions that sur
rounded her life. Even the conscious
ness of her sex was scarcely awakened
and the suggestion of evil went no
further with her than an acceptation
of a talent for white lies, an easy
elastic handling of the truth and a
great gift to get what she wanted. But
when the tragedy of death faces her
in her room; when her honor is ques-
| toned by her husband, who has ruined
/ himself for her. when she sees herself
! with the vision of another. then sns
wakes up.
IN that bewildered frame of mind
she goes out into the world She
| learns that there are girls taking care
of others on $s a week: she hnds out
that self-sacrifice is reality and the
very life of thousands of good men and
women; she discovers the heart of a
baby and she loves the touch OF help
less hands. 1t Is a splendid picture
of the re-establishment OF a woman.
1 live that part of the play. Sometimes
1 see a handkerchief or two. and then
I am very happy. Isn't it ghoulish to
rejoice at tears? But those handker-
chiefs that are waved at me from the
audience when 1 am playing the last
] act Of The Spendthrift' are the whit