Agnes Maude Royden

Agnes Maude Royden 1876-1956, English preacher and social worker, studied at Oxford. The first woman to preach (1917-20) in an established Anglican church, she was also active in social reforms, notably the woman suffrage and social hygiene movements. Among her many books are Sex and Common Sense (1922), I Believe in God (1927), Women's Partnership in the New World (1941), and her autobiography, The Threefold Cord (1947).

Men and Women (1890), a play by David Belasco and Henry C. de Mille. [ Proctor's 23rd Street Theatre, 204 perf.] A panic brings the Jefferson National Bank to the brink of collapse, especially when bonds kept in its vault are discovered missing. Suspicion falls on young Edward Seabury ( Orrin Johnson), just as he is to announce his engagement to Dora Prescott ( Maude Adams), sister of his best friend and fellow cashier, William Prescott ( William Morris). Will, too, has just become engaged, to Agnes Rodman ( Sydney Armstrong), daughter of Arizona's governor, Stephen Rodman ( Frank Mordaunt). Calvin Stedman ( R. A. Roberts), who loves Dora, determines to pin the theft on Edward, and when Governor Rodman comes to Edward's defense, Stedman reveals that the Governor has a criminal record. This revelation forces Will to confess that he stole the bonds. Although he is not prosecuted, Will loses his job and cannot find work. Finally the sympathetic bank president, dismissing Will's actions as a youthful mistake, finds him another position and the lovers are all happily paired. Based on a then recent and celebrated case, the Charles Frohman production was the last collaboration of Belasco and de Mille. The New York Star praised it as the “best they have ever written.” Except for the Herald, most critics agreed, even if some saw little purpose in the weak ending.