Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-30
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.
The Craze for First Night Performances
Regard for Art in Pittsburg-Good Law
on Street Paving-Odds and Ends From
New York

Regard for Art in Pittsbure-Good Law
on street Paving-Odds and Ends From
New York.
lFHoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The 'hrst-nighters" are again gettin.
III tnelr work Next month they will be ex
ceedingly busy. To attend the openin,
night of every play is one of the sacrel
duties OF the first-nighter, to fail in the full
flment of which duty he would consider ,
SOCIAL CRIME In many of these people tn,
nrst night mania amounts to a craze. VIII,
In the world sensible people with plenty O
time on their hands find pleasure in attend
ing q performance which must always from
the nature of the case, be worse than an,
succeeding performa nee of the same piece
Is one of the curious phases of human nature
tnat are unaccountable. They remind me o
people who crowd over the ferryboat chains
and jump before the gang plank is out, then
walk leisurely away as If they had accom-
plfshed something.
1t is true, there are many in New York
who are first nighters by reason of thefi
buslness-dramatic critics, Journalists, liter
ary and theatrical people-and these form
no lnconsiderate body here. But the purely
amusement hunters, gentlemen of leisure
VINO crowd the openings and bedeyil the
| managers can be counted by hundreds. If
one of these fellows never sees a play fter-
ward during an leo nights run, he must see
1t the first night. 1t is simply fad and has
the complimentary ticket for its origin,
managers think it necessary to pack the
house on first nights and they naturally
want to pack it with friendly people. Hence
the first-nighter as rule Is a member of the
clacque and is present to boom the piece. He
Knows the leading people and amiably
desires TO see them get along. Hence flowers
ana encores galore. To one unversed in the
mysteries of New York first-night house. it
would appear that every play was howling
success and is fortune to its hackers The
artifcfally created furore often carries old
timers along with it, and these doubtless
feel secret humiliation when the piece
drops out before Ihe end of the fortnight.
This effort to deceive the public never sue
ceeds. 1t Is the manager, the star and the
rest who are deceived. But we shall see q
good deal more of the recent Park Theater
perIormance-where grand clacque assem-
oieo TO Doom n coarse woman in a coarse
play. A masculine heroine astraddle of O
real horse will not appeal to cultured people,
clacQue or no clacque.
Art Feeling in Pittsburg.
-'There is considerable artistic sense
and culture in the city of Pittsburg, ''said Mr..
Poole. a Washington artist. "I have a
studio there now, and find q very appre-
'ciatfve public. There is good deal of
wealth in Pittsburg, but until recent years
these people devoted their attention to get
ting wealthier. The elegant repose that
accumulated money brings invariably re-
suits favorably to the encouragement of all
forms of the beautiful. There are men like
Andrew Carnegie who greatly stimulate
this feeling by munifcent presents. and
noble women like the lady who gave Pitts
burg splendid park, who help it along.
There are now in private houses in Pitts
burg paintings that are known all over the
artistic world.
"The French school of art is the favorite
there just as it is elsewhere. Every year
Ptttsburg collectors abroad bring home
much fine work, both modern and ancient.
This impressionist school hasn't much of q
hold upon literal people. l despise it my
self. Now there is that portrait of Walt
Whitman at the Central Park gallery-what
travesty that is on dear old Waits face! 1t
is simply an old man with beard and Is as
imperfect a likeness as it is imperfect of
execution"
New York Rich in Pretty Women.
-''New York certainly boasts the
prettiest women of any city in the world"
remarked gentleman at the Hoffman who
has travelled extensively, and was felicitat-
ing himself upon his safe return from the
Continent. "She doesn't boast of them ex-
actly, either, for you are so accustomed to
the sight that you take it as matter of
course. They were making great to-do
over some American women at the German
spas, and 1 was asked to admire them. BahI
they were nothing more than can find in
any five minutes of the day on Broadway or
Fifth avenue. So said, and was evident
ly considered a typical Yankee braggart. In
Paris and other Continental cities the Amer
lean style of women are very much ad-
mired. l saw Chicago girl cutting great
swell in Dresden. Everybody looked at her.
And she was right handsome, too and
dressed out of sight. But I've seen hundreds
Of lust as pretty women in Chicago
These foreigners seem to think that only
our prettiest girls get over there. and that
they all have fortunes and are hunting a
man with a title, and all that sort OF rot.
who go abroad who are in but moderate cir
and who would think no more
Of a count or lord than they would of New
York drummer, SO faras marrying is con-
tive, and the American girl who wouldn't |
excite much attention on Broadway comes |
put strong everywhere abroad. Not that
but because they are more or less |
rare compared with the great multitude. |
England has many beautiful women, and !
We hear an everlasting sight of chatter |
about them, but you may stroll London |
rom Hyde Park to the slums and never |
begin to see as many pretty women proper
;ionatelv as you can see in New York and |
other large American cities.
The Backyards of Gotham.
What sight some of the backwards |
If New York's ancient business blocks are. |
t seems that the telephone and telegraph |
md electric light companies do not consider |
t worth while to remove wires that have
allen into disuse. The result is that on |
he housetops and in the back courts are |
angled masses Of swaying odds and ends.
They dangle from the roofs and back win |
lows everywhere. Wherever an Office has |
,nce been furnished with calls or telephones |
he walls are punctured with insulators and |
trung with dead wires forever afterward. |
t doesn't pay to cut them out. Some of |
hese old courts look like immense rusty |
obwebbed corners that have somehow es- |
aped the broom of the careless chamber |
maid.
Tearing Up Street Pavements.
Just now this city is putting down
he best street pavement ever laid within
Is limits-the new Broadway job. How
ong will it remain? That is the question
gitating a good many citizens. "There
hould be a municipal regulation requiring |
II breaks and repairs to be made by the
ity authorities" said st. Louis contractor.
That is the way we do out there. When a
wants to get at a bursted pipe
r a wire, it must first get permit from the
treet Department. Then that department
ends its men to do the work so far as break
ng and replacing the pavements are con-
erned, and the cost Of this work is charged
p against the corportion. No private indi-
-idual should be allowed to dig up the
treets once the pavement is laid.
"Of course, streets must be dug up. You'll
ee Broadway always broken into some
7here along line perhaps in a dozen places.
tut If the work were done by the city it
ould be done in a manner that would leave
he street in just as good condition as be-
ore. AS the private Individual or corpora
ion would have to pay for it there would be
for. En- ha h11rv- v-iafl lxyn |
ably. Every city in the country ought to
ave such a regulation, for the street prob