Danites, the; or, the Heart of the Sierras

Danites, the; or, the Heart of the Sierras (1877), a play by Joaquin Miller. [Broadway Theatre, 30 perf.] When a band of Danites, members of a Mormon secret society, attempt to murder the Williams family, two youngsters escape. One is Nancy Williams ( Kitty Blanchard), who, fearing the Mormons will continue to pursue her, disguises herself as a boy and takes the name Billy Piper and seeks refuge in a mining camp. There a comely young schoolteacher, Huldah Brown ( Lillie Eldridge), falls in love with the supposed young man. Huldah is courted by Alexander “Sandy” McGee ( McKee Rankin), and when Billy refuses to return her affection she agrees to marry Sandy. Learning Billy's true identity, Huldah takes her into her confidence and carelessly invites her into the privacy of her rooms. Sandy misconstrues these actions and becomes ragingly jealous. Several Danites appear at the camp, having searched out Nancy, and try to incite the mob into lynching the presumed boy. Luckily, Sandy discovers that Billy is a girl, dissuades the mob, and turns its ire against the Mormons. The work was first contrived in London with the help of an unidentified English actor and was based on two stories by Miller. The play version, called The First Families of the Sierras in London, was revised by a Philadelphia actor, Alexander Fitzgerald, as a vehicle for Rankin and his wife, Kitty Blanchard. Although it was not the first play about Western life, the success of The Danites initiated a vogue for such plays. It remains of interest as well because of its cruel depiction of Mormons. For half a century the Mormon was portrayed either as a villain or as a somewhat unsavory comic. So long as this view had popular currency, the play remained well received. It was regularly revived, and Rankin himself played in it for many years. Joaquin MILLER (1841?–1913), whose real first name was Cincinnatus, was well known as a writer of Western stories. The Danites was his first play and the only one to achieve prolonged success. Miller's other work of interest was the pioneer tale Forty‐Nine (1881).