Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1884-10-12
The Broken-Down Characters One
Encounters 10 a Ramble.
Character Beggars and Their skRful OOdges
---Scenes Of Past Greatness---Ihe
Great Thoroughfare Compared -a,.
to London Streets---vari-
ETY. Shows and the
Saloons. a
Nslr York World.

from a kind of reverie. Yes" he replied,
in answer to some questions from the
scribe. Il was thinking of this Bowery of
ours. Is there in the whole world city
where you can, on a Saturday night, see
such a stream of people that represent
almost every nation on the earth? Yet
this great thoroughfare, which have known
as an actor for nearly forty years, has been
in other countries, and in some respects
here too, ill-judged and misunderstood. Ii
you have ever travelled much in Europe
great many persons there will talk about
Broadway being fine avenue Soft is
the finest as business one in the world
hut they Il all tell you they've heard Of the
rough Bowery, which they generally believe
is one mass of crime and dissipation. I've
heard Englishman in particular talk about
'the Bowery boys" the BOwery gir's," and
The
'Bowery Dens,''
as though it was their London St. Giles as
it used to be years ago. 1t has bean bad
enough, but never so black as it's been
painted.
Like many a man, it has Won reputa-
ton it never deserved. 1t was never as bad
as the 'Dorotheenstrasse' of Berlin, or the
Boulevard de Strassbourg' of Paris, and
compared 10 the Whitechapel, New Cut,
Shoreditch and BishopSgate with their Pet
ticoat lane), of London, it is, and has been,
a paradise. In this city, now you will find
plenty OF streets and some avenues that are
worse, as far as rowdyism is considered
than this big artery ever dared to be. |
like the dear old Bowery, so If you We time
let us take walk" and so the actor and
journalist, arm in arm, strolled along the
busy thoroughfare.
"You see that row of saloons over there?
said the actor, pointing to them from
the opposite side Of the street-"each with
a cut outSide-which were once struck off
for some popular actor or actress. Go into
any ofthem and you see the variety pro-
iession' in lis lowest scale. Amid the
din of loud talk, coarse jeStS aud clatter Of
glasses through the almost
Binding Tobacco smoke
and dim lights, you'll hear the charming
vocalist MARBLE, the serio-comic man with
his latest comic interspersed with local hits,
the inevitable negro deliniator with his
WORKOUT sayings, and see the acrobat in his
daring feats. Hundreds go there and en-
ioY the show with as much relish as the man
who frequents the Casino or the Bijou. Yet
those who patronize the latter places may
one day hear these gin mill artists in some
uptown establishment never dreaming that
they were once singing in downtown sa-
loon Tor bare existence. know of many
such instances-great characters in the
Bowery The man outside one Of these sa-
looms selling with sort of cracked bass
voice once tried his hand at acting in the
heavy business and now he is playing the
same line on the sidewalk. Well, sir, as
We say in the profession, once an actor al
ways AN actor. lhave never known man
to leave of, even though he was a dismal
failure, till the curtain fell on the finale.
The Old Bowery.
AT the Ihalia Theatre fine building
spoilt by the internal ironwork o! the ele
waited rai!road-on tnat spot once stood a
theatre where acting was acting in the
truest sense of that muchused word. There
was a change of bill three times week,
sometimes every night with long per
torrance on Saturday nights and the cur
tain to rise each evening at and fall at II.
Acting then, sir, meant work-real brain
work; 40 Union Square, no Morton House,
no Criterion, no Lotos Club. Then the
actor almost lived at the Treatre You
see that big built, elderly man, with pretty
good clothing on? That man is a good
actor He walks along with firm step, but
YOU see as he nears a saloon he begins to
stoop and his legs totter. Now he takes out
his props. i mean package of pencils
and makes his entrance into the saloon and
hangs around the drinkers. His by-play
then is excellent, worthy of Joe Jefferson.
That man has played his pencil line Of
business for years.
Notice that tall pale faced man selling
Harrigan 4 Harris latest song. He told
me once he was reduced professor of the
vocal art, but through domestic afilicticn
his memory failed him. So it had for to q
friend of mine he related long story about
a large young family and dead wife: to
another he said his two children had Just
expired from choera-mOrbus and that his
wife had run away with a sailor. Well,
suppose he got confused in his part, as we
all 10 at times.
Now here comes our German cousin.
You hear what he says: 'Thun sie-die milde
Hand, and which, as nearl y as | can trans
late it, means Help me, for Gods sake.
Emmett. himself, couldn't do it better The
only thing that surprises me with him is
that he doesn't study another line, for he's
repeated that one so often.
What do | think of museums? Good
healthy places of amusement. Now your
museum actor has a line of his own. There's
more trouble in managing museum than
you can imagine. 1t is not every day you
can get threeheaded girl, legless man
tattooed man, living mermaid, a terri
/ hc giant, a freester or man-eater, or
| beautiful CircaSsian, or a what-isit and
when you do they want very high salaries.
The Professional Curiosities.
Il have known professional curiosity to
| get 5000 week. There is always rivalry
among museum managers. They keep
strict watch upon the hospitals and poor
asylums for malformations, and keen
lookout for scarceiand novel wonders. 1t
is a pretty tedious line of business for the
living curioSities to sit still all day to be
stared at. Yet they all get good pay dur
ing the season, besides the right of selling
their photographs. lisa novel sight after
the s over to see them mingie togeth.
er chattering and laughing, each relating
what the different visitors had said; or per.
haps they'll have banquet, and you'll see
the legless man drinking the health Of the
Circassisn beauty, the giant telling funny
story to the dwarf, and the three-headed
girl chatting with the man-ester.
There goes another Characterization
that one dressed in solemn black with long,
dark hair and high hat on top of it. His
line ofbusiness is an agitator. once heard
him tell an sgitated bat small audience of
his plan for blowing up Fifth avenue and
also all the newspaper Offices down town.
Hes member of a queer company, but
expect his sal (ss We call it) is pretty
good one, for he's been playing the heavy
conspirstor so long.
You see that large variety theatre2 That
reminds me of how times have changed