The Literary Shop, and Other TalesFord, James L. (James Lauren)
General
The Literary Shop, and Other Tales
Ford, James L. (James Lauren)
American periodicals; Authorship -- Humor
MANAGER. Oh, the comedy is easy enough to manage, and as for the hero,
I forgot to tell you that he shows up in the first act and wants to
marry her, but she gives him the bounce because he’s poor as a crow.
Better make him an artist or something of that sort. It might be a good
idea to have him a reporter, and then he can read some good strong
lines about the dignity of his profession or something of that sort,
just so as to catch on with the press boys. Well, the next act shows
the girl living in a garret in New York, supporting herself and her
mother by type-writing. Lay it on thick about their being poor and
industrious and all that, and have some good lines about the noble
working-girl or the virtuous type-writer or something of that sort.
Livingston’s got an elegant new silk gown that she says she’s going to
wear in that act, so you’ll have to give her a few lines to explain
that although they’re poor she still has that dress and won’t part
with it because her father gave it to her, and so she wears it at home
nights when the other one’s in the wash.
DRAMATIST. Excuse me, but isn’t it rather strange for a poor
type-writer to appear in a handsome new silk dress when she’s having
hard work to support herself and her mother? Why not put her in a plain
gingham gown--?
MANAGER. Plain gingham be blowed! Say, young feller, when you know that
cat Livingston as well as I do, you won’t sit here talking about plain
gingham gowns. No, siree; she won’t touch any part unless she can dress
it right up to the handle. Well, this act is in two scenes. The first
is a front scene showing the humble house on the virtuous-poverty plan,
with the old lady warming her bands at a little fire and saying, “Oh,
it is bitter cold to-night, and the wind cuts like a knife.” And then
we can have the wind whistling through the garret in a melancholy sort
of way. The next scene shows a broker’s office where the type-writer
is employed. Here you can run in a little comedy and show them having
a lot of fun while the old man is out at lunch. Livingston’s got some
first-rate music--sort of pathetic-like--and you can write some words
to it for her to sing. Write something appropriate, such as, “I’m only
a working-girl, but I’m virtuous, noble, and true.” How does that
sound, hey? Well, in this act her employer insults her, and she leaves
him, though she hasn’t a cent in the world and doesn’t know where to
go. You must give her a good strong scene, and have the curtain fall
on a tableau of indignant virtue rebuking the tempter. You must have
a picture there that we can use on a three-sheet poster. In the next
act we have the grand climax. The villain still pursues her to her new
place, for she gets a job with the aid of the poor young lover who was
bounced in the first act. Just as the old villain is about to seize her
and carry her off by main force, the young lover rushes in and knocks
him out with a fire shovel. He falls and breaks his skull. In comes
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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