The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-11-20
Jernegan's
Play
How He Came to Make
It a Success
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

thors that they cannot bring their char
acters to meet their conceptions Of
what these characters should be. In
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 seems to ut
the case is that the author does not
always rightly interpret the human
heart
Jernegan was IA play wright-that Is.
he wished to be a playwright. He was in
the impoverished condition OF Il strug
CLING literary a being out at the el.
bows and hungry. Every play he had
written had been turned down by the
managers. But now he had struck
something new. he thought. and would
succeed. But inventing plots needs
and there was NJ fuel in Jernegan's
stomach. He was pale and thin. and
when he walked be staggered.
Jernegan took his characters from
real persons. When he needed a hero
or a heroine or a villain or Il heavy
when put in his play would be flesh
and blood. not Il wooden nan or won
an. to move. about on the stage like
an embodied phonograph. He did not
begin that way: he learned it by expe
rience He studied books on playwright
ing. but he got little from them. al
though this may have been becauSe he
vas 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 of
into the country without any break
fast to hunt up a minor character for Il
play ON which he was engaged He
needed a young girl to pair off with IA
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 Il nickel
for car fare: then on aliGhting where
there were few houses and plenty Of
trees he walked along Il 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 a rehearsal Of the char
acterS of his play.
How SINGULAR" he said to himself,
as ! 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. J%ernegan.'' said the heroine
"you have made an egregiOus blnnder
in the makeup of this play"
How is that?" asked the playwright.
1.-THE hero. Edmond Dixon. whom you
intend that | shall marry. is a chump
III have nothing to do with him"
That's discouraging.'
"Yourl have to give me another
man."
THAT would mean to burn III man
uscript and begin anew. | couldn't
think of doing that. | would starve
before | had half finished. What's
the matter with the hero?"
He is Il prig."
Jernegan sighed. This was not the
Arc< tSr,o hie, <.bn ~, o<o - bo1 rnho1loa
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 ! will discern what it is
in him that repels you. If so ! may
be able to change him"
II see where the trouble is" said the
manager. You have separated her
from her husband and married her to
a a who is her inferior. She doesn't
take to the new conditions. nor will
the public"
But the first is q very weak and
the second Il very strong man"
THAT doesn't matter. One Of the
first dramatic laws is that there shall
be but n love. which must go through
the play. for better or for worse"
That's 10 dramatic law" remarked
the hero. Everybody knows that the
world refuses to sympathize with a
changed love"
Call it what you like" said the man
ager. Its absolute. and no author has
ever yet been able to disregard it and
win"
Dumas did So" Jernegan out in
I'm the Count Of Monte Cristo' he
gave Edmond Dantes a second love-"
The only blot on that wonderful
work
Every n started at this criticism
Of an author whom they supposed to
he invulnerable. Nothing was said for
= few moments when a chit Of a girl.
In dairymaid costume. asked in a lit
tie bit Of a voice:
where do ! come in?''
"You." said Jernegan. ARE the char.
acter ! have been looking for. You're
to love the soldier hoy. Billy Muzzte."
Am ! to marry that country girl.