Arizona republican., 1913-10-20
THE TRAFFIC" PLAY OF
 SOCIAL EVIL HERE SOON
Work of Great Granddaughter of
 Chief Justice John Marshall.

"The Traffic." new four-act play by Rachael Marshall and Oliver D. Bailey, is said to the most auda- ciousiy truthful exposition of the actual phases pf the commerce in girls as yet written or acted. Miss Marshall, the playwright, is the great granddaughter of Chief Jus tice Marshall, and a woman of wide experience as a journalist, sociolo- gist and traveller. She was reared and educated in a Roman Catholic convent in New Orleans. and be- came interested in the work and aims of Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago. The story of the play is taken from real life in any city, but the incidents and circumstances are facts of record.
 The shock of the play is it's ab solute fidelity to truth; the naked I truth told in the language of the men and women who make the nameless traffic possible and the scenes and incidents reproduced without disguise and without hesita | ton. To project such play with l out any sacrifice of dignity or de- | cency, to portray the swift but logi- 1 cal transformation of decent, hard working girl into a shameless, hope ' seem to be an impossible feat. And yet it is said '"The Traff:c" accom-
 plishes this apparent imrccsibility.
 The false notion that inn"cent and 1 ignorant virgins leap from pure 1 povety to open bawdry at one bound
 is exploded in Miss Marshall's au-
 thentic play. Long hours, hard | work, a sick sister, the pinch of l povety and the hopeless environ
 ment-all play their parts in The Traffic. but the girl resists. hopes, prays-even loves-mistakenly, fla l tuously, but she does not become a
 wanton suddenly. The shocking feat ture of the play is it's verity, the
 rotten glory of the bagnio; the spu- rious splendor of sporting life" the 1 gaudy garments, lavish adorements and garish brilliance of the notorius parlor house of feverish shame are well depicted, as the rewards of sin. They loom in this play as the inevi- table contrast with the squlor, the toll. the povety and the sickness of the earlier scenes in the tenement, but they are shown in the boldest, completest and most finished accu- racy.
 The man panderer. seducer, pro- curer of this astonishing play, pays the penalty of his atrOciius deeds
 with his life, and the invalid sis ter for whom the heroine sells both
 soul and body, is saved to health, Vir-
 tue and happiness. But the woman
 who has made the incredible sac
 rifice who puts all the best and
 the worst of herself into the traf-
 fife that destroyed her. while it saved
 her sister, she is past redemption,
 hardened, vulgarfzed. without a
 chance to retrace her errant foot
 steps, ostracized by all decent peo- pie, forbidden even the society of
 her little sister-she plunges faster
 and further into the deliriOus life of the brothel.
 There is no escape frim the ada
 matine logic of this denouement
 and if it is not a pretty or a pleas
 ant thing to witness, yet it will
 make men and women think long
 and earnestly about the distorted
 social conditions that make such in-
 cidents not only possible but inevi-
 table '.The Traffic" is to be pro- duced by a competent company of well known players of whom Flo renee Bell, Irene Outrin, Ethel Me-
 Mullin, William Brewer and others
 of equal ability are promised. 'The Traffic" is Iavishly invested with the newest and the most adequate seen cry and costumes. and those who
 have witnessed it agree that it's action and argument constitute a story of the most intense and poigant interest. The Traffic will be seen at the Elks' theater on Mon- day, October 27.