The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-06-06
BROADWAY GLACIER.
A FAMOUS OLD HOTEL AND THEATeR
SUccUMB TO 1T.
Memories of the Glorious Career of the
Old Metropolitan and Niblo's Garden.
"Reminiscences That VIII Interest Others
Besides New Workers.

beslues new AOrkerss
Thirty years ago the Metropolitan hotel
was the focus of the town The gilded
youth went there for late suppers The
most noted politicians of the Tweed ring
poured out champagne there. Its birds
were always we'll cooked, it's steaks were
narrowed to a turn, its oysters had the
call, and its whisky was famous
1t was the plaza for the actors until long
after the war. They stood in clusters all
round its steps and held council in its
vestibule for all the noted chophouses
were in the neighborhood.
Round the corner in Houston street,
were the House of Lords and Clifton 5,
and up on the other end of the block was
the Revere House. From that corner down
you could meet on q pleasant day all the
famous actors in TOWN.. L. Davenport,
Tom Placide, Burton, Dion Boucicault,
James W. Wallack, Charles Fisher, John
Brougham, Rufus Blake and a double
score Of others. If any of them got up as
far as the Metropolitan Opera House. it
was behind a fast team, and they found
themselves in the country.
When the Metropolitan was opened in
1862, it was the town talk. 1t was inau.
gurated with stupendous banquet. Ste
phen A. Douglas and Tom Benton and
Sam Houston were there. Voluminous
descriptions of the hotel appeared in the
newspapers of that date. People stood in
crowds and looked up at it from the other
side of the street. 1t was thought by CON
servative people to be amost unwarranted
piece of extravaganza. But the Metropoli-
tan became at once one of the most popu-
lar hotels in the city. And its complement
of / 1000 guests did not fall off while the
Lelands had charge of it.
Before and during the war it was Gus
tomury for the reporters to go to the Met
ropolitan every night to get the news. 1t
was jammed with people on the night of
the cable celebration and on the day that
Sumter was fired on. There was, in fact,
no such center above it on Broadway, and
its walls must have rung with the voices
of many great captains and celebrated
beauties.
There are people in New York who can
remember when Niblo had garden there
There are many more who can remembe
the first theater which went by the name
of the garden and how the American in
stitute was won't to hold its fairs there,
and the original Christy minstrels, before
LuGg BOb 4INO AhCGAdlllGS nan, really
caught the small town there, and how for
several seasons the concert hall was the re-
sort of our small musical population.
Then later the theater spread out into
great auditorium, and Mr.. A. T. Stewart
bought the property and had private box
connected with a parlor, and finally came
Jarrett and Palmer to take the manage
ment, and then bloomed upon the world
the BLACK Crook" and the "White
Fawn," spectacles whose like had never
been seen, and which rolled up fortunes
for everybody connected with them.
But at this time the theater was in the
full swing of popular success. The enor-
nous success of the "Black Crook" had
secured all the commercial visitors in
town. 1t was denounced by the pulpit
but never waned in attractiveness for
years. Agents were kept in Europe to
snap up every speciality they could find
and such was the pliability and capacity
of the performance that it swallowed up
everything, from a performing goat to a
prima ballerina assoluta.
Bonfanti was then in her prime and be-
came the rage of the town. Pauline Mark
ham was in full girth of glory and led the
Amazons.
If some one will lay hold Of the still vir-
| lie beard of the venerable Commodore
| Tooker, he will reminisoe for an hour on
the palmy days of Niblo's. All the historic
Thespians of the pave will tell of the days
of William Wheatley and the production
of the Dukes Motto, play which made
the most extraordinary kind of hit and
how after that Forrest came with the
Broker of Bogota, one of the best orig
! lnal American dramas of its era
When Jarrett and Palmer took hold of
| Niblo's Garden, a change came over the
house Then opened the era of Terpsichore,
and for years the place was given over to
a voluptuous orgie of baoohantes and spec
tacle. There were long rows of the hand
somest women in the world in the corri-
dors on Tuesday mornings to draw their
salary.
After the "B'ack Crook" wore itself out
! there were spasmodic efforts TO call back
the old dramatic prestige of the house,
/ Charles Fechter made his American debut
| there, playing Hamlet in blond wig and
! failing to please the public. 1t was there
that Boucicault brought his 'Formosa'
/ from London after declaring that he was
going to open "a new path for the drama
| through the sewers" " and the play was
damned on the first night.
The Metropolitan has succumbed to the
inevitable. Broadway is glacier, not a
rock. 1t moves slowly north with all its
! gayety, its groups, its oenters. Everything
historic melts and yanishes Every old
stager has marked the shifting Of the cen
ters. Thirty years ago the focus of Vanity
Fair was there between Houston and
Prince streets. When Rachel came to this
country, she got no higher than Houston
street. And when the war was over the
meeting place of all the lions, the swells
the tlaneurs, was between the St. Niohola:
and the Metropolitan.
Those blocks thundered and palpitateC
with the life that has gone up to Thirty
ninth street. First the crowd jumped tC
Union square, then it went to the Fifth
Avenue hotel, then to the Hoffman House
then to the Coleman, then to the Grand
then towel, you win have to take ca
BILE car to find it nOw.-Nym Crinkle in
New York World.
The Vender of Paternity.
For curious profession and one which