The New York herald., 1921-09-11
OF WORKHATERS' LEAGUE TRAILED BY DAN

gracefully and in most timely manner at
the close of the poem.
The love of money and desire to be rich
seems to have been at the bottom of Mr.
Ardens troubles. II it had not been for
that desire. and If he had been willing to
be happy with small income and content
with the simple life. all would have gone well
with him.
1t seems from the way Lord Tennyson
tells the yarn that Miss Annie Lee Philip
Ray and Enoch Arden were playmates in
childhood In little English shipping town.
After they had grown to more mature years
they all went a picnic to gather wild
nuts. Mr. Arden proposed to Miss Lee and
they We're married. Mr. Ray although he
had had some thoughts along the same line
himself. was rather slow about saying any
thing so the young lady naturally accepted
the first offer she had AT the time it looked
like a good bet.
Three children were born. After the third
one came Mr.. Arden. who had already had
q little hard luck with some business ven
lures, decided to sell boat he owned and
60 TO sea. His intention was to skin the
natives of the strange countries that the
ship would visit, secure lot of money in
the trades and return to his home village
as wealthy man. Mrs. Arden seems to
have had premonition of impending dis
voyage but he insisted. From the proceeds
of the sale of the boat he left her enough
money to take care of his home until he
returned and took the balance with him to
be used as capital In outtrading the natives
Everything went exactly as he had planned
until the return voyage was being made.
Then the ship was wrecked and only three
were saved, among them being Mr. Arden
They were all washed up on an island The
two others died, and for ten years the ship
wrecked sailor waited to be rescued.
Meanwhile Mrs. Arden had grown tired
of waiting for his return. Mr.. Rays oppor-
tunity came upon the occasion of another
picnic (these annual picnics seem to have
exerted quite an influence over the life of
the LADY, and he proposed to her. She ac-
cepted, but made him wait eighteen months
before marrying because she did not want
to take chance on the return OF her first
husband.
or course soon after the wedding when
Mrs. Arden became Mrs. Ray, old Enoch
turns up like bad penny, having been
rescued by passing ship 1t was the most
natural thing in the world for him to return
We guessed 1t early in the poem, so It was
no surprise to us.
Well the usual husband would have
rushed into the house with a meat axe in
defence in the other and proceeded to mess
up the whole place, beating up his wife
Killing Mr. Ray, soaring the children out of
their wits and kicking the cat out of the
back door. Mr.. Arden had clear case of
sef-defence under the unwritten law
coupled with temporary mental alteration.
lack of cooling time and several other things
like that which would have made it easy for
the defence before any jury.
Did he do It? He did not He went
quietly back to the boarding house OF Mrs.
Miriam Lane and died He was careful To
tell her the whole story, however, with the
promise that she would not tell 1t until
after he had passed away She kept her
WORD. SO they gave him quite an imposing
funerai, and among the chief mourners were
Mr.. and Mrs. Philip Ray
IL seems TO us that Lord Tennyson missed
an opportunity in this poem. 1t could easily
nave been made real thriller with a for
saken Wife, an outraged husband. several
murders with blood and gore scattered ali
over the place. Instead. the thing ends
rather tamely, giving the impression that
the author grew tired of his plot as he went
along and sought the easiest way to bring
II to a close.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
William Shakespeare. Stratford George
ou'ereuse Co., Ltd. London.
T~HE nearest approach to a death In
The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is a
fainting spell which is INDUCED in
py a young person named Julia In the last
act. Except for that fainting spell there is
not an unpleasant feature of the entire play
unless II be considered unpleasant to attempt
the theft Of friends best girl
This seems to be the mildest OF all tbe
plays yet written by this rising young play
wright. He Is so firmly established In the
public mind, however, a blood spilIer that
we hesitate to state that his latest play win
meet with the reception accorded him in the
past.
in the title Is Mr.. Valentine, who starts ont
to be woman hater. However, like many
another. he changes utterly the first time a
woman smiles at him. The other Is Mr.
Protheus, who Is admittedly u lady killer. and
who bores his friends very much by his con-
tinual references to his affairs with q certain
Miss Julia one of the young ladies' OF Verona
Valentine finally can't stand 1t any longer
and goes to Milan, where he Joins the court
OF the Duke. He finds the Lady Sylvia nj
ready engaged TO young chap at the court
but this young fellow had made the mistake
OF counting the Duke OF Milan instead of his
daughter. The consequence was that she
dld not care for him and readily fell In love
with valentine. AS she was the first woman
who had ever smiled at the woman hater he
naturally forgot all about his resolutions and
promptly made arrangements for an elope-
ment