The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1913-06-14
Synopsis of Dramatic Play
to Be Produced by the
Grainer-Shieids Company,
Benefit Of Woodmen of the
World Story of Play Is
Interesting and the Cast Is
An Exceptionally Good
One-Should Attract a Big
Crowd and Prove a Sue
cessful Benefit.


West. The West of yesterday. Cattle
roamed on the prairies that are now
being plowed under by the hand OF
man and turned into fertile farm lands.
Wild buffalo galloped over the waste
lands that now abound in rich fruit
trees. Stage coaches carried passen-
gers for miles over rough and rocky
roads. - Today the East and West are
linked together by miles of steel bands.
God made the West great open coun-
try. The East was becoming over
crowded. Factories were being put up
in nearly all of the larger cities. In
dustry began, and with industry came
the shiploads of Irish and German i'm
migrants. Men needed room, and SO
they went west. The West was big
and open, and, therefore, they devoted
themselves to cattle raising.
The .'Horse Thief" takes place in the
late eighties, when the West was in its
boom. Years before the opening of the
play, Stanislaus Bedford was studying
for the ministry in the city of Boston.
He became engaged to the daughter of
one of the most eminent professors of
the college and was to have married on
the day of his ordination. But, as the
old saying goes, 'There's many slip
'twixt the cup and the lip Bedford
was surprised to awake one morning
only to find that his sweetheart had run
off and married his dearest chum, fell
low student at the college. Bedford
waited, and when they came back, after
the girls father had forgiven her, he
accused his former chum Of being a
false friend. A quarrel ens,asd. duripc
which Bedford struck the boy. The
next day he was expelled from the SEM
mary. 1t was the day before his ordi-
nation. Becoming discouraged, he went
west and threw himself into the depths
of the underworld, SO that ne might for
get his past. He became gambler and
horse thief.
The curtain rises in the State of Ari-
zona. The cowbows are preparing for
the wedding party, for the major, owner
of the Kill Ranch, is coming home that
day with his Chicago bride. The sheriff
is there, and great are the preparations
made to receive the Mrs. Thomas Dun
can. But they are disappointed, for,
instead of the prim little maid the ma
ior had described her to be, she is an
austere and a very exacting woman who
uses lorgnette. 1t can clearly be seen
that the major will be henpecked for
the rest of his natural existence: 1t is
in the first act that the girl, Alice Bed
ford, arrives. She is searching for her
brother, whom she knows to be in the
| West. The sheriff falls head over heels
in love with her-a case of love at first
sight.
In the second act, James Arnold, the
sheriff, proposes so Alice in his crude
Western way; but she cannot marry
him, for she is bound by promise
made to her mother as she lay upon
her death bed-to find Stanislaus, her
brother, and care for him.
Alice bids her lover, James Arnold,
to go forth and capture the horse thief
OF Snake River, saying that perhaps
then she will marry him. Stanislaus,
who now goes under the alias of Curley
Stanley, wants to leave the place. He
is sorry his sister came out west, for
she, has spoiled all his chances, and
vet he does not wish her to know him,
fearing that, if the world were to know
that she, Alice, had a gambler, deni-
zen of the underworld, for her brother,
her future would be ruined. Thus he
resolves to steal Major Duncan's horses
and make a getaway.
In the first scene of the third act.
Stanley and the Mexican half-breed,
his pal, are being pursued. In the sec
ond scene Stanley doubles back to the
ranch, and in the middle of the night
he seeks safety in his sisters room. He
then tells her that he, Curley Stanley,
is her long-lost brother, Stanislaus
Bedford. Arnold, the sheriff, is search
ing the house and captures Stanley.
Bedford tells the sheriff the story of his
life, the cause of his downfall and
pleads for his liberty. Arnold, upon
finding that Stanley is his sWeetheart's
long-lost brother. sets him free, and, to
prevent the cattlemen from lynching
him, Arnold gives Stanley his own horse