ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 175, 29 March 1915, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

“WITHIN THE . LAW.’’ "Within the Law - ' is a Avell-con-st meted play, .,_ el ever in a literary .sense, and touching- -questions; which lie beneath the tangled problem;of crime. The story is unusual. Mary Turner is n shop girl in a big American departmental store. The propretor gives generously of his money to this charity and that, but does not pay his female employees enough to enable them to live decently. Ho pays them as much as the ‘other houses, and, excellent man though he is in many respect?, he does not inquire whether they cinjiive honestly and virtuously on what thev re -cive and he is very imlig-ihnt who some of them steal. Stolen articles were found in Mary Turner's possession antj she was made, sin example of to warn the. others. That would hive been justified had she been guilty, bur she was not. Before she is removed to

serve aHerrn of three years’ imprisonment sh‘e has an interview with hm miployer aml tells him in an impassioned speech why poor underpail girls go wrong, lliy; appeal- is in vain. and. •hanging her tone, she declares she

,-vill mak/ him, pay .for the wrong lobes done her. She. serves her sentence *ud on her release attempts to make an honest living, but the police follow her everywhere and she is constancy dishnlssed; In the' haf-d college of persecution she learns 'how ranch may be done-so long as it is "within the law."

She becomes rich and with money and brains manages to keep the police at bay. Teh n she determines jo make hei former employer, Edward Gilder, pay the debt she has recorded against him. Her first step was to fascinate his son Richard and then to marry him. Bhe then tells the father why she has done (his and also tolls the son she has no love for him. Here she misjudged her own heart. A burglary at Edward Gilder’s house involves the Whole gang of crooks. Here also a murder takes place, committed with a Maxim Silencer. The Concluding portion of -the play illustrates the methods of the New York police in th’e treatment of persons coining into their power. There is something of :;The Third Degree" about the play in this act, though of a milder charcater than in the play of that name. Eventually, .Too Garscn, a forger, one of the crooks, and with s secret love for Mary, saves the situation by nobly confessing the truth of the crime, and thereby saving Mary from further persecution. The Company appears at the Town Hall on Easter Saturday and Easter Monday. -"The Rosary" will be staged cn Easter. Monday for the last night of the season. The box plan is now on view ::t Finch’s Bazaar, where seats may be reserved without extra charge.