The Lion and the mouse

   Opening on 20 November 1905 at the Lyceum Theatre, the drama by Charles Klein ran for 586 performances. The New York Times reviewer (21 November 1905) saw its theme as "the dominant power of money in American politics." Edmund Breese played "Ready-Money" Ryder, a corrupt corporate figure whose chicanery has brought disgrace on an upright judge.

   The judge's daughter, as an author using a pen name, gains access to Ryder's papers and finds the evidence needed to clear her father's name. Of course, her conflicted romantic feelings incline toward the judge's son. It was not difficult for the public to see the parallels with corporate genius John D. Rockefeller and investigative journalist Ida Tarbell, whose two years of research into the oil industry had resulted in the 1904 publication of her classic study, The History of the Standard Oil Company.