The Traveling Salesman

Traveling Salesman, The (1908), a comedy by James Forbes. [Liberty Theatre, 280 perf.] Beth Elliott (Gertrude Coghlan) runs the depot at Grand Crossing. Although the local citizenry thinks she is “jest as smart as a steel trap,” she is naive enough to hope that no one will bid against her when her family property is auctioned off for back taxes. Bob Blake (Frank McIntyre), a traveling salesman, arrives in town and is immediately taken with Beth, and she with him. But a group of sharpies who are determined to buy the Elliott property make it appear that Bob has cheated Beth out of the land. By the time she realizes Bob is innocent, she has accepted the crooks' check, thereby apparently sealing a deal. However, when Bob learns that no married woman in the state can execute a deed without her husband's signature, an obvious and happy way out is found. Much of the earlier acts of the play were devoted to vignettes of contemporary small‐town life and developed the plot at what today would seem an unacceptably leisurely pace. Yet the charm of the piece and the excellent Henry B. Harris production made it one of the major successes of its time.