The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-10-25

| National bank for capital. When do
you and Jenetta propose to be mar
ried?"
81 believe 1t is the lady's privilege to
fix the day." | replied.
Within n month | became a married
man and had the bureaus of plays"
In working order. | hired n dozen
readers Of experience in theatrical mat
ters and another dozen who had never
tried to write a play or had tread the
boards. When all was ready ad-
vertised for plays. They came in by
hundreds. ! had each play looked into
by an expert and an inexpert reader,
and those that seemed worthy of at
tention were passed along up through
the others till they came to me.
had had sufficient experience in my
business to enable me to take advan-
taEe of Mr.. Starkweathers enterprise
to solve n problem connected with it
that had long interested me- l hired
n competent person to pounce upon the
motif of each play-wherein there was
motif-and enter 1t in a blank book
kept for the purpose with brief
story or whatever it may be consider
ed by which the theme was illustrat-
ed. had a theory in my mind which
l believed would be proved or disprov-
ed by this record.
Well, l was surprised to find that
though we were obliged to go through a
great deal Of chaff to get very little
wheat we did get some wheat Much
Of this wheat turned out TO have been
produced by playwrights who had al
ready achieved some success, but what
astonished me was that we received q
number of plays that were based on
an excellent dramatic theme and only
needed fixing up by one familiar with
the technique Of the stage to make
them acceptable.
l selected one Of these plays by an
unknown author and took it to my
father-in-law with the suggestion that
We put 1t on the boards. He was much
pleased with the result thus far Of
his scheme and gave his consent to the
plays production.
The play was called "The Secret
Drawer" The plan turned upon the
finding of a lost will. There were a
number of fine dramatic scenes in it.
the author had succeeded in present.
ing it in a form to hold the attention
Of an audience, and l was fortunate in
finding actors and actresses well fitted
to impersonate the different characters.
The piece succeeded and proved fairly
remunerative. Mr.. Starkweather was
delighted at the proof Of his statement
that to get plays managers must read
manuscripts.
The day after the production Of THE
Secret Drawer: l received call from
gentleman with long hair and beard
wearing a rusty suit of black.
What do you mean, SIR" he said,
'by stealing the plan Of my play, re-
writing 1t and putting it on the boards?
1t was sent you in confidence, and did
not dream Of your appropriating 1t
without paying for it,
ITO what play do you referT l
asked. ..
'To my play, The Lost Will You
have called your version of it The
Secret Drawer
"My friend" I said after surveying
him for some time thoughtfully, II am
only passenger in this business. You
go to John Starkweather, No. 1877 B.
street, and state your case to him"
"Starkweather, the leather manT
"Yes"
Hes rich. If he doesn't come down
handsomely for this theft I'll sue him."
And he went out to find my father-in-
law.
A dozen accusations were madea Ell
ther In person or by letter Of our hav-
ing stolen the themes Of plays submit
ted to US and declined. In several In
stances certain names in the plays we
accepted and produced were identical
with names in the plays we were ac-
cused of stealing. l referred all the
claimants to my beloved father-inlaw.
Two different authors commenced suit
against him for appropriating their
thunder. Finally he sent for me. l
went to him with the book containing
the record Of themes and methods of
their presentation under my arm.
whats the meaning of all these
charges?" he asked angrily.
"rn tell you. There are hardly
dozen themes on which to base stories
or plays, and every author thinks at
least one of these themes belongs to
him. There are more than million
authors and not enough themes to go
round"
I opened my record book and began
to read.
"In 10000 plays examined 9,247 par
ents objected to the match. IN the
same number of plays the theme in
1912 turned on a lost Will; 973 turned
on a match essential on account Of
adjoining estates, SG5 on a person as
suming to have committed crime to
save the criminal, COL on