https://archive.org/details/wallsofjerichopl00sutriala/mode/1up
It's called "The Walls of Jericho", but it is not a religious play, quite the contrary.
Here is a summary...
"In "The Walls of Jericho" the author, Mr. Alfred Sutro, has exposed with no light hand the foibles, follies and excesses of that section of modern society known as the "Smart Set." Here are men and women possessing wealth, and titles, and the power of usefulness, and who only turn their time, talents and wealth to the pursuit of pleasure and degradation, to senseless extravagance, to gambling and scandalising and flirting, and worse!
Among the members of this set to whom Mr. Sutro presents us are an odious and mercenary aristocratic father, a Duchess who cheats at bridge, a libertine of Mayfair who forcibly embraces another man's wife within call of the servants, and young men and women - deceitful, backbiting, cynical - who scatter at large and for all ears epigrams and personal remarks in deplorable taste. All of which is warrant enough for the blast of Joshua's trumpets, and not altogether a pleasing or an instructive picture to gaze upon. But the author has also provided something in the form of a wholesome corrective. His story, which I will now briefly relate, provides a useful moral.
Jack Frobisher, by sheep-farming in Queensland, has amassed a huge fortune, and with it, and all the innocence of the free and open life he has been accustomed to, he comes to London - the modern Jericho - and marries the Lady Alethea, daughter of the impecunious Marquis of Steventon. Very soon his wife begins to drift the way of her set, gambling, dancing and flirting; the husband, bored and weary, following her with charming docility, from house to house. Frobisher was a strong man in Queensland, and had, in fact, gained for himself the name of "Fighting Jack." Now in London he is amazed to find that he is impotent to stem the current that already threatens to carry him off his feet. His wife's relations, with a certain Harry Dallas, have gone to the length not merely of arousing his jealousy, but also of encouraging Dallas to declare his passion, although it should be said that Lady Alethea draws back at once, for in her heart of hearts and beneath the fashionable frivolity there dwells an honest love for her husband.
In due course serious friction arises, partly over Dallas, and more acutely over Lady Alethea's young brother, Max, who with disastrous results has taken advantage of a young lady occupying the position of companion in Lord Steventon's house. Jack Frobisher insists that the lad shall marry the girl, a step which Max readily consents to take. But the family pride is up in arms against it, and Jack's persistence only serves to render his wife the more angry.
Meanwhile, Frobisher's oldest and dearest chum, Hankey Bannister, who is also a millionaire from Queensland, appears on the scene, and falls in love with Lady Lucy, Alethea's young sister. Now Lucy is about as "good" as the rest of the family, and when she cynically announces her intention of spreading a net for the capture of her unsophisticated suitor, it is Frobisher's misfortune to again arouse his wife's wrath by opening his friend's eyes to the truth.
At last there comes a day when the inevitable happens and brings about the final rupture between man and wife. Harry Dallas has just revealed himself in his true colours, and has unsuccessfully struggled to take Lady Alethea in his arms, when Jack Frobisher unexpectedly enters the room and sees more than enough to justify his suspicions. Instantly the milk and water "husband" of London is transformed into "Fighting Jack" of Queensland. It is Jack Frobisher who, moved now to action, takes up the trumpet and blows a blast which brings down the walls of modern Jericho, or rather that particular portion of the wall in which his own dwelling is set. He makes short work of Dallas. He meets and makes yet shorter work of his wicked old father-in-law. And then he meets his wife, and empties out upon her the vials of his wrath. "I've had enough," he shouts, "of these companions of yours - these wretched, sexless women who do nothing but flirt and gamble - these childless wives who grudge the time that it costs them, to bring a baby into the world. I've had enough of their brainless, indecent talk, where everything good is turned into ridicule, and each word has a double meaning. I've had enough of this existence of ours, in town and country, where all the men make love to their neighbours' wives. I've done with it - done with it all, and so have you."
In his anger Frobisher admits of no compromise, he will sell up forthwith and go back to a plain and wholesome life in Queensland. But Lady Alethea refuses to go with him. He has said things to her that she can never forgive. And so they separate, and the time for his sailing approaches. The child, so much neglected by its mother, is to go with the father, but an accidental meeting with his wife, who breaks down at the thought of losing her boy, moves her husband to give up the child, and he declares he will go alone. This little act of magnanimity wins Lady Alethea back to his side, and, folded in his arms, she expresses her willingness and readiness to start with him the new life in Queensland."
http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/produce/wallsj/th-wallsj.html
Cheers,
Chris
