"PLASTER SAINTS-"

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11510, 5 October 1915, Page 7

"PLASTER SAINTS-"

PUBLIC GOOD v PI&VATE SIN. Should a minister, whose pectiliari powers have made him a force to fight evil, publicly ccmfess .a prirato sin when his confession will rob bin* of hist weapons, give victory to the evils ho is out to kill and shatter the happiness of those ho loves? Should a man sava his own soul at the cost of other souls? These are the questions which Mr Israel Zarigwill discusses in "Plaster Saints/'' the latest of his plays to bo published! in book form. The author of Thq Children of the Ghetto" has already shown that the versatility which led) him from novels to essays and poetry! has done him greater service in leadins; him to the drama a medium of expression. Of course, in the publish-* ed plav he may not find such a well-' filled forum, but, when plays likq "'Plaster Saints" or ( ''The Next-Reli- 1 aion " can bo read where they cannot be seen, the play of the library will soon como into its own. Iho ad rant acres of the published play are many; but, of course, may form, quite another; story. Zaniiwi.lt approaches his problem directly. Ho throws his audience into the peaceful atmosphere of I>r Rodney Yaughan's vicarage at Midstoke, ob-i viousiy a small and prosperous little English provincial village. But in the* midst of a lot of witty chatter about) garden parties and Sir John Arch-' mmidham's opposition to tho marriage of his daughter Amy to Hubert Morrow, a musician who cannot soil his symphonies, in the midst of this lighthearted scene comes the first sign oft unrest and distrust. Some eau-de- 1 cologne is sought and a bottle is pi'0 J duced, and Mrs Yaug.han, a storn up-' holder of the Church, mentions /mat; ill must have been left by Felicia 'Morrow. John Archmundham. a- doctor,' starts and recovers himself, and you learn that Felicia was once l)r Yaughan'.s secretary, but has been gonn some months. j>r Vaughan, a man of great mental power, who is at. tho head' of a great reform movement against: white slavery, arrives. Ho has been' troubled by insomnia, and the receipt of a letter from Felicia Morrow at first startles and then relieves his mind.. The atmosphere is charged with portents. Then enters ,a mysterious lady,, who comes to confess a sin against her husband, a momentary falling away qui to undiscovered. Yaughan tries to comfort her with texts, but she asks* for real words "nob these fly-blow re phrases."' Yaughan approaches her case with a great understanding of her difficulties, and when she protests against the advice to forgot the old wrong which she has repented, rather than shatter her family's loving happiness, ho breaks out with Zangwill's) philosophy : Vnuphan: if. good coi; science that icnipts us to tortiuo those we lovr»? Xo. H i-i an cvii conscience, T eay. Wo rmu-t iramplo on J'i. Lady. You. a man of Go*.], say thai.! Yaushan : Yes, 1, «. wan of God, say that —to you, a woman of Oo<3. Conscience was ■.riven us to keep na from ein, rot to dyuuicito the innocent. Lady; Then I am--not to confess ? Yaughsu: It> \voul<l only be a. second ?m on top of Mrs Yaughan, inordinately proud of bor husband, the husband " she worshipped—next to God," learns that Felicia Morrow's mistake, discovered by Dr John Archmundham, is preventing the marriage between Amy Archmunclham and Hubert Morrow. The noble soul sets out to discover Felicia's betrayer. Slowly but relentlessly hor investigations lead her to her husband, and finally under her inquiries he breaks down and confesses that he is the father of Felicia's child. To Mrs Yaughan's stern Christian mind the Required for