Silver Spoon, The

Silver Spoon, The (1852), a comedy by Joseph Stevens Jones. [Boston Museum, in repertory.] Having been elected by his “feller townsmen” to represent Cranberry Center in the “Gineral” assembly, Jefferson S. Batkins ( William Warren) comes to the state capital to assume his post and fight for his country neighbors against the big city “klinks”—his reading of “cliques.” He decides to stay with Ezra Austin ( W. H. Smith), whose aunt, Hannah Partridge ( Mrs. Thoman), he had courted long ago and whom he proposes to court again. At the same time, young Glandon King has returned from Europe for the reading of his father's will. The document announces that since Glandon has been given everything he wanted in life, his father's money goes to establish a college, and Glandon's sole reward is a silver spoon. A shady lawyer, Simon Feedle ( Mr. Curtis), attempts to break the will and establish his law clerk, Tom Pinfeather ( C. H. Saunders), as a second son of the late Mr. King. The ploy is exposed and a later will is discovered in which King announces that if Glandon has made no effort to break the first will, then the entire estate is his. Glandon's proposal of marriage is accepted by Austin's daughter, Sarah ( Mrs. Wulf Fries), while Hannah agrees to become Mrs. Batkins. Despite its title, this most popular of all Boston 19th‐century comedies really centered on Batkins, whose gaffes cause endless embarrassment and whose innocence gets him into several awkward situations. Much of the comedy came from a confused speech Batkins hopes to make to the assembly and which he tries out on anyone who will listen. The play remained in Warren's and the Boston Museum's repertory until Warren's death and was popular in stock until shortly before World War I.