My Partner (1879), a play by Bartley Campbell. [ Union Square Theatre, 39 perf.] Although their characters are totally disparate, warm, idealistic Joe Saunders (Louis Aldrich) and cynical, self‐serving Ned Singleton (Henry Crisp) are the closest of friends and both love Mary Brandon (Maude Granger). When Ned violates Mary, Joe demands that Ned marry her. But Ned is murdered by Josiah Scragg (J. W. Hague), who makes it seem that Joe is the killer. Joe is tried and convicted, and before he is to be executed, he and Mary agree to wed. Joe is saved from the gallows when Wing Lee (Charles T. Parsloe) discovers Scragg's bloodstained cuff. Set in California as civilization was brushing away gold rush crudities, the play was not as popular with the public as Campbell's The White Slave. Critics, however, were in virtual agreement that this was his best work. The Tribune noted, “It is a very strong piece. The effort has been made to deal with elemental passions and real persons, and to paint a picture of tragedy and heroism upon the tumultuous background of a turbulent semi‐civilization; and the object has been accomplished with startling force and unusual, if not even skills. . . . It is a better piece of its class than has hitherto been produced in America.” The play held first class stages for nearly a decade.