Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-04-14
HAPPENED IN FRONT.
PLAYERS TELL OF FUNNY EXPERT
 ENcEs THEY HAVE HAD.

Wanted Burr Mcintosh to "soals Him.
 Players are affected almost as deeply by happenings in the audience as is the audience by happenings on the stage Sometimes they are moved to wrath, but more frequently to laughter Occasion ally they are frightened out of their lines.
 A man sat in on aisle seat, three rows from the front, at performance of "El Capitan" the other night. He was a fat man, and he gave 8 sneeze suddeHly-a terrific sneeze. It was followed by an. other that shook the plumes 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 third sneeze that ended in high note such as seldom had been heard in those parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by. El Capitan stretched out his long arms toward the man, rolled his big eyes heavenward and said in a sepulohral voice;
 Heaven bless you, sir. '
 This brought the audience back to the stage with a roar. and ill a second the performance was running on at high pressure, while the fat man chuekled over the fact that for a brief space he had been the star of the evening. A few minutes later a Sun reporter asked MT. Hopper how he was affected by the funny things that happen in the audi ence. After getting Q 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 strative, and as a rule things don | hap pen in front. Of course the man who sneezed tonight couldn't help it, but he made such a blasting success of 1t that it affected the whole house and there fore the players. If an actor is playing a part where he can say something, it is the best thing to 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- ties. People have habit of calling to me from the audience when they want me to sing a special song or to recite something, she said the other evening. "One night man in the body of the house called out to me to recite Hia- watha. He took 1e off my feet for q minute l couldn't remember a line of it, but called back: will if you'll give me my cue. I've forgotten how it starts. He gave me the first line, and shouted it for him.
 When l was playing the Widow Jones ono night during the kissing scene between Rice and myself man shouted, I'd like to be in your place, MT. Rice l would Rice and I were both conyulsed, 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.
 never shall forget an experience I had while playing the Widow in Cin- cinnati, though of course it ism t art for an actor to see anything that goes on in front or to recognize anybody in the au- dience, and never dol don t think. One night, as was saying, in the city of einders and beer, noticed the queer est looking old woman down in front She looked like farmer wife, and she kept peering up at me over her glasses. She didn't laugh once, and in all my life 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 rasp- ing, western twang:
 We'll, you don't look one bit like her.
 T was flustered, but I managed to gasp:
 Like whom?'
 like the Widow Jones, she an. swered.
 t'Well. am, said L
 '' I don't believe word you re say in, said she, for I know d the Widow Jones and her husban nigh on to 20 years ago. I 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 was dead, and then I 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 tlounced out but the next day when Iappeared at rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast explained to her how it was. She'd never seen a play before and had come 20 miles to see her old friend, the Widow Jones. There was a time when such things frightened the life out of ine, but I've iearsed io turn them to good account. .
 Perhaps there is not another man on the stage so phlegmatie as Burr McIn- tosh during unusual occurrences in front. He lays his coolness all to tho training he got on the football field when he was at Princeton.
 ''I find more unexpected things hap pen on the stage than i'll the audience, said Mr Mcintosh. "However, the first night we opened in At Piney Ridge I got piece of advice from the front. I said to the villain, You lef' the colo nel's baby up thar. an you brung yo' own down heah. And his lines follow. You lie. I instantly make movement as if to strike him; but, remembering that ladies are present, my arm drops to my side X man in front was so infuri-