Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-19


- ~ valuable for amusement
purposes is born pecu-
liarity than acquired ability. At dime mu-
scum twin boys are getting $500 week, and
the manager calculates that they are drawing
at least $1,000 to his establishment They don't
do any acting. but merely sit. stand and walk
about on platform to beiooked at. Ofcourse
there is something wonderful about these real
twins to lift them into greater show value
than the Imi alton triplets at the other house.
and 1t is that they are joined more inseparably
than the Slamese twins and as much so as
Millie-C ristnc. They are more singular than
either OF those palrs because they are one indi-
vldual from the waist downward. So il would
be more correct, perhaps, to call them boy
and half Anyway. their monetary success il
Illustrates the prevalence of morbid sentiment
among people who 60 to shows.
''QUEERING" RIVAL.
1t is practice among dime museum man
ayers in this city to queer one anothsr's ex-
hibits, as they phrase it. Thus, the second
trium plant week of the two-headed boy had
no sooner opened than rival museum adver-
tlsed IN the newspapers and on the bill boards
a three-headed girl This was fake and
the fact that 1t was a bogus freak was as
good as admitted in the announcements. The
object OF this manager was to 'queer'-that is
to say, dePreclate by ridicule-the genuine Gu
riosity which was drawing away a multitude to
the other managers museum The theory of
the opposition was that, if tho museum going
pubic got an idea that the three-neaded thing
was really three girls, one shown full length
and the others thrusting their heads over her
shoulders through canvas partition, they
would conclude the two-headed thing was OF
the same tricky sort.
BIO BUSINESS
The dime museum business is Of vastly
mi Al loIlo
point, than most people have any idea of.
There are four big dime museums In this CITY,
conducted on the principle OF giving big ten
cents worth to every visitor. and chock full of
variety show, freaks of nature and other ex-
CHANTS and satisfaction of curiosity. The pro-
prIetors are men OF wealth. Each Of them ex-
pends not less than q thousand dollars a week
III advertising, their announcements occuDyipg
more space than any dozen theaters by the adj
yertisement pages of the journals. This weeks
development in tho dime museum business is
an attempt by two Of the managers to bring
about signed agreement among the four that
hereafter there shall be no "queering' of gen.
uine exhibits. This move is caused by the
bogus three-headed girl and the real two-headed
boy. So we see that, whatever may he the drift
ON the dramatic stage. the freak business in the
dime museums is being elevated.
THE GROWTH OF rHEATR1cALs
in New York, as elsewhere in this country. is
amazingly rapid in these days. Three beautiful
new theaters are being built in upper Broad
way and as many more are projected seriously,
besides the many schemes that won't amount
to anything. Conservative men say that the
business is already overdone and that the new
houses will be quite superhuOus But there are
plenty OF people apparently with money and
inclination to take them to stage entertain
ments that are really first-rate. The difficulty
which the managers encounter lies altogether
in obtaining attractive plays and not in drawing
audiences wnen such plays are once obtained
1t IS no secret that one Of our stock COM
panies will practically go out of existence at
the end OF this season, because during the past
three or four years its manager has been able
to supply to it only two successful dramas. A
second company, through a similar lack Of
suitable material, has lost money during the
present and the last previous seasons A third
has made a little profit with a few marked sue
cesses which have overbalanced its failures
The fourth Is the only triumphant stock organ
lzatlon, III a monetary sense, through having
hit upon succession of three plays. each of
which has run through an entire winter. There
has been great outcry against the managers
because they do not encourage native dram
atists."
The fact is that the complaint comes wholly
from amateur playwrights, including both
praetlced Royelists who do not command a
skill requisite for such work and the far
greater number of persons who have never
There is not an outright dramatist today who
Is not under contract Tor all the work that he
Can do anu at prices gagged by his abilities.
ROMANTIC LIFE.
In a humble home on a retired street in
Baltimore an old man is dying whose life is a
romance from its first chapter to its fast-ap-
preaching end They say--those who watch
hlm--that at times in his illness his mind wan
ders. and he huns and thrums the old songs.
There is initiate sadness in this, for the
songs this old man sings are the songs
he wrote years ago; songs which men
and women on every continent have
sung and will sing doubtless for decades to
come. One of them at least has passed through
lOO editions In Its original forms and through
countless presses which have pirated it; for 1t
is almost ms widely known as Home. Sweet
Home. and, like that matchless ballad, its ten
derness and Its grace have never gained penny
for ;he genius who wrote it. The song which
the dying old man repeats ottenest to him.
self is kathleen Mavourneen," and the
singer and the author is Frederick
Nichols Crouch. 1t is not extravaganza
praise to class him as genius. He is eighty
four now and the world has forgotten him.
but at fifty he was in the prime of a career
notable aud which bid fair to bring forth bet
ter trinmphs. In those days Prot Nichols
Crouch was one of the famous musicians and
composers Of the world. Twenty years later.
Ny u strange succession OF viclSsitudes, he had
fallen into obscurity and poverty and was
day laborer at wages hardly sufficient to feed
bis numerous family.
WHY HE Is EMBIrTERED AGAINST THE WORLD,
Once in a great while his name has since
come before the busy public. but almost always
in manner to displease the gifted COM
poser. who thereafter has returned to even
more complete retirement than before. 1t is
hardly wonder that he has felt in his later
years embittered against the world at large.
HIS history shows SO many reverses Of fortune,
Tor no apparent fault of his own, that he NAV
well have been justified in his disbursement.
In one respect he had long been peculiarly
sensitive, though at the cost of censure, for in
his action there has been involved the question
OF u famous woman's paternity. That woman
was Cora Pearl No greater demi-mondaine
ever lived than this once queen OF Partisan
badness According to her own statement
made In her published memoirs Frederick
Nichols Crouch was her father. She told the
story Of her birth SO Enthusiastically az to con-
vince all who read it Of its truth; but from
Crouch there was NO confirmation, though he
never uttered an explicit denial. He simply went
back into his hermitage. and there he is dying.
But the story Of Cora Pearl has added to the
genius unhappy days. The notoriety Of that
gilded establishment was worldwide. The
mobility and the aristocraey patronized it.
She won all there was in the game while it
lasted. When Cora Pearls youth went, beauty
He'd with it. and her riches took wings, as such
riches usually do. She mourned for . time,
hx,t- - Z. a. - A.