Just before the curtain was to rise on Mr. Gill's Monday evening premier, Deputy U.S. Marshall A. K. Smith came before the large audience "armed with a writ of injunction against the buccaneers who contemplated an act of piracy on the high seas of literature." (12) The performance of The Gilded Age was dropped, and All That Glitters is not Gold was quickly substituted. The Daily Tribune gave this account of the legal maneuvering in its Tuesday edition:
. . .This is the legal history of the affair: Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), of Hartford, Connecticut, is the author as he is
SOLE OWNER OF THE COPYRIGHT
of the celebrated work of fiction, which by act of congress, of 1870, he has also the exclusive right of dramatizing. In 1873, he did dramatize the novel, and subsequently entered into a contract with John T. Raymond, the eminent actor, by which the latter was given exclusive right to the play, and guaranteeing legal protection from all infringement by the theatrical profession. On last Saturday, Col. E. D. Baker, of this city, who is a personal friend of Mr. Raymond, telegraphed that gentleman, that the play was then posted for Monday night in the Salt Lake Theatre. Raymond then at once complained to Mr. Clemens of the trespass on his property, whereupon, also the latter telegraphed Messrs. Tilford & Hagan, his attorneys here, to take immediate steps to prevent the representation of "The Gilded Age," by the pretended owners. . .
. . . Messrs. Tilford & Hagan held a conference on the subject, with the managers of the theatre, who are in no way responsible for the invasion of Mr. Clemens' rights, but, having been involuntarily drawn into the arrangement with Gill, yesterday suggested that the play be allowed to go on one night, for a proportionate division of the receipts. This offer was communicated to the author, and he replied: "No compromise with thieves on any terms, not even for the entire proceeds." Meaning, of course, the purloiners of his work, and not the managers of the theatre. Being further peremptorily instructed, Messrs. Tilford & Hagen prepared and filed a bill in equity, in the Third District Court, for an injunction. . .
. . . After argument of counsel on both sides, the Court held, substantially, that upon the bill, as a matter of law, the plaintiff, Clemens, was entitled to be protected by injunction under the copy right statutes of congress, whereupon it was ordered that a writ issue accordingly, which was done, with the result above stated. Mark Twain is ahead, and our next notice of "The Gilded Age" will be made when Raymond comes "Roughing It" to Salt Lake City, and then everybody can see that "There's millions in it."By legal decree, The Gilded Age, as written for the stage by Twain, would live or die in the hands of John Raymond.
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