Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-26
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.

Stage People at q Restaurant - Gotham
Newspaper Enterprise-Silver Coinage
and Gold Mortgages-Trouble Ahead for
GambIers-A Check for a Drink.
There Is a modest and quite select little fam
lily hotel on upper Broadway much affected by
the better class of the ''perfesh." That peculiar
pushing air of new-laid whiskers is always OBJ
servable about the front office. But this stub
BILE invariably comes off before its owner goes
on. The rich and varied assortment Of leading
Juveniles, ingenues, soubrettes, comedians, am
bilious stars of both sexes, comic opera
singers, stage managers, ETC., that may
be seen daily in the little restaurant at
the rear Is altogether charming to the
oDservant layman. This restaurant,
facing the blank walls of the Metropolitan
Opera House, is not expensive, as New York
restaurants 20, but the cooking is fairly excel
lent and the prices beyond the reach of those
members Of the profession who are not in pro-
fessional luck. 1t is a very pleasant place, not
wlthstanding the heroic pond lilies, or some.
thing else oppressive. on the walls OF the
interior, and the polite and well-fed head
waiter has happy faculty of adjusting the
service to maximum of comfort and
minimum of friction. He has need of all his
experience and knowledge Of human nature,
for the people who live here are cosmopolitan.
They have little OF no nonsense about them
when it comes to eating and know when they
are getting the worth of their money.
There is pretty good chunk of the fictitious
Importance of the stage carried around daily
by these ladies and gentlemen. A woman who
holds the center of the stage every night
usually wants the center of the dining room
that is, The choicest placement day. While
there is no p ossible relation between the big
gilt property goblet Of the royal banquet and
the honest glass of table beer. the airs of the
footlight queen crop out here and insist upon
recognitio on. For the most part. as a whole,
they are gloomy set. The ladies sniff at each
others clothes. 1t is painful truth. There is
tall young Ingenue with that delightful COM
binatiOn of red hair and brown eyes, who fits
around wit h most charming gracs and affabil-
ity, chatting aw hile at this table and at that,
but she is exotic. The rule is TO glare at each
other-or ignore the crowd. Louis Aldrich
eats his strawberries as II they were personal
enemies. A saturnine expression sits upon his
full round face as he pores over his morning
paper. Perhaps it is the paper and not the
Strawberries Aldrich hates the newspaper, he
says, yet he always reads at meals
Quite the opposite is that bright young come
dian, Jimmy Powers. The latter has a counte-
nance made to smile and cause others TO smile.
Jimmy's mouth is his fortune. He makes good
use of it here. Sometimes Jimmy tries to chain
his face down over his dinner, bur it never lasts
long. Powers is coming money in "a Straight
Tip" and can we'll afford to smile. Little Ben
Teal. the expert stage manager, sits over in a
corner with his wife-a tall, straight, dark
woman of uncompromisIng aspect. Teal al
ways drinks bottle of Bass at dinner and
looks as if he were perpetually full of grief.
But he isn't. He is thinking Of how he would
like to cut some of these parts out around the
restaurant. There are half dozen small
theatrical families about the house. And the
mothers invariable take their children far up
the room, where their chatter cannot be over
heard and where the maternal crows feet will
be less distinct. The breakfast table is very
trying on footlight favorites. Only the young
actresses rondly sit in the glare of the electric
light. Then, new and wonderful wrapper
will occasionally strike the whole outfit fairly
speechless. To the layman all of these faces
are familiar You have an indistinct recollec-
tion of having seen this or that one at the
Broadway, at the Casino. at Palmer's. at the
Bijou, or somewhere you know not exactly
VIII ere-and don't care enough about it to iden-
tIfy them,