The morning times., 1895-10-13
Washington the Place Where
Time Passes Swiftly.
ACTRESSES DoTE ON BIKES
So Much TO Do and TO Be Seen In the
City That There Is Little Oppor-
Iunity for Hours of Ease-Artists
who Are Received in the Homes of
Capital City People


Washington-la belle Washington, as Sarah
Bernhardt called it-that the rule has no
exception, provided that ones talents are
set in a frame of irreproachable moral
character.
In Italy, Verdi, who made Hugo's Cam
lille" more immortal as La Traviata," is
created knight. Gounod's coat is mass
of decorations, and, nearer home, Henry
Irving receives figuratively the accolade
from the Queen OF England. The accolade
is given in Washington in a somewhatmore
democratic fashion and, il may be remark
ed, is given without distinction OF sex.
Every actor or actress, lyric or dramatic,
Will tell you that they love to come TO
Washington. 1t is invariably the pilgrim
age of pleasure. There are several reasons
for this. One reason in chief is because
great deal of the talent that appreciates
talent is naturally at the seat OF Govern
ment, where for years there has been cen
tripetal movement of bright men and
women.
Another reason is that conditions polit-
zealand otherwise change so often that men
and women are not permitted to move IN
grooves. This brings about a system OF so
ciety, if it may be SO called, which is more
free from cliques and cabals than any
other city in the United States. The Presi-
dent is the President of the people. The first
lady in the land is no bigger than the second
or third lady in the land.
THEY'RE ALWAYS WITH Us.
The few titled people hold title from the
people, and if they don't behave themselves,
as Andrew Jackson intended, the people
get mad and titles and perquisites vanish
at the next election, including the coterie
known as the Cabinet set.
OF course, there is the diplomatic Corps,
n .
Corps changes also quite frequently, but
the thcatric corps is with us always, and it
is perhaps a draw as to whether the people
like the play actors" any better than the
play actors like the people OF Washing
ton.
Perhaps Nthe reason of reasons why
theatrical people so affect Washington
IS because it has attractions without num-
ber and all of them within the compass of
the daintiest foot that comes here, TO say
nothing of the possibilities of a whirl
through the city on the silent steed.
Actors, like everybody else. and they
are all mortal except when on the other
side of the footlights, are apt to become
lonesome If not absolutely lost in the i'm
mensity of the great cities through which
they go like birds of passage during the
business season. Nothing can be more
solitary than the solitud of a great
city In which no one knows anybody and
in which it is difficult to get acquainted
with anybody.
Take any of the big cities like Chicago,
st. Louis, San Francisco or Philadelphia.
Land an actor there for the first time,
or the second or the third time, and, bar
ring the paradox, he is shipwrecked as soon
as he lands. Time hangs heavy on his
hands. 1t is the hotel, the rehearsal, and
the performance in everlasting recurrence.
"This is the solemn fact without exaggera-
ingtoD a day or two ago at the Coch-
ran. You are all close together here;
your city is compact, and withal there is
no telling where 1t ends. / can find more
things to interest me in an hours walk
from this hotel than / can in any city
in the world, and have done some reveling
in it in some capacity or other on the
stage ever since l was fifteen years of age.
PLACES OF INTEREST.
"I can go 10 the Treasury in the morn
ing, 20 the Capitol, to the Smithsonian In
stituton, to the White House, to the War
and Navy Building. TO the Corcoran Art
Gallery, and when 1 have done that am
told that have seen perhaps too much for
one day. and that the other five or six
days will have plenty of occupation.
met a very intelligent townsman of yours
while / was out on Madison Square or
Lafayette Park yest erday. and he pointed
out more places of historic interest to me
than / am sure are in the whole city of
Chicago.
''As a matter of fact. there are very few
cities of the United States that have any
ancient history at all, and their modern
history Is Just little more than prosaic
You have heard il or seen 1t all before
In some other ia shiou or guise-"
While this actor was talking two bright
looking actresses of the Heart of Mary
land'' troupe came bounding down the
steps into the street in the nattiest bicycle
costumes. They were Miss Blieman and
Miss Busby, and both attired like pictures
Miss Blieman was a study in brown from
head 10 foot, including her hair and CATERS
Miss Busby wore gray skirt, black waist,
with melon sleeves, sailor-made lace
collar, iaunty black hat with two black
ostrich tips and white veil. Both wore
the regulation short skirts.
BY and by half dozen or more of the
male members of the troupe came out
and there was evidently a party being
inauguratcd. The girls got on their wheels.
The gentlemen followed suit. ssWhere
away" said Miss Bushby. ITO Cabin Johns
Bridge" said the other young damsel,
and off they went with the colonies and
privates of the Maryland army in close
pursuit
Now, that is another thing that you
don't see anywhere else that l have been
"
bicycles, but they know as well as you and
1 do that there is no bicycle tow n in the world
like Washington. The streets W ere evidently
made for the bicycle; and the bicycle
marks a new order of things in the pro-
fesson.
WORK FOR IDLE HOURS.
you don't see now as much lounging
around the hotel corridors, or perhaps
the hotel bars, as you would have seen
lfl It
loyment to hours that used to be idle
for both men and women. The male actor
has, or had, Ten to one, the best chance
over the lady actor, under what j might
call the old regime. But the bicy Gle
Won see was boon for man that Included
woman.
sTime always hung most heavily on
the hands of the actress, because she had
no diversion except playing solitaire or
reading novels, in the days when there
was no cheap transportation like that
of hired bike. The fellows, male and fe-
male, with the big salaries could afford
the carriages and the style. but the bicycle
has put us all on n dead level But to be
candid, this is true of Washington more
than any other place, because the home,
the bouievards and the theater are al
ways close at hand Just think of it. Our
theater is only four or five squares off.
and every inch of the way is an asphalt
pavement"
There is not yet quite a unanimity fopin-
ion on the bicycle among the female Thes-
plans. When Miss Lillian Russell was
here she stayed at the Arlington, and
she had beauty of a bicycle, with silver
handles, handsomely goldmounted. She
was a great spinner and rode out into
the suburbs quite often.
The next queen who will arrive is Miss
Ada Rehan. Her brother, Arthur Rehan,
is now in the city, and he is the authority
fOr hat fI,a riyipa of a