over, Frank E. Woods, the former "Spectator" of the _Dramatic Mirror_,
says:

"That is precisely what every author does in nine cases out of ten. He
utilizes and adapts the ideas he has gained from various sources. It
is when he follows another author's sequence or association of ideas
or arrangement of incidents so closely as to make his work appear to
be an obvious copy or colorable imitation, that he is guilty."

_4. The New Twist Illustrated_

As an example of the way in which an old theme may be given a new
twist, let us compare the plot of Browning's "Pippa Passes"--which,
by the way, was wonderfully well produced in motion-picture form by
the Biograph Company in 1909--and James Oppenheim's photoplay, "Annie
Crawls Upstairs," produced by the Edison Company.

In each, the theme is the spiritual redemption of several different
characters through the influence of the heroine, who in each case
accomplishes this worthy end quite unconsciously. Pippa, the
mill-girl, spends her holiday wandering through the town and over the
countryside, singing her innocent and happy-hearted songs. It is the
effect of those songs upon those who hear them that gives the
poem-story its dramatic moments and makes up the plot. In Mr.
Oppenheim's story, the heroine, Annie, is a tiny, crippled child who,
wandering out of the tenement kitchen where her half-drunken father is
quarreling with his wife, crawls painfully up one flight of stairs
after another, innocently walking into each flat in turn, and in each
doing some good by her mere presence. On one floor a wayward girl is
so affected by meeting with the crippled child that she remains at
home with her mother instead of going out to join a party of friends
of questionable character; on another floor she is instrumental in
preventing an ex-convict from joining his former pals in another
crime; in the flat above, she brings together two lovers who are about
to part in anger; in the next flat she comforts a busy dressmaker who
has lost patience with and scolded her little girl for being in her
way while she is at work, and who realizes on seeing Annie that she
should at least be thankful that her child has health and strength,
and does not, therefore, add the care and worry of sickness to the
burden of poverty. Finally, on the top floor, a young man, heart-sick
and weary of the vain search for work in a strange city, coming out of
his room finds little Annie asleep, her head resting aga