If a particular event in the play strikes you as confusing, you might take a look at how Belasco described it in the novel. For instance, here is how Belasco explains why a gentlemanly character like Johnson finds himself leading a band of thieves. The passage begins with the deathbed speech of Johnson's dying father, a Mexican:

"Little by little these cursed Americanos have taken all that I had from me. But as they have sown so shall they reap. I have taken my revenge, and you shall take more!" He paused to get his breath; then in a terrible voice he cried: "Yes, I have robbed—robbed! For the last three years, almost, your father has been a bandit!"

The son sprang to his feet.

"A bandit? You, father, a Ramerrez, a bandit?"

"Ay, a bandit, an outlaw, as you also will be when I am no more, and rob, rob, rob, these Americanos. It is my command and—you—have—sworn…"

The Girl of the Golden West (novel)

We're scheduled to workshop the paper today, and I want to encourage you to bring something substantial to the workshop -- the more substantial the better. I'll let you take what you learned from the workshop and turn in a quick revision by 5pm Friday, and that's what I'll grade for your draft.

But I'm still going to collect whatever you have on the original due date -- 29 Nov.

In order for me to have the time to review and comment on your draft, and in order for you to have time to apply my comments, the final draft of Paper 3 is being delayed as well.

As with the previous papers, your goal for Paper 3 is to defend a non-obvious claim about one or several literary works on our syllabus, demonstrating your ability to incorporate direct quotations from the primary (literary) and secondary (scholarly or historical) sources. Your thesis should be worth arguing -- that is, you should present and account for credible evidence that opposes the claim you want to make.

I am not requiring that you come for a consultation this week, but I strongly recommend it.

On Tuesday, I will be available during the 9:30-10:45 time slot, during which time I'll be happy to run a workshop for anyone who wants it. I'll also be available for individual appointments from 9-9:30, and 1-3.

The Wednesday class is cancelled due to Thanksgiving Break -- I will not be holding consultations during that time slot. Students from the Wednesday section are invited to sign up for a consultation on Tuesday.

I might be able to see you briefly on Monday, but that day is already heavily scheduled.

Update, 17 Nov: In order to evaluate your revision properly, I am asking to see:

1) your rough drafts (including the comments I made on your papers),

2) a highlighted copy of your new draft.

3) a submission note (explaining your changes and reflecting on your accomplishments)

By "highlighted copy" I mean a fresh printout of your latest draft, with all the changes highlighted -- one color for edits and minor changes (spelling, punctuation, grammar), another color for major changes (introducing a new source, reorganizing a paragraph, etc).

When sticks and stones and beasts form the sole environment of a people, their attitude is largely one of determined opposition to and conquest of natural forces. But when to earth and brute is added an environment of men and ideas, then the attitude of the imprisoned group may take three main forms,—a feeling of revolt and revenge; an attempt to adjust all thought and action to the will of the greater group; or, finally, a determined effort at self-realization and self-development despite environing opinion.

To make here in human education that ever necessary combination of the permanent and the contingent—of the ideal and the practical in workable equilibrium—has been there, as it ever must be in every age and place, a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes.

See Wikipedia's entry for Booker T. Washington

Two Thousand Miles for a Five-Minute Speech
The Atlanta Exposition Address