Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-28
NOVELIST o. WRITES
HIS FIRST COMEDY
The Popular English Story
Teller Fails as London
Playwright

Sir ArthU Quiller-C Couch. fondly known
TO the English reader as o." has written
his first play. Originally a critic and writer
of verse later and more famously teller
of prose romances, he has now come into
the theater with a piece called THE Mayor
of Troy" on which the English reviewers
passed reluctantly adverse verdict. It
was recently presented at the HaymarlSet,
with Henry Ainley in the leading role, an
Englshman, who, after ten years as n pris-
oner of war in France at the beginning OF
the last century, returns to find himself very
much in the way of those who had long
supposed him dead.
Says the writer in the Times:
"A first play is apt to be like n first lee
ture first speech, n first symphony There
are generally too many Ideas too many
movements in 1t. 'Q's' first play, to be
sure, has one main idea q, thesis, but II
has too many casual ideas, superfuous de-
tails. loose ends His main idea is tho
inconvenience caused all round by the re-
turn of the dead to life. Resurrection
at any rate after sufficient lapse OF time
for Wills to be proved, property resettled
and griefs to have Gained down-is a so
cial nuisance, When the dead returns with
fresh n lions. like Monte Cristo, you have
another story. But when he comes back
like Major Toogood, without n penny, TO
an estate long since divided up among his
heirs. he is certainly de trop and made to
feel it,"
This excellent idea, the Times critic finds,
is quite frittered away in THE Mayor of
Troy" which the Telegraph finds utterly
lacking in dramatic force and Q's cele-
brated humor.
The piece had a painfully brief career
and has now given way to "Fishpingle," n
comedy by the tireless Mr.. Vachel, wherein
Mr.. Ainley plays the role of a domineering
butler
George Agnew Chamberlain. the novelist.
author of John Bogardus," Through
Stained Glass and "At Home" has Just
been appointed United States Consul Cen
eral at Havana. Mr.. Chamberlain has been
for several years Consul at Lorenzo
Marques. Portuguese East Africa.
A dramatlzation OF Alice Duer AIiller's
romance OF a Southern country house,
Come Out OF the Kitchen" will be pro-
duced in San Francisco early in Aug
under the management of Henry Miller.
Ruth Chatterton is scheduled TO play the
leading part.
Captain Lincoln c. Andrews u. s. A.,
first American Governor at Leyte, p. l.,
and veteran of the Cuban and Philippine
campaigns, spent a year in Mexico in 1906,
becoming familiar with tho northern
whose Fundamentals OF Military Service"
recently published by the Lippncott Com
pany. is the textbook in use at Plattsburg
and other military training camps, has been
recalled from the Philippines for service
with the American army on the Mexican
border.
An important novel to be published by
Small, Maynard & Co in September is
"-," by Arthur Hodges, the
''---" being the only deslgna, ion
this mysterious book has as yet pending the
selection OF a title by the bookseling fra
ternity and the decision to be rendered by
the judges, Edwin F. Edgett. literary editor
OF the Boston Evening Transcript Sidney
Williams, literary editor of the Boston Her
aid, and II. II. Bangs literary editor OF the
Boston Post Hundreds of titles have al
ready been sent in and announcement Of
the winning one. for which a cash prize of
500 will be paid will be made on Sep
tember l.
Philip Curtiss author OF '"The Ladder"
In the literary world and captain of militia
in the military world, writes from Nogales
Ariz.: I'VE are now in sight OF Mexico in
the most foreign town 1 have ever found
In America. Our men look exactly like the
nero and the villain of a war play when
they come in the third act, powdered with
white dust to the eyebrows"
Mark TwaIn's 'Tnnocents Abroad" is one
of the few volumes which have found space
in the German U-boat during it's subat-
lantc voyagS.@'InnOcents Abroad" ex-
claimed her captain, humorously, but that
did not apply to u.s." Mark TWain's works
have been carried by travellers into many
strange parts of the earth and the sea now,
perhaps, We shall hear Of them as the Joy OF
ayIatoFs.
Since early boyhood Frank H. Smonds,
author Of They Shall Not Pass" a book
about the battle OF Verdun. which has At
tracted much attention. had predicted that
during his life there would be a great Euro
pean war, and for more than 20 years he
made the study of warfare his hobby; such
is statement which comes from the office
Of the Review OF Reviews, which continues:
1T was not unusual for him as a boy to
hide from his playmates In order to pore
over aliases, draw maps and study military
details"
All Mr. Simonds's instincts and training
II appears indicated a war historian" Ia
the making. Throughout his career as a
hard working and highly successful jour
nalist in New York IN times OF peace at
no time mas he neglected his hobby, the
study Of war; even his vacations have been
spent visiting the famous battleAelds on the
Continent.