The San Francisco call., 1913-08-04
The TRAFFIC HITS
v|L[A|N0Us Man
Miss Marshall's Play Is .
Four Act Indictment Of
Humanity
Frequent Applause Marks
Sad, Sad Story Of the In
iquitous Underworld
BY WALTER ANTHONY


Within the brief limits OF four acts
Miss Rachael Marshall has succeeded in
indicting humanity The Traffic"
doesn't spare single reputation. 1t
revels In the glory Of q new discov
ery to wit: that only man is vile
soung girls are sacrificed to his greed
for money, bright eyed maid OF IA.
With tuberculosis. is brought into a
den of infamy; her sister is beaten
BY a nonchalant brute who collects
beauties for price, another maid is
lured into mock marriage only to find
out that her phoney husband is a white
SLAYER, upon which she deserts him and
Joins the Salvation Army in an effort
to rescue lost souls.
Well says Lulu. as the demure
little lady steps into the third act
and nameless house, "how's the lord
toGay?"
Upon which salutation. Rosalinda-
that's the little lady who endured the
phoney marriage-replies in homeletics
while Agnes drinks champagne sadly
PLAY GOT OVER
! inferred from the frequent applause
that the play got over" Addressed
as 1t is to ministers and mothers it
should, but whether 1t Is entertainment
may well be questioned.
Never in my life have I seen SO sad
a play.
How can young girl live on Sc
week and send her tubercular sister
to the country?
You don't know and I didn't either
until | saw 'sThe Traf1c" She can
tsell her soul to a white SLAYER whose
hldeous approaches she spurns for so
mortal minutes until the curtain rises
on the second act in the %Alhambra hO-
tel where he is beating her into sub
mission. If she will not descend to a
life of shame, he tells her, he will get
her young sister back from the coun-
try and place her in an evil house Of
such unutterable horror that YOU shud-
der Agnes then consents and the next
act brings one into the place where
agnes footsteps take hold on hell
The speech to that effect is read by
the Salvation Army miss. who sudden
iy reveals herself and her tambourine
END is NOT YET
II you think that masculine villainy
has reached its limits OF corruption.
however, you are mistaken, for Vic,
who is the devil in Miss Marshalls plot.
brings Elsie. Agnes sister. to this very
house and locks her in an adjoining
room while the place is being raided
by the police. Agnes then kills Vie,
begs the officer to take Elsie to a
proper place, and In the fourth act
manages to be acquitted of the crime
OF murder to return to the life OF q
lady in lone of Sacco's houses"
lust what the play teaches I am not
competent to say. 1t seems to me that
It's most obvious lesson is that young
girls should not be allowed to write
plays.
The extremely obvious fact is over
haf MI ~ 4u 1r,
dramas that give 1t eelf-respect and
that the lives of the lowly may be
adorned with the art Of the IDEAL I
noticed last night that the speeches Of
the players were applauded in q ratio
coincident with their fearful intense
ness" and that the single standard OF
morality" was more likely to be ap-
thought that women should be--not the
superior of men-but their equals In
point of immodesty.
PLAY is EMBARRASSING
may as well admit. first as last,
that found THE Traffic" embarrassing
on It's esthetic as we'll as its ethical
side. One would hesitate to argue
whether 1t Is we'll staged. for one could
not be expected to say whether 1t Is or
not. II you say that the types are well
drawn by the players you confess to
an embarrassing acquaintance. II you
say that they are not you are equally
involved. AS to its ethical message.
there can be no doubt Of the purity OF
its writer's motives She shows her
contempt for white s1avers in a highly
moral manner and Vic is acted with
supreme ytciousness by John c. Liv-
ingstone. who clearly proves that q
white SLAYER is most disreputable per-
son. He is shot in the third act.
Miss Mana Bryant. who plays Agnes,
the girl who sells herself to save her
sister, deserves a better play. She
Is quite superb at times and is an ac-
tress of uncommon capacity emotion
ally. Claire Sinclair as Lulu Is per-
suasive, like a girl from Rectors, and
blasphemes In highly frivolous man
ner. In fact the cast presenting The
Traffic is surprisingly good and the
stage settings are accomplished with
real Belasco touch at times.
The Traffic" will easily last out It's
engagement, because it tells poignant
story In a naive manner and is acted
In a most competent spirit of sympa-
thetic understanding. Its horrors are,
apparently, entirely believed by those
who present 1t.
It breaches decency in most indeli-
cate manner.