Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-18
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
An Actress Does Not Wish TO be n Woman Of
Weight = Enthusiasts In the Parquer-
Scenery on strike-The Un-Irish stnge

An Actress Does Not Wish TO be n Woman Of
Weight - Enthusiasts In the Parquet-
Scenery on strike-The Un-IrIsh stage
1rishman.
To an actress there is hardly more import
ant matter for consideration than her
weight Mermatds it is to be presumed. never
watched their scales with greater anxiety than
the actress regards the one upon winch she gets
weighed every now and then.
Miss Margaret Mather has reason to congrat-
ulate herself whenever she contemplates the
rounded lines of her beautiful figure. Why9
Last year she was much stouter than she had
been the year before, and many people thought
that adipose tissue was going to interpose an
obstacle between Miss Mather and her ambi-
tion. But the fear was not realized. Miss
Matheris much slighter, slenderer and more
shapely than she has ever been within my recol-
lection of her, which includes all her stage life.
This happy result am told is due in meas
ure to the long walks in which Miss Mather in
dulges whenever opportunity serves.
Rsz
IT is pleasant and it Is unpleasant to sit at the
play in front of man to whom the theater
sanovelty, to whom no joke is stale, and whose
approval takes violent forms.
The pleasant side of such session is the ex-
hibition Of hearty emotions which the man
who is new to the theater gives To hear a
man laugh heartily thump his umbrella on the
floor and shout in whisper That's goodr' at
a joke that was old when Noah was young is
an uncommon privilege and great one. But
if the novice jams his knees against your seat
and makes his laughter felt literally felt, on
the back of your neck, you are prone to deem
the privilege costly after all.
AsS
THE fact that Mr.. George Kennan has declared
war on Russia, or rather upon its supine
Gar and his brutal Ministers, does not lessen
the interest in the lectures which that eminent
traveller delivers tonight and tomorrow night
at Old City Hall. Mr.. Kennan Is as good
talker as he is writer, and those who go
hear him describe "Tent Life in Eastern SIbe-
ria" tonight, or Russian Political Exiles' to-
morrow will be treated to brilliant descrip-
ton Of what nobody can speak Of so candidly
and truly as Mr.. KenAan.
80
THE strange adventures Of drop scene at the
Grand Opera House last night were highly
amusing. After various minor misdemeanors,
such as trembling violently over the heads of
chorus ladies and setting their tender hearts
In tumult, it finally fell, in the midst of
speech by the immortal Shakespeare, cutting
the Bard OF Avon quite short in his eloquence
with all the malevolence of minion;of lgnatiVs
Donnelly Then, too, on several occasions, this
very il-behaVed scene tried to elope with Miss
Elaine Ellison into the upper regions of the
flies, and it nearly decapitated Mr.. Dixey with
out the slightest provocation.
1t seemed indeed as If all the properties in
''The Seven Ages we're inclined to be re-
bellious. The perambulator containing the
infant Van Wart once started off toward the
footlights, and was only preserved from annihi-
latIon by the lucky interference of the Or
chestra. Several other portions of the stage
mechanism also went awry. and the whole
affair looked as though the scenery had been
getting up trades union, and striking for bet
ter treatment.
THE usual dolefully un-Irish Irishman Of
American dramatistS was once more pre-
sented to a long-sufering public in the Seven
Ages" last night. When will plsywrights be
true enough to their art to remember that the
exile from the 'ould sod, no matter what his
faults may be. is never mere ,buffoon? Then,
too, Mr.. Don's broguel Whereof where did
he get it7 And Mr.. Don's typical Irish song;
where did he learn itf Tom Moore was won't
to grow very wroth over those 'Irish" ballads,
made by people who never saw Ireland. But
those ballads which Moore abused, had really a
grain of comicality in them. The "McGinty"
lays of to-day and compositions like that sung
in the "Seven Ages" are as void of wit as they
are Of nature.