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The rough path the villain treads |
"QUIT
my door, then. You are no
longer my daughter. Go and
never let me see your face again."
"Father," shrieks the leading
woman as she flops down on her
knees. "Father, you will not be so cruel."
"Go, girl, out of my sight, you are an,
outcast."
It was looking bad for the leading lady in
the drama, "The Human Slave," at the
Alhambra theater last week. But the hero was
only waiting for his cue. This was his time,
and, springing forward, he cried:
"No, by heaven, she is no outcast. I claim
her for my bride."
The gallery rose up and joined in one
tremendous whistle, and the whole house burst
forth in tremendous applause. The heroine's
father was stunned for a moment. He had
been having a good deal of trouble since the
play opened, anyhow. He was the president
of the Stockton Iron works and his men were
threatening to strike if he didn't pay them
30 per cent more wages, furnish every
employé with an automobile, and shave off his
long gray whiskers. It was a little hard to
find out just what the employés of the Stockton
Iron works were angry about, but they
were inflamed over something.
Novelty in Villains.
A rosy cheeked, fat young man with a
twinkle in his eye and a retroussé nose had
come on the stage, left upper entrance, soon
after the curtain went up and announced to
the president that the men were going to
strike unless their demands were acceded to.
The heroine's pa decides that he will sign a
document prepared by the rosy cheeked, good
natured young man, and which he thinks is
a paper that eternly commands the men to
keep their hair combed or they will be
discharged.
But suddenly the nice looking young man,
stepping back, says hoarsely: "Now, then,
to make him sign the will giving me all the
property." A boy up in the gallery groaned
and two more hissed and then the terrible
conviction went through the audience that
they had been basely deceived. The fat man,
who should have been cast for the comic
friend. was none other than the villain. Stage
villains are usually lean. with a hatchet face
and a black, sinister mustache. But here
was a novelty, a fat, round faced. clean
shaven, good natured looking villain. Yet
he was the villain none the less. He got the
old gentleman to sign the forged will.
Then entered, right upper entrance, a stern
faced young man, the hero, who had come
on to take a position as superintendent of
the Stockton rolling mills. He meets the
bewitching daughter of the president of the
mills and makes love to her. The villain
crawls behind the screen in a corner of the
office and listens. Although a boy up in the
gallery points him out and yells "Rubber,"
the hero heeds not, but contlues to assure
the heroine of his love.
Casts Off His Daughter.
The villain goes out and tells the heroine's
father how she's been cutting up, and father
comes in and tells daughter she is an outcast.
Then the hero immediately seizes daughter
and clasps her to his heart and announces a
wedding is going to take place immediately.
This is too much for father, and he dies of
heart disease, and the curtain goes down with
the villain waving the forged will and
announcing that he is the owner of all of
the property left by the heroine's father.
In the next act the "Human Slave"
appears. Just what other kinds of slaves there
are besides human ones the playwright did
not show, but he wanted no mistake about
the brand of slave he was talking about, and
so he had him labeled the "Human Slave."
This individual was none other than Richard
Atherton, the hero, who had married the
heroine after her father had declared her an
outcast.
After father died the villain took all the
property by means of his forged will and the
hero and heroine had been living in a shabby
little house the other side of the dump when
the curtain goes up on the second act and
discloses a room in their cottage. The
heroine is bewailing the fact that she is starving
to death, although she doesn't look it;
but she said so, anyhow and nobody wanted
to dispute her. The hero, who has been hustling
around for a job for two years and
apparently had found none, kept bobbing in
every now and then to tell the heroine to
cheer up, that all would yet be well, and trying
to keep up the impression that some day
he was coming home with a fat ham sandwich
in his pocket.
The second act does not seem to have much
to do with the play except to show what evil
fortune has fallen on the hero and heroine
through the machinations of the unscrupulous
villain, and it is delayed several times by
the soubrette and the low comedy, who sing
several songs that haven't any special bearing
on the matter of strikes and lockouts.
Buckets of Molten Iron.
In the third act, however, the excitement
works up to fever heat. The interior of a
rolling mill is shown and small crowds of
supernumeraries walk around with buckets
of hot iron. The villain arranges for one of
his workmen
— an Italian — to set fire to some
old buildings to give the public the impression
the mischief was committed by the
strikers and thereby win public sympathy.
The villain also insinuates to the Italian that
he wouldn't be so terribly cross if somebody
was to insert a knife under the hero's fifth
rib some dark night.
The supernumeraries, having gone on
strike, rush into the mill, seize the villain,
put him on a turning lathe, and start the
machinery. Just as the villain is about to
be carved into an ornamental hitching post
the hero rushes in and saves him, and the
curtain goes down amidst great applause.
In the last act the scene is laid in the home
of the villain, the one he obtained by means
of the forged will. The Italian comes in to
demand more money, as his price for keeping
silence in regard to the burning of the old
buildings at the mill, which the villain is
anxious to lay at the doors of the strikers.
The villain decides it would be nice if the
Italian should die, as he would be less liable
to talk then and couldn't demand any more
blackmail. So he knocks the Italian over
and throws him into the safe, and then
declares in terrible tones that the man will die
of suffocation in two hours.
Turn Safe Into Reading Room.
The comic friend of the hero attempts to
rescue the Italian, and he also is locked up
in the safe and left to smother. The hero
and heroine and the rest of the company
keep ambling in and out, and finally the
soubrette opens the vault door and the comic
friend and the Italian are rescued.
They come out bringing numerous
documents which they found in the safe and
which they were reading to pass the time
away until they should die of suffocation.
Among these documents they find the forged
will. The villain claims the will is genuine,
but the juvenile lead with a merry laugh
finds that the document was dated in 1898,
while the water mark in the paper shows
that it was not manufactured until 1900.
That settles the matter.
The villain attempts to escape and a policeman
kills him, while the hero and heroine,
being already in the house out of which
they were cheated by the forged will,
immediately take possession without any more
formalities. The hero proclaims himself as
the new presidrent of the company, tells all
the supernumerary mill hands that they will
have their wages doubled and be presented
with silk hats and automobiles, and then,
clasping the heroine in his arms, tells her he
is no longer a "Human Slave," and the
curtain descends to joyous music and frantic applause.
