The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-03-13

passage is when the supposedly dead
girl reappears alive and tells her story
discriminating the guilty financier. She
is shy and ashamed. She can't bear
the light while confessing her evil be-
havior. So the room is darkened, and
with the merest CLEAN from a lamp
on her white lace, she exposes the cul-
prit. That ends the play in Beias-
coan manner.
Denies Wilde Story.
There was by-play on the opening
night more interesting than the drama
itself. A rumor had gone round that
lot OF bright sayings by Grace FIJI
kins, in the guise of the modish widow,
would turn out TO be Oscar Wilde's,
and not Preston Gibs0n's. When Glib
son was called out by his enthusiastic
friends. he read formal denial that
he had cribbed anything from Wilde.
IF there is any similarity in express
sion or sentiment anywhere in my
play" he sad, "to the writings of Mr..
Wilde, il is the result OF uniform hu-
man experience, and nothing more. .
Yet stenographers were then taking
down numerous sentences of wit which
proved to be copied, word by word,
from Wilde's "A Woman of No I'M
portance" and AN Ideal Husband"
The New theatre has its first fiasco.
It is an accident. A piece in prepara-
ton was not ready. So a hasty re-
course was had to one which, if not ex-
planned, might be taken to indicate
that the artistic aim at that temple
OF the drama is diverted thansiently
from advanced drama to the obsolete.
"A Son of the People" doesn't aston
ish with anything singular, but with
what, though unknown TO theatrical
youngsters, is familiar to oldsters. Its
kind of romanticism was popular
with don Caesar de Bazan'' and THE
Dukes Motto" when stage love was
sudden and herOism violent. John Ma
son acted those rather die-than live
fellows in the old Boston museum
company, and it is like drama Of the
past to see him now again as one of
them. If the production were an
nounced as an illustration of stage
craft formerly satisfactory, it might
| be taken as amusingly instructive.
/ French revOlutionists are the people
whom Mason stands for a son of; and,
of course his beloved lady is a
daughter of the aristocracy; and they
hit each other so hard as to strike ur
fiery love that RACES furiously, and
in single night he gets himself killed
for her.
Concession to ModernIty.
In the days now called palmy by
way of jest rather than in earnest
Mason would have almost achieved
death, but not quite, and it is a con-
eession to mOdernity that his end il
mortuary. Another new style thing is
that the lovers wild passion is wicked
The heroine is married one afternoon
to an aristocrat marked for death by
the revolutionists on his return from
the altar. That evening the hero en-.
ables the bridegroom to escape by
changing clothes and taking his place
during the night with the bride. Fol
fact? Or make believe? There /:
no reason to scandalize them-not fol
awhile; but folks will talk, especially
between acts; and the next intermis
sion is one Of those quarter hour:
that, at the New theatre, give time fol
gossip in cafe and tea room; so it i:
no great surprise TO learn for sure
next morning when the curtain rose
that the bride Of an aristocrat has
started a honeymoon with son of the
people.
The first audience had taken no very
keen interest in the shifty girls we'd
lock, although Kathryn Kaelred and
\ Walter Hale had depicted it vehement
ly: for he was too scored by the sen
tence OF death at daybreak to be very
attentive to his bride meanwhile; anC
she had upbraided him rather incon
siderately because ne couldn't buck III
spunk to be a lover during his sup
posedly last night alive. Even wher
Mason had shaped up his plan of es
cape, she had scolded Hale for decid
ing to go by himself and live rather
than stay with her and die. That haC
seemed a mite selfish of her, and th'
audience hadn't liked her for It. TheI
as to Mason, his motive had looked
equivocal Hadn't he meant to &C
quire the bride? To be sure, whel
shut in the guarded house as her alb
sent husband, he had commanded he
maid to lie like watch dog on he
door mat, but mightn't it have born,
the word welcome" too? Anyway
i people had their doubts, and expressed
them loosely.
The scheme Of "A Son of the PEG
|, pie" was. I suppose, to write a mod
ern marital misbehavior into the idea
honor OF old-time melodEama; to ex
plot love as passion and TO keel
| the audience guessing until near tn