Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-09-22
HAPPENED IN FRONT
PLAYERS TELL OF FUNNY ExpFe,.
 ENcEs THEY HAVE HAD.


 Players are affected almost as deenlv by happenings in the audience as is tb. audience by happenings on the staea Sometimes they are moved to '. fatb. hp. more frequently 10 laughter. Occasion ally they are frightened out of the,, lines
 A man sat ill on aisle seat. three row. from the front, at a performance of '.Ea Capitan" the other night. He was ia, man, and he gave 2 sneeze suddenly-s terrific sneeze. It was followed by an other that shook the plumes on the bis bats of the women around and made ths lights flicker. The audience suspended attention and looked at the sneezer. and the players paused just as he snortea out third sneeze that ended in high note such as seldom had been heard in those parts. though the Metropolitan Opera House ia near by. Fl Capitan stretched out his long arms toward the nan, rolled his big eyes heavenward and said in sepulehral voice;
 Heaven bless you. sir. ''
 This brought the audience back to the stage with roar. and in second ths performance was running on at high pressure, while the fat man chuckled over the fact that for brief space hs had been the star of the evening. A few minutes later Sun reporter asked 8ir. aNHA funny things that happen in the auds ence. After getting a grip on Fl CaDi tan s nose and throwing down q euE at hot coffee, as be does between acts, he answered:
 American audiences are not demon. stratiye, and as 6 rule things don't bap. pen in front Of ees3sa tie man wha sneezed tonight couian i.elp it, but hs made such blasting success of it that it affected the whole house and there. fore the players. If m actor is playing q Part where he can say something, il is the hest thing to do, for itmakes tbeln all laugh and keeps them from noticing pause.
 May Irwin is an actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take fiber. ties. People have q habit of calling 10 me from the audience when they want me to sing special song or to recits something, she said the other evening. One night man in the body of ths house called out to me to recite 'Hia- watha. He took me off my feet for minute l couldn't remember q line oi it, bGt l called back: 1 will if you'll give mo my cue. I've forgotten how il starts. He gave me the first line, and shouted 1t for him.
 When l was playing the Widow Jones ono night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself a man shouted, I'd like to be in your place, Mir. Rice. 1 would. Rice and were both e0nvulsed, 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 1 had while playing tho Widow in Gin cinnati, though of course it isn't art for an actor to see anything that goes on iH front CT to recognize any body in the au- dience, and never dol don't think. One night, as l was saying, in the city of einders and beer, 1 noticed the queer est looking old woman down in front She looked like farmer s wife, and shs kept peering up at me over her glasses. She didn't laugh once, and in all my life I never saw human being take t play so seriously. She was with another woman who was equally serious. Final, ly the old woman jumped up aud, peer ing at me over her glasses and shaking her finger in my face, said, with rasp- ing, western twang:
 Well, you don { look one bit like her.
 T was tustered, but l managed 70 gasp:
 Like whom?'
 Liko the Widow Jones, she an. swered
 Well, nm, said L
 . I don't believe q word you're say in, said she. for 1 know'd the Widow Jones and her husban nigh on to % years ago. 1 stood up with 'em when they was hitched aud you don look like her. She went off from these parts, and l heerd she was widow and that Jones was dead. and then I heerd she was al this the-ater, and cum to see. You ain't the Widow Jones, and just want to say one thing more--l don't see hoY, you dare to take other peoples names and use 'em
 With that she Iounced out, but the next day when appeared at rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast. 1 explained 10 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 q time whel such things frightened the life out Of me, but I've learaed to turn them ta good account .
 Perhaps thero is not another man cn the stage so phlegmatie as Burr McIn 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
 ''I find more unexpected things nap pen on the stage than ill the audience. , said Mir. Mcintosh. However, the first night we opened in At Piney Ridge got piece Of advice from the front. said to the villain, You lef' the colo nel's baby up thar, an you brung yo' own down heah And his lines follow: Ton lie. l instantly make ! movement e 4. 1.