Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-05-05
IN FRONT.
PLAYERS TELL OF FUNNY EXPERT
 ENcES THEY HAVE HAD.

the Audienee---Thc Man Who Snee2cd.
 May Irwin and "TRe Widow Jones'
 Wanted Burr rfcfntosIl to "Soak HiIn.''
 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 10 laughter. Occasion ally they are frightened out of their lines.
 A man sat in an aisle seat, three rows from the front, at performance of "El Capitan" the ether night He was fat man, and he gave | sneeze suddenly--a terrific sneeze. It was followed by an other that shook the plumes on the big hats of the women around and made tho lights flicker The audience suspended attention and looked al the slleezer, and the players paused just as he snorted cut third sneeze that ended in high note such as seldom had been heard in these parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by. El Capitan stretched out his long arms toward the man, rolled lis tig eyes heayenward and said ill a st pulehral voice:
 Heaven bless you, sir. .
 This brought the audience back to the stage with d roar. and in second the performance vas running on at high pressure, while tie fat man chuckled over the fact that for brief space he had been the star of the evening" A few minutes later q Sun reporter asked Mir. Hopper how he was affected by tho funny things that happen in the audi enee. After getting Il grip cn Fl Capi- tan's nose and throwing down cup of hot coffee, as he does between acts, ho answered:
 American audiences are net delnon- stratiye. and as rule things don't hap pen ill frent. Of course the man who sneezed tonight couldn't help it. but he made such a blasting success Of it that 1t affected the whole house and there fere the players. If an actor is playing Il part where Ie can say something, it is the best thing toGe. for it makes them all laugh aud 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 ne from the audience when they want me to sing special song or to recite something, she said the other evening. "One night . man ill the bcGy of the house called out to me to reeite 'Hia- watha. lie tcok ne off my feet for a minute. couldn' remember q line of 1t, but called back: T will if you'll give me ny cue. I've forgotten how it starts. He gave me the first line, and shouted 1t for him.
 When l was playing the Widow Jones enc night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself man sEeuted, I'd like to De in your place, Mir Rice. 1 would. Rice and l were both conYulsed. and the audience roared. When the piece is funny, it often adds to tho humorous situation for some one in frCnt to Go something unusual.
 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 CT to recognize anybody ill the au- diencc, aud Lever dc-I don't think One night, as 1 was saying, in the city of cinders and beer, I noticed the queer est locking old woman down ill front. She locked like q farmers wife, and she kept peering up at me over her glasses. She didn't laugh once, and in all my life never SAW human teing take 8 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 twal,g:
 = Veil, you GCn.t look enc lit like her.
 T was Austercd, lut I managed to gasp:
 .. Like when?'
 Like the Widow Jones' she an- swercd.
 ]" We'll, am, said I.
 s' I don t believe q word you re say in, said she, for 1 know'd the Widow Jcnes and her hustan nigh on to 20 years ago. 1 stood up with lem when they was hitched, and you don t look like her. She went eff from these parts, and l heerd she was q widow and that Jones was dead, and then l heerd she was at this the-ater and cum to sec. You ain the Widow Jones, and just want 10 say one thing more-I don't see how you dare to take other peoples names and use 'cn.
 With that she founced cut, but the next day when appeared at q rehearsal t,o,. blast I explained to her hcw 1t was. She d reyer seen q play hefeIe and had come 20 miles to see her old friend, the Widow Jones. There was Il lime when such things frightened the life cut of me, but I've learGed to tun them to good account '