Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-03-14
Makes One of Most Vicious and Violent
Attacks on Judiciary Yet Seen in
Broadway Playhouse.
CRAFTY LAWYER CONTROLS
CIRCUIT COURT IN PLAY
Heroine Has Place Honeycombed With
Dtctagraphs and Gets Goods and
Wicked are Punished.
BY BEAU RIALTo.
written for the United Press }

that at all. lt is regular melOdraml
of the ten-twent pattern and grips tn
feelings, risibilities and emotions even
if it totally lacks the logic that appeals
to the brain. And better still, it is a
clean play, even if George Scarborough
lurid chrOnicler of white slavery did
write it Scarborough, who wrote
"The Lure" and Al Bay" both oc
which aroused storms of comment and
were short-lived in New York because
of their salaeious features, surprised
his followers with "The Last Resort y
is true to life. 1t shows up the very
things in our judicial system that
are making men agitate reforms The
things this play depict are the things
that caused voters to demand the mi.
tiative and referendum and caused
Colonel Roosevelt to advocate the re-
call of judges decisions.
"The Last Resort is a strong PLAY
with an undertone of hard common
sense and if the author had made it
too stacy and flamboyant, he might
have accomplished great good. The
heroine is a pretty newspaper girl who
loves the hero and is always on the
lookout for a good story for her paper.
The hero is a young lawyer, filled with
zeal for the rule of the people. He
has made so much money that he does
not need any more and he starts out TO
clean up the government, starting in
with the judiciary. The villain is a
former United States senator, now a
corporation lawyer who holds the
state s appellate court in the hollow of
his hand by controlling two of tho
members. There are only three Judges
and until the last act it is believed
that the third judge, the chief justice
who is an honest man, can do anything
Well, then, the young lawyer, prose
cutting the damage suit Of an Irish
washerwoman against the corporation
lawyer s railroad, calls the trial Judge
crook. He is sent to jail for con-
tempt. The case is appealed. The
two corrupt appellate judges and the
ex-senator frameup" the reformer and
are ready to railroad him when th4
newspaper girl bursts from the tele.
phone booth, breaking the glass and
tells them she has the place honey
CODED with dictagraphs-a machine in
vented on purposes for melOdrama---
and "knOw all'
The corrupt judges arrange to try
the girl for burglary and she gets five
years. The reformer is sent up for an
indefinite term While he is in jail,
the "peepul'' elect him governor They
also re-elect the chief Justice, who gives
the girl a stay of execution releases
the hero on a habeas corpus writ and
isues warrants for the two crooked
judges and the ex-senator. Then, all
in the same breath the chief Justice
marries the hero and the pretty reporter
and Immediately the new governor par
dons his wife and himself OF course,
the law by which this is done is bit
hazy, but what matter2 It's melo.
drama and thrilling Just an after.
thought; Some day some revolutionary
play.capenter will make his hero out
of a corporation lawyer. Then won.
the critics howll
William Collier Of the defunct
"Who's S Who}" and "a Little Water
on the Side, experiments, went into
a Broadway lunch counter place the
other day, when in a hurry and ordered
fried eggs
"G want the same--but mind thel
are fresh, said man sitting next to
the comedian. "Fried eggs-two to
come-and make one fresh,n bawled
the waiter to the window chef and now
Collier eats elsewhere.
"What Would You Dos" Most
folks who saw the play by that name at |
the Hudson theater would not go again
That S one Of the answers. There arc
lot more, Some players might answer
the query by saying they would re-write
the play if they were Augustine MNt
Hugh, the author. How any man who
wrote the exquisite comedy and scream.
ing situations to be seen last season in
Officer 666 could put out the drivol
that went to make up "What Womb
You Dot" was more than the average
first.nighter could understand.
An uninitiatel observer would have
been justified in thinking that it was
Mae Hugh's first lay--he made the
mistake common to iovices Of tryin.
to put all his cleverness in four acts.
There is too much wit, too much sar.
'asm, too much coincidence in the play.
It pals one one, cloys the appetite and
turns the mental stomach
Il does not follow by any means that
the man who wrote "officer e66"
should Of necessity continue 10 write