Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-06-30

Effect Upon Actors of Interruptions Frols inc Audience-The Man Who sneezsa May Irwin and '.The Widow Jones. Wanted Burr Mcintosh to "soaIs Hlms Players are affected almost as deeply by happenings ill the 3 fence Us is the audience by happenings on the stage Sometimes they are moved to wrath, bue more frequently to laughter Occasion ally they are frightened out of their lines.
 A man sat ill an aisle seat, three rows from the front, at performance of Ef , Gapitan" the other night. lie was a fal man, and he gave a sneeze suddenly--s terrific sneeze. It was followed by an other that shook the plumes on the biz 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 third sneeze that ended in high note such as seldom had been heard in those parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by. Fl Capitap stretched out his long arms toward ths man, rolled his big eyes heayenwaId and said in q sepulch1al voice:
 Heaven bless you, sir. .
 This brought the audience back to ths stage with a roar. and ill second th8 performance was running on at high pressure, while the fat man chuckled over the fact that for brief space he had been the star Of the evening A few minutes later Sun reporter asked Mr Hopper how he was affected by the funny things that happen in the aud, ence. After getting q grip en Ei CarI i tans nose and throwing down cur 6t hot coffee, as he dces between aets Id answered:
 ''Amc4Iasil .ts., aees aIe not deiron. stratiye, and as a rule things don bap- pen ill front Of course the man hu sneezed tonight conldn help it, but ha made such blasting success of it that it affected the whole house and there. fore the players. If m actor is playing it part where he can say something, il ia the best thing to do. for 1t makes them all laugh and keeps them from noticing pause. .
 May Irwin is m actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take liber, ties People have habit of calling ta me from the audience when they want me to sing I special song Or to recits something, " she said the other evening. One night man in the body of Ina house called out to me to recite Hia- watha. He took me off my feet for minute couldn't remember q line of it, hut l called back: I will if you Il give me my cue. I've forgotten how il starts lie gave me the first line, and shouted it for him.
 When was playing the Widow Jones one night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself man shouted, I'd like 10 be ill your place. MT. Rice 1 would Rice and I vera both eonvulsed, 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.
 T never shall forget an experience had while playing the Widow i'll Gin cinnati, though of course 1t isn't art for an actor to see anything that goes on in front or to recognize anybody ill the au- diencc, and l never dol don't think. One night, as l was saying, in the city of cinders and beer, 1 noticed the queer est looking old woman down in front. She looked like a farmer g wife, and shs kept peering up at lie over her glasses. She didn't laugh once, and in all my life l never saw human being take a 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 in my face, said, with q rasp, ing, western twang:
 Well, you don lGols one bit like her
 "I was flustered, but l managed to gasp:
 Like whom?'
 Like the Widow Jones, she an swered
 Well, l am, said l.
 :" I don't believe a word you TO say. in, said she, for 1 know'd the Widow Jones and her husban nigh on to 20 years ago. l stood up with 'em when
 
 her She went off from these parts, and heerd she was widow and that Jones was dead, and then 1 heerd she was at this the ater and cum to see. You ain't the Widow Jones, and just want to say one thing more--I don't see how you dare to take other peoples names and use 'em
 With that she flounced out, but tho next day when Iappeared at q rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast. 1 explained to her how it was. She'd never seen play before and had come 20 miles to see her old friend, the Widow Jones There was time whel such things frightened the life ont oi me, but I've learued to turn them ta i good account D
 Perhaps there is not another man on the stage so phlegmatic as Burr Mcln. tosh during unusual occurrences in front He lays his coolness all to the training he got on the football field when he was at Princeton
 ' find more unexpected things nap pen on the stage than in the audience. said MT. Mcintosh. However, the first night we opened in At Piney Ridge pnt ta 1,fo oF 4l&