Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-04-12
HAPPENED IN FRONT.
PLAYERS TELL OF FUNNY ExpsRI-
 ENcES THEY HAVE HAD.

4 AaS SLS Hic dliSCtcu ailnQSI IS UeeNlY by happenings in the audience as is the audience by happenings on the stage. Sometimes they are moved 10 wrath, but more frequently to laughter. Occasion ally they are frightened out of their lines
 A man sat ill all aisle seat, three rows from the front, at Q performance of sEl Gapitan" the other night. He was a fat man. and he gave a sneeze suddenly--a terrific sneeze. It was followed by al other that shook the plulnes on the big hats of the women around and made the lights flicker The audience suspended attention and looked at the sneezer, and the players paused just as he snorted out a third sneeze that ended ill high note such as seldom had been heard in those parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by. Fl Capitan stretched out his long arms toward the man, rolled his big eyes heavenward and said in sepulchral voice:
 Heaven bless you, sir. J
 This brought the audience back to tho stage with a roar, and in a second tho performance was running OH at high pressure, while the fat man ehuekled over the fact that for brief space he had been the star of the evening. A few tes' ter s5;5iii epor ter ,si1ed Mr Hopper how he was affected by the funny things that happen ill tie audi enee After getting t grip on Fl Capi- tan's nose and throwing down a cup of hot coffee, as he does between acts, he answered:
 American audiences are not demon- stratiye, and IS | rule things don hap pen i'll front. Of course the man who sneezed tonight couldn't help it, but ho made such q blasting success of 1t that it affected the whole house and there fore the players If an actor is playing q part where he can say something, it is the best thing tot do. for it makes them all laugh and keeps them from noticing a pause. ,
 May Irwin is an actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take liber- tics. People have habit of calling to ne from the audience when they want ne to sing Il special song or to recite something, she said the other evening. One night man i'll the body of the house called out to me to recite sHias watha. He took me off my feet for a minute I couldn' t remember q line of it, but I called back I will if you Il give me my cue. I've forgotten how ii starts He gave me the first line, and shouted it for him.
 When I was playing the Widow Jones one night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself man shouted, I'd like to be in your place, Mr. Rice. would Rice and 1 were both convulsed and the audience roared. When the piece Is funny, it often adds to the humorous situation for some one in front to do something unusual
 I never shall forget an experience I had while playing the Widow in Cin- cinnati, though of course it isn t art for an actor to see anything that goes on i'll front or to recognize anybody in the au- dience and I never dol don think One night, as was saying, in the city of cinders and beer, noticed the queer est looking old woman down i'll front She looked like a farmer s wife, aud she kept peering up at me oyer her glasses She didn' t laugh once, and in all my life I never saw q human being take q play so seriously. She was with another woman who was equally serious. Final ly the old woman jumped up and, peer ing at me over her glasses and shaking her finger i'll my face, said, with rasp- ing, western twang
 z We'll, you don look one bit like her
 q was fiustered, but l managed to gasp:
 Like whom?
 Like the Widow Jones, she an- swered
 We'll, am, said l.
 '' I don't believe word you re say in, said she, for I lznow'd the Widow Jones and her husban nigh on to 20 years ago. l stood up with lem when they was hitched, and you don look like her She went off from these parts, and l heerd she was widow and that Jones WstS OCltl3 ttiitA titSlk itSih SAAC " tAp GU this the-ater, and I cum to see. You ain | the Widow Jones, and I just want to say one thing more--l don't see how you dare to take other peoples names and use ein.
 With that she fiounced out, but the next day when appeared at u rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast l explained to her how it was. She'd never seen q play before and had come 20 miles to sec her old friend, the Widow Jones. Therc was q time when such things frightened the life out of me, but we learned to turn them fa good account.
 Perhaps there is not another man on the stage so phlegmatic as Burr MeIn- tosh during unusual occurrences i'll front He lays his cooluess all to the