<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1> THEFT </h1>
<h2> A Play In Four Acts <br/> <br/> By Jack London <br/> <br/> <br/> 1910 </h2>
<h2> Contents </h2>
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<td>
<p><SPAN href="#link2H_4_0001"> ACTORS' DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERS </SPAN></p>
<br/>
<p><SPAN href="#link2H_4_0002"> ACT I </SPAN> A Room in the
House of Senator Chalmers</p>
<p><SPAN href="#link2H_4_0003"> ACT II </SPAN> Rooms of Howard
Knox at Hotel Waltham</p>
<p><SPAN href="#link2H_4_0004"> ACT III </SPAN> A Room in the Washington
House of Anthony Starkweather</p>
<p><SPAN href="#link2H_4_0005"> ACT IV </SPAN> Same as Act I</p>
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</tr>
</table>
<p><br/></p>
<hr />
<p><br/></p>
<h3> Time of Play, To-Day, in Washington, D. C. <br/> It Occurs in Twenty Hours </h3>
<p><br/></p>
<h2> CHARACTERS </h2>
<p>Margaret Chalmers</p>
<p>Howard Knox</p>
<p>Thomas Chalmers</p>
<p>Master Thomas Chalmers</p>
<p>Ellery Jackson Hubbard</p>
<p>Anthony Starkweather</p>
<p>Mrs Starkweather</p>
<p>Connie Starkweather</p>
<p>Felix Dobleman</p>
<p>Linda Davis</p>
<p>Julius Rutland</p>
<p>John Gieford</p>
<p>Matsu Sakari</p>
<p>Dolores Ortega</p>
<p>Senator Dowsett Mrs Dowsett</p>
<p>Housekeeper, Servs</p>
<p>Wife of Senator Chalmers</p>
<p>A Congressman from Oregon</p>
<p>A United States Senator and several times millionaire</p>
<p>Son of Margaret and Senator Chalmers</p>
<p>A Journalist</p>
<p>A great magnate, and father of Margaret Chalmers</p>
<p>His wife</p>
<p>Their younger daughter</p>
<p>Secretary to Anthony Starkweather</p>
<p>Maid to Margaret Chalmers</p>
<p>Episcopalian Minister</p>
<p>Labor Agitator</p>
<p>Secretary of Japanese Embassy</p>
<p>Wife of Peruvian Minister</p>
<p>Agents, etc</p>
<p><br/></p>
<hr />
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<br/>
<h2> ACTORS' DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERS </h2>
<p>Margaret Chalmers. Twenty-seven years of age; a strong, mature woman, but
quite feminine where her heart or sense of beauty are concerned. Her eyes
are wide apart. Has a dazzling smile, which she knows how to use on
occasion. Also, on occasion, she can be firm and hard, even cynical An
intellectual woman, and at the same time a very womanly woman, capable of
sudden tendernesses, flashes of emotion, and abrupt actions. She is a
finished product of high culture and refinement, and at the same time
possesses robust vitality and instinctive right-promptings that augur well
for the future of the race.</p>
<p>Howard Knox. He might have been a poet, but was turned politician.
Inflamed with love for humanity. Thirty-five years of age. He has his
vision, and must follow it. He has suffered ostracism because of it, and
has followed his vision in spite of abuse and ridicule. Physically, a
well-built, powerful man. Strong-featured rather than handsome. Very much
in earnest, and, despite his university training, a trifle awkward in
carriage and demeanor, lacking in social ease. He has been elected to
Congress on a reform ticket, and is almost alone in fight he is making. He
has no party to back him, though he has a following of a few independents
and insurgents.</p>
<p>Thomas Chalmers. Forty-five to fifty years of age. Iron-gray mustache.
Slightly stout. A good liver, much given to Scotch and soda, with a weak
heart. Is liable to collapse any time. If anything, slightly lazy or
lethargic in his emotional life. One of the "owned" senators representing
a decadent New England state, himself master of the state political
machine. Also, he is nobody's fool. He possesses the brain and strength of
character to play his part. His most distinctive feature is his
temperamental opportunism.</p>
<p>Master Thomas Chalmers. Six years of age. Sturdy and healthy despite his
grandmother's belief to the contrary.</p>
<p>Ellery Jackson Hubbard. Thirty-eight to forty years of age. Smooth-shaven.
A star journalist with a national reputation; a large, heavy-set man, with
large head, large hands—everything about him is large. A man
radiating prosperity, optimism and selfishness. Has no morality whatever.
Is a conscious individualist, cold-blooded, pitiless, working only for
himself, and believing in nothing but himself.</p>
<p>Anthony Starkweather. An elderly, well preserved gentleman, slenderly
built, showing all the signs of a man who has lived clean and has been
almost an ascetic. One to whom the joys of the flesh have had little
meaning. A cold, controlled man whose one passion is for power.
Distinctively a man of power. An eagle-like man, who, by keenness of brain
and force of character, has carved out a fortune of hundreds of millions.
In short, an industrial and financial magnate of the first water and of
the finest type to be found in the United States. Essentially a moral man,
his rigid New England morality has suffered a sea change and developed
into the morality of the master-man of affairs, equally rigid, equally
uncompromising, but essentially Jesuitical in that he believes in doing
wrong that right may come of it. He is absolutely certain that
civilization and progress rest on his shoulders and upon the shoulders of
the small group of men like him.</p>
<p>Mrs. Starkweather. Of the helpless, comfortably stout, elderly type. She
has not followed her husband in his moral evolution. She is the creature
of old customs, old prejudices, old New England ethics. She is rather
confused by the modern rush of life.</p>
<p>Connie Starkweather. Margaret's younger sister, twenty years old. She is
nothing that Margaret is, and everything that Margaret is not. No
essential evil in her, but has no mind of her own—hopelessly a
creature of convention. Gay, laughing, healthy, buxom—a natural
product of her care-free environment.</p>
<p>Feux Dobleman. Private secretary to Anthony Starkweather. A young man of
correct social deportment, thoroughly and in all things just the sort of
private secretary a man like Anthony Starkweather would have. He is a
weak-souled creature, timorous, almost effeminate.</p>
<p>Linda Davis. Maid to Margaret. A young woman of twenty-five or so, blond,
Scandinavian, though American-born. A cold woman, almost featureless
because of her long years of training, but with a hot heart deep down, and
characterized by an intense devotion to her mistress. Wild horses could
drag nothing from her where her mistress is concerned.</p>
<p>Junus Rutland. Having no strong features about him, the type realizes
itself.</p>
<p>John Gifford. A labor agitator. A man of the people, rough-hewn, narrow as
a labor-leader may well be, earnest and sincere. He is a proper, better
type of labor-leader.</p>
<p>Matsu Sakari. Secretary of Japanese Embassy. He is the perfection of
politeness and talks classical book-English. He bows a great deal.</p>
<p>Dolores Ortega. Wife of Peruvian Minister; bright and vivacious, and uses
her hands a great deal as she talks, in the Latin-American fashion.</p>
<p>Senator Dowsett. Fifty years of age; well preserved.</p>
<p>Mrs. Dowsett. Stout and middle-aged.</p>
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