JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="http://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery.templates/beta1/jquery.tmpl.min.js"></script>
<table id="itworks"></table>
<table id="itfails"></table>

CSS

tr { border: 1px solid #F00 }

JavaScript

var newRow = 
            '<tr>' +
            '    <td>${foo}</td>' +
            '    <td>bar</td>' +
            '    <td>smurf</td>' +
            '</tr>';

// create jQuery object from string
newRow = $(newRow);
// as you can see, the jQuery object is ok
newRow.appendTo('#itworks');
// I clone it for the sake of the demo only
$.template("newRow", newRow.clone());
// "magic": tr has disappeared ;-(
$.tmpl("newRow", { foo: 4 }).appendTo('#itfails');