The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-02-21
With The
|Alibi Artists
A Cross Section of the
Daily Grind in Judge
McMahOn's Court.
Read 'Em and Weep
BY DONALD McDOUGAL.

mas been on the JOB long TIME
and knows all the tricks. If any
criticism of her work can be Of
fered. she seems a little too much
inclined toward melIerdrammer to
win approval from the more so
phisticated, and ut times her pro-
ductlons verge on the vulgar, and
one of these days we expect TO
see her get in Dutch with Lieu
tenant Van Wrinkle.
And her plots depend entirely
too much on coincidence to be
realistic, like those of Shake
speare and Shaw 1.-THE two names
are brought together solely for
the cake of alliteratiCn) and it's
a marvel to all critics how she
gets away with it.
Lately she's come down to the
Level of doing propaganda stuff,
for example, that thEee-act play
she's trying out in Washington
this week-"Everybody's Wrong"
In Act / police car is chasing
a bootleg delivery truck through
the business section of Washing
ton early Wednesday morning.
On the runningboard of the en-
enforcement car stands Officer
Ogle, taking the Congressional
economy bumps at sixty miles an
hour, now a target for the auto
mates of the Sharpshooters in
the rum car a few yards ahead;
again safe in the shelter of the
; binding, choking vapor, Kissing
hot from the smoke screen, while
two police car destroyers take
turn about i'm their attempts to
knock the officer and his COM
panions into the morgue.
Like Congress Promises.
A little shooting by the police,
a few minutes strenuous rough.
and-tumble in the Agricultural
grounds at daybreak, and the
poison peddler is captured, along
with sixty-five- gallons of coffin
varnish.
For twenty minutes or 80 the
officers lives weren't worth as
much as a pledge from Congress
to pay for the wHter that the
Federal Government still gets
gratis from the District.
You'd naturally. think that such
daring devotion 70 duty for
$165.1y a month would bring
something in the way of COM
mendation, wouldn't you?
On the contrary, IN Act II, the
next morning, a respectable Wash
ington newspaper takes the po-
lice to task for returning the fire
of the escaping Iawbreakers. i'm
plying that the officers should
either face a charge of neglect OF
duty in allowing the crooks to get
away or stand up quietly and be
shot to death with no effort to
protect themselves.
Risks to the Public.
With consummate good taste
the playwright avoids anything 80
statistical and brafn-flagging as
the explanation that sixty-five gal
Ions Of kick-corn equal five hun
dred and twenty pints; that the
five hundred and twenty pints
will provide twenty-six hundred
average drinks or enough to keep
half the gin-drivers drunk for
week.
"There is no. excuse" the re-
spectacle newspaper concludes
"for taking such risks" risks to
the public, you understand. devil
take the police) I'm the enforce
ment of the prohibition law, the
narcotic law, or any other law
Act III, the next morning at
daybreak, a gin-befuddled motorist
hurdles a street car loading plat
form, plows through a crowd or
waiting passengers, mangles one
Of them to death and lands four.
others in the hospital.
Again the playwright reveals
her artists skill. She does not
come forth with a long-w1nded
statement that the death-car
driver had several of the twenty
six hundred drinks under his oeit.
She does not dwell on the fact
that it's better to have one chase,
even a long one, and seize sixty
five gallons Of the stuff while it's
i'm the containers than to make
twenty six hundred chases after
the concoction has hit its mark.
Unlikely Coincidence.
Nor does she point out that
the rum-runner, however fast he
NAV run, is sober, and so are the
police who are chasing him, and
whatever else they may do, they
don't run over loading platforms.
It's foolish boOtlegger that
doesn't know his own poison.
With none Of these morals
does she adorn the tale-much to
the embarrassment of the news
paper writer of Act II.
A fine play, but for the un-
skilled reliance on coincidence. 1t
Is altogether too unlikely that on
three days hand-running, three
independent events should occur
in such order, viz:
Wednesday, the chase of The
bootleggers; Thursday, the unjust
castigation of the hero for his de-
votion to duty; Friday, the tragic
death of citizen by a motorist
crazed with rum provided by the
same bootlegger or his fellow
employs; and the Vindication OF
the hero.
II Fate could only be persuaded
to take a course in scenario writ
ing, and learn to cut out these
unlikely coincidence, what hit
she would make in the movie