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Pretty Mrs. Smith Synopsis

To escape the dreary formality of her born life, Drucilla marries a missionary, Ferdinand Smith, and goes with him to Africa. Here her life proves anything but happy. Denied the pleasures enjoyed by most girls of her age, she endures her husband's cold severity as long as possible and then leaves him, returning to America, where she visits her old school friend, Letitia Proudfoot. It is while attending a reception with Letitia that she meets the poet, Forrest Smith, whose attentions are welcome after the austerity of the frigid Ferdinand. A friendship springs up between them which soon ripens into love. On the news that Ferdinand has been lost at sea, she and the poet marry. Love in a cottage is hardly more satisfactory to pretty Drucilla than life among the heathen. Forrest is not a good provider, and when she threatens a suit for non-support, he disappears, leaving a note of farewell pinned to his coat, which is found at the edge of the sea. Free again, Drucilla for the first time really falls in love, this time with Frank Smith, a wealthy club man, athletically inclined. Frank turns out to possess a very jealous nature. Drucilla puts up with his doubts and suspicions patiently, but before long a climax arrives which precipitates a suit for divorce. Drucilla welcomes this conclusion to her unhappy domestic affairs with relief and sets off with Letitia in search of repose. Now it happens that Ferdinand was not lost at sea, and Forrest did not commit suicide, and each develops a desire to be reunited with his wife. Forthwith they set out in search of her, and eventually meet at the same hotel. Here also comes Frank, who, too, has undergone a change of heart. Thus instead of finding repose, as she hoped, Drucilla is plunged deeper than ever into marital tribulations. Her tender heart prompts her to make up with Frank. But no sooner is this done than Forrest puts in an appearance and makes his claim. Drucilla cries, "I am a bigamist," but belated Ferdinand, entering the scene, answers, "No, you are a trigamist." Which one of the husbands will Drucilla take, and how will she evade the law? This is the question. The clever authors have so arranged that this will be a guess until the very last, and then it ends just right for everybody.

The Valley of the Moon Synopsis

At the opening of the play Billy Roberts is successively a pugilist and a teamster, and Saxon, a young girl, works in a laundry. They meet at a Weazel Park picnic, the afternoon of the lively "roughhouse" between San Francisco and Oakland. They find each is of the race of the sturdy pioneers, which crossed the plains on foot and founded the new empire of the West. "We're just like old friends, with the same kind of folks behind us," says Billy. We see their simple wedding, and the happiness of the new life. Then comes the teamsters' strike, with its consequent poverty and unhappiness and the embittering of Billy's spirit. A succession of scenes shows the rioting that ensues when strike-breakers are imported. A thousand men were used in this part of the play. The action does not pause from the moment the strike-breakers leave the train until the riot culminates in front of Saxon's eyes, in the killing of Bert, Billy's chum. Things go from bad to worse, but it is when their fortunes are at the lowest ebb, when Billy is in jail and Saxon destitute, and while she sails on San Francisco Bay, that the great inspiration comes to her; the city is just a place to start from and that beyond the circling hills, out through the Golden Gate, somewhere they will find what they most desire. After his release and fired by her enthusiasm. Billy agrees and, with the thought that they are only following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they start out on foot to find a new home. Charming glimpses of the country through which they tramp are given, in the course of which we make the acquaintance of that delightful group of artists who call themselves the "Abalone Eaters," at Carmel, and attend a boxing match at which Billy earns a much-desired camping outfit in twenty-seven seconds. Finally they come to a cairn and view from it a valley that is all they have looked for. It is Sonoma, an Indian name, which means the Valley of the Moon. Our last view of them is in the midst of busy ranch life, and in a dell in Wildwater Canyon, where Saxon whispers to Billy the secret that crowns the summit of their happiness.