The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-09-19

| bones that VIII be sent back 10 China
| to rest in that soil whence they came.
| Every Chinaman's one desire to is to BIZ
| buried in his native country.
Very silent, this playing is. Scarcely a
| word is uttered despite losses and gains
1t is strange scene-this strange game,
| by this yellow light in such an atmo5-
phere, heavy with vaporized opium. 1t
| goes on all the night through and all the
| day, too. I'm told.
Greater New York is a city of parks.
Central Park in New York and Prospect
Park IN Brooklyn are the largest. But
| there is q great number of smaller ones
public squares-in all parts of the city.
| In the evening they are the great resorts
for the poorer class OF people-those who
cannot afford the more expensive luxury
of theatre There are thousands of seats
scattered along the maze of asphalt
walks, and young and old people alike
are there to occupy them. In an elegant
pavilion one of the military bands plays
classic music, waltzes, operate pieces and
what nOt-from "Sohubert's 'Serenades to
MIR. Johnson Turn me Aloose"-while
| the public sits on walks round the
| square, the men in many cases wearing
| tall silk hats and black coats and the
| women, for great part dressed in Par
| sian costumes that SAVIOR of excess and
| are plainly the extravagant models of
some East-side dealer.
| Among the wearers of these things
| though, are many beautiful women and
| il Is a pleasure TO sit and see them pass.
| and attribute TO them in fancy all the
| moral and intellectual qualities which
You have long ago learned they too sell
| dom have in Feal:ty. Possessing this
knowledge it is more than probable tina;
you will not he satisfied with simply sit
| ting and staring at these pretty girls
as they walk by with smile and banter.
Soon you too are in the promenade and
the pink lips near your ear lisp as gaily
and smile as Swcetly as if YOU were an
old and most trusted friend.
With these finely dressed men and wo-
men are intersperSed-if such term may
be used touching those who form the
great major;ty-mcn in working clothes
and plainly clad women with touseel
hair and hardened features. These things
mark To some extent the differentiation of
classes. But this is America and no city
m the continent is more Democratic
than New York. All have exactly the
same rights and privileges and mingle
together in perfect equality.
Il +
Eut oil people do not own fine horses
and swell turnouS, with stolid-faced men
in livery. so the drive in Central Park
is not so Democratic. AS the sun nears
the Western horizon and the cool br"ezes
spring up. the Four Hundred leave their
palaces in the city and in brilliant equip
ages roll stately in slow lines along the
trimmed avenues of the Park, while the
Four M;llion-with weary, dusty feet
sit on benches TO see them pass.
And here we sit till the soft twilight
tints give place to the glare of electric
lights. Only now and then the rumble
of wheels is heard as glittering carriage
flashes beneath a lamp. We turn to the
city again to see this same -Four Hun
dred sparkle and murmur in their opera
boxes. Even to the peanut gallery.
where fifty cents admits us, their SPLEEN
dor daZzles. We gaze and wonder and
admire-and why?
Is it servility? Is it Il mean admiration
OF mean things? Are we lackeys who love
TO wear livery? Not so. | ween Ra Their
is it not the ample resources, the bound
less opportunities that these favorites of
fortune enjoy. that we Worship? 1t is
not what they are but what we believe
pinched, plodding lives we invest their
existence with an. ideal charm. For
one brief moment-amid light and splen-
dor. perfume and music-we dream. The
charmed life is real Those glittering
figures are not what Circe's wand might
show them to be. They are gods and god
desses feastang. and we feign ourselves
possible Ixions to be admitted to the
celestial banquet.
All. the play has ended and we find
ourselves jostled by motley crowd down
a dimy-lighted stairway, and wondering
where we can get a cheap lunch.
Few of the best theatres are vet open
and fewer new plays have been put on.
OF the new ones none are great successes.
They are rather great failures. All are
magnificiently staged, but there is some
thing radically wrong with the plays.
This is true of both Change Alley" at
the Lyceum. and "A Coat of Many Col
ors' at Walack's. In the first-named
Sothern and Virginia Harmed play the
leading parts and play them well, so far
as it can be done, and Manager Frohman
has done his part in staging the play, but
there is little in the comedy and it ca
never be called a great success.
The same applies to "a Coat of Many
Colors," though perhaps the characters
of Herman Walboys and Esther Cunning
are little more suited to Herbert Kel-
sey and Effe Shannon in this play, than
are those of Christopher Heartright and
Celia to Sothern and Virginia Harmed in
Change Alley" Perhaps the best
things in New York theatres now is the
Circus Grip at Days. A good second
to it is the Girl from Paris at Herald
Square theatre. :.
To Vaudeville shows there is no end,
and never were there better ones. Then
alta hed to the more pretentious saloons
there are beer gardens in which continu
Gus performances are going on. In
spacious hall in the rear Of the saloon
are ia bles and chairs, sufficient to accom-
MEDIATE hundreds of people. At these
tables are seated men and women. eat
ing, drinking and flirting promiscuously.
All the evening an orchestra, in the best
class CT these places, makes the high cell