Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-10-23
The Daily Story
Jernegan's Play-By Dwight Norwood.
Copyrighted. 1915. ny Associated Literary Burea,.

what these characters should be- In
i other words, the author does not write
the story; rather. the story writes the
author. There is a subtle reason for
| this that is very difficult to explain.
The only statement that seeins 10 III
the case is that the author does NOT
always rightly interpret the human
heart
JernegaD was playwright-that Is
he wished to be playwright He was In
the Impoverished condition or strug-
Cling literary man. being out at the ell
bows and hungry. Every play he nad
written had been turned down by the
managers. But now he had struck
something new. he thought, and would
succeed. But inventing plots needs
sustenance as well as shoveling dirt,
and there was no fuel in Jernegan's
stomach. He was pale and thin, and
when he walked he staggered.
Jernegan took his characters from
real persons. When he needed hero
a heroine or a villain or heavy
woman" he hunted up some one who
when put In his play would be flesh
and blood, not q wooden man OF WON
an, to move about on the stage Ike
an embodied photograph He did not
begin that way; he learned it by expe-
riencc He studied books on playwright
ing, but he got little from them. al
though this may have been because he
was not capable of approaching what
there was in them. The ordinary tech
nique of the stage he had learned from
playing parts himself, for he had been
an actor before trying to write plays.
One morning Jernegan started on
into the country without any break
fast to hunt up minor character Tor
play on which he was engaged. He
needed a young girl to pair of with
soldier boy, who was the bosom friend
of the hero. She was to say very lit
tie, do very little. but at the end OF the
closing act was to stand hand in hand
with the soldier boy. The playwright
spent the only money he had-a nickel
for car fare; then on alighting where
there were few houses and plenty of
trees he walked along road, stopping
at a house here and there, hunting for
a girl for his soldier boy.
All of a sudden while walking be-
side the road the turf came up and hit
him in the head.
The next thing Jernegan knew he
was directing rehearsal OF the char
acters of his play.
How singular" he said to himself,
"that these persons should be exactly
rs I have imagined them! And there
is Charles Fearing. the manager, who
has turned down so many plays OF
mine. looking on and evidently much |
interested"
Mr.. Jernegan,' said the heroine.
''you have made an egregious blunder
in the makeup of this play"
How is that?" asked the playwright
THE hero, Edmond Dixon, whom you !
intend that shall marry. is chump. |
I'll have nothing to do with him."
That's discouraging."
You'll have to give me another !,
man."
That would mean to burn the man.
uscript and begin anew. l couldn't |
think of doing that. / would starve !
before i had half finished. What's |
the matter with the hero?'
He is prig."
Jernegan sighed. This was not the |
first time his characters had rebelled
against his authority as their creator,
and there was nothing in all his work
that so troubled him.
"You must go through the rehearsal,
and perhaps | viii discern what it is
in him that repels you. If so may
be able to change him."
81 see where the trouble is" said the
You have separated her
from her husband and married her to
n man who is her inferior. She doesn't
take TO the new conditions, nor will
the public
But the first is a very weak and
the second n very strong man."
THAT doesn't matter. One of the
first dramatic laws is that there shall
be but one love, which must go through
the play. for better or for worse"
That's no dramatic law" remarked
the hero. Everybody knows that the
world refuses to sympathize with a
love"
Call it what you like" said the man.
ager. IFS absolute. and no author has
ever yet been able to disregard it and
win"
Dumas did So" Jernegan put in.
'In the Count OF Monte Cristo' he
gave Edmond Dantes a second love"
The only blot on that wonderful
work"
Every one started at this criticism
of an author whom they supposed to
he :nyulnerable. Nothing was said for
, few moments. when a chit of girl.
n dafrymaid costume. asked in a lit
lie bit of voice:
Where do | come in?"
YOU" said Jernegan. ARE the char
icter | have ben looking for You're
o love the soldier boy, Billy Muzzie'
Am to marry that country girl.
susan Andrews?" asked Billy angrily
Yes What's the matter with herr'
''She has no business in the play at
III. Your characters are city persons
N city bred myself She amells of
he barn. where she does the MIX /
ng'
Perhaps I've made her too reaIis-