The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-02-18
HERE'S s. e. GROSS AGAIN.
Like "Cyrano," Was
Stolen. Chicago Man SAYS.


| Chicago Feb. l2.-Just at the mo
ment when critics see golden orb
of success rising to the call of Ed
mond Rostand's "Chantecler." the
French playwright's long heralded
masterpiece, cloud looms on tne
poets horizon As players i'm the
dramatists bizarre company are hid
den behind feathers of barnyard fowls
so the inauspiCious shadow conceals a
| Nemesis of other days. Unmasked, II
becomes Samuel Eberly Gross. former
millionaire real estate operator OF
| Chicago and author of the play. THE
Merchant Prince of Cornville."
Gross asserts tat his drama gave
Rostand the idea, the plot, the charac.
ters, and even the scenes for "Chan.
tecler." Several years ago Gross
charged Rostand with pirating from
The Merchant Prince of Cornville"
the poetic drama, "Cyrano de Der.
gerac."
Mr.. Gross points out things similar
in the two plays. and calls attention
to what he thinks is proof that The
Merchant Prince of Cornville." is not
only the father of "Cyrano de Der.
gerac," but of "Chantecler" as well.
Throughout Gross play farmyards
and the domestic fowl therein figure
prominently in the discussions by var
ious characters. One entire act is
given over to arguments as to the var
| ious traits of animals. In another
scene birds are idealized; in another
the characters masquerade as ami
mails.
The second act of "Chantecler"
| shows a night scene in which owls
| play leading roles. Gross asserts that
the first ten lines of The Merchant
Prince" picture this scene completely
Before the characters of The Mer.
chant Prince" begin dissertation on
the habits of barnyard fowls Blue.
grass, secretary to the merchant
prince, says:
1T is the martial bird of morn,
brave Chanticleer - the vocal light.
house of the dawn. Six times has the
rooster crowed. And yet again he
crows-seven times, mysterious mum.
bert"
Reviews of "Chanteclers" premier
spoke in enthusiastic terms of the sec
ond act, where lin the upper branches
of blasted pine in the heart of the
forest an owl calls the roll of the birds
of night"
Gross quotes from the first page of
The Merchant Prince"
in yonder wood that guards the sea
cliffs wall,
Where sullen shadows shrink away
and flee
Before the rising suns advancing
spears,
The day-detecting owl hath turned his
back
Unto the light, and sought the shelter
ing cowl
OF ivy web about the oak tree thrown"
Throughout the Merchant Prince"
the players were wont to refer to and
discuss the habits of fowls and ami
mails, and hurried glance through the
pages of the book of the play show
such bits of dialogue as;
Here, amid these scenes of thrift
and beauty. busting hens, pensive
geese, lowing herds, crooks of cream
and cleaning fishes, We'll wander,
hand in hand, spending our full orbed
honeymoon"
See, this is my stately dairy farm.
Here, once, the wild goose, while he
plucked the toothsome grass from it's
banks of verdure listened to an In
dian maid"
The donkey took the bouquet for
an Offering of beau's hay"
"Yonder valley would be a capital
place for my emporium of sea pigs"
THE pig is the most useful of our
domestic animals-he turns the corn
| fields into bank notes"
Strip that bird of his plumage and
in less than seven revolutions of this
magnificent star OF ours he will have
fewer followers than vanquished
| rooster"
Upon the first streak of dawn our
common meadow lark has been known
to climb the heavenly vaults"
ITO fancy night as black sea in
space through whose clouded elements
grim visaged hawks plunge"
II feel like rooster in an iron
nightgown."