The Portland daily press., 1892-07-11
what a man can do In this country Of
great opportunities who has fair share
OF ability and master will

CHEATING sPEcULAToRs MUST GO.
trust that Mr.. A. M. Palmer, who is
the acknowledged head of the dramatic
managerial profession in this country,
will make it his business one of these
days to look after the cheating specu
lators who are bringing the dramatic
profession into such disrepute. We
have here in New York class of ire
sponsible and moneyless men who are
ready at any and all times to organize
theatrical ventures precisely as they
would buy pool on horse race. These
fellows secure farce comedy or bur-
lesque, find confding citizen with a
few hundred dollars, engage a number
of credulous actors and chorus girls,
and are ready for business. If the pub
lie takes kindly to the venture, well
and good. If not, the poor devils of the
company may shift for themselves. We
had a striking example of this recently
lin the production of the piece known
las 'tKing Kaliko.'
There was neither money nor brains
behind this venture, and yet lot Of
worthy professional people were in
iduced to give FIVE weeks of their time
to rehearsals without pay. They
played one week without salary, when
the dismal enterprise came to an end.
Thus it may be said that for six weeks
these dramatic Spectators had the serv-
ices Of nearly one hundred people for
nothing. Thrown out of employment
at time when no professional work
could be found, the wrong to these art
lists may be well imagined. Sooner OF
later number of them will find their
way to Mr. Palmer's actors fund for re-
lief. It occurs to me that if some meas
ures could be taken to prevent these
bald-faced swindles and protect
professional dupes Mr.. Palmer would
thereby protect the fund which
lis placed in the hands of his organiza-
ton for the relief of INDECENT and dis
tressed members of the dramatic pro-
;sfession. Not a season passes that does
not witness the starting from this point
of at least fifteen or twenty companies
of entertainers which have behind them
nothing but sheer speculation and
,chance. Nine out of ten of them meet
with disaster and the local managers
Throughout the country are taxed to
help the poor, stranded performers back
Ito their homes. Of course, SO long as
professional people are necessitous and
pinchbeck managers are willing to
take chances, SO long this abuse will
continue in degree. But a little
Organization among the reputable man
ayers of the country might have the
effect of reducing the abuse to a mini
mum, and the field is one which, am
sure, invites the talents and the benev-
olence of Mr.. Palmer.
JOHN BRIsBEN WALKER AND HIS MAGA-
ZINE.
Mr.. John Brisben Walker, publisher
of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, is a
splendid representation of the success
which may come to man when he once
finds his true field of usefulness. Mr..
Walker has, in a very few years, built
the Cosmopolitan up to splendid finan,
:cial success, and that, too, in the face OF
most gigantic opposition. His maya.
zine seems to have struck the popular
medium between the daily newspaper
land the high-caste monthly periodical.
1t is one of the handsomest publications
in New York city, and If Mr.. Walker is
mot persuaded to give his magazine too
much of a literary tone, he has before
him great future. Mr.. Walker has
had a rather diversified career. After
graduating at West Point he was taken
tout to China by Minister Burlingame to
teach the Mongolian how to shoot. That
is to say, he was one of the first of the
Americans to help place the Chinese
| army on semi-civilized basis. That
experience ended, he married here
the daughter of Gen. Strother, of Vir,
ginia, a well-known artist who illus.
itrated Harper's Magazine years ago
over the signature 'sPorte-Crayon u
When first met Mr.. Walker, back in
the seventies, he had invested largely
lin Kenawah coal lands and was pray.
ing for flush times and more money.
He was an ardent greenbacker. In
;furtherance of his plans he started
here in New York weekly greenbach
advocate. He was too near to Wall
street for that sort of thing and the
paper was not success. Afterward he
fitted out a little printing establishment
49, " eN@AAAiAS5 uOA SiOJ epl1St AOodA1AO0 t1lc
publication of the greenback organ. In
1877, when Stilson Hutchins and myself
launched the Daily Post in Washington,
we found ourselves in fair way to
postpone the day set for the publication
of the initial number in consequence OF
the appearance of eight feet of water in
our pressroom. Mr.. Walkers green
back organ had just expired and we
borrowed his one-cylinder Hoe press,
which we found in an obscure shed in
the upper part of the city. We carted
it hastily down to the old Chronicle
building, and, finding dry floor for it,
put it in operation, and for at least a
month the Post was printed on Mr..
Walkers press, which had been clamor-
ing so loudly for more greenbaclss.
After his Washington experience Mr..
Walker went to Denver, Col, and start
ed a weekly periodical which he called,
I think, the Interocean. He was still
| adhering to the theory that the country
needed a larger circulating medium. BY
good fortune he landed on good real
|