Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-06-23
HAPPENED IN FRONT,
PLAYERS TELL oF FUNNY EXPERT
 ENcEs THEY HAVE HAD.

Effect Upon Actors of Interruptions From tbe Audience The Man Who sneezsd May Irwin and "The Widow Jones. Wanted Burr Mcintosh to asoak ahn.s
 Players are affected almost as deeply by happenings iii 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 an aisle seat, three rows from the front. al performance of E Capitan" the other night. lie was fat man, and he gave a aneeze suddenly--s terrific meeze. Il was followed by an 1 other that shook the pIumes on the big bats of the wumen 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 snoeze that ended in 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 tho man, rolled his hig eyes heayenward and said in q sepalchfal voice.
 Heaven bless you, sir 7
 This brought the audience back to the stage with q roar. and i'll second the 1 performance was running on at high pressure, while the fat man chucklpd oyer the fact that fer brief space ho had been the star of the evening. 4 few minutes later a sun reporter asked Mir 1 Hopper how inc was affected by the funny things that happen iii the aud1 cnce. After getting a grip on Fl Carl tan's nose and throwing down cup ai i hot coffee, as he does between acta he answered.
 American audiences are not de1uon. strative, and as a rule things don't bsp- pen ill front Of Ceafse the man Whu eneezed tonight eouldu help 1t, but he made such Il blasting success of it that it affected the whole house and there, fore the players. If an actor is playing part where be can say something, it is the best thing to da. for itmakes them ] all laugh and keeps them from noticing a pause. "
 i May Irwin IS on actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take fiber. ties. People have habit of calling to me from the audience when they want mo to sing a special song CT to recite something. she said the other evening "One night man in the body of tho TFsg1 Hs- l. watha He took me off my feet for q minute 1 couldn't t remember line ot it, bVt l called back; I will if you'll give me my cue. I've forgotten how it starts. He gave me the first line, and l shouted it for him.
 When 1 was playing the Widow Jones one night, during the kissing scene between Rice and myself a man shouted, I'd like to be in yonr place, Mir Rice l would Rice and WorS both conyulsed. and the audience roafed. When the piece is funny, 1t often adds to the humorous situation for some one in front 10 do something unusual
 I never shall forget m experience ] had while playing the Widow in Gin einnati, though of course it isn't art for an actor to see anything that goes on in front OF to recognize anybody in the aus diencC, and | never dol don [ think. One night, as l was saying, in the city of cinders and beer, l 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 I never saw q 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 ill my face, said, with a rasp, ing, western t8ng:
 <" Veil, you don't look one bit like her
 T was hustered, hut managed te gasp:
 LiIe whom?
 Like the Widow 1ones, she an swered
 [" We'll, am, said l.
 I don { believe word you nc say in, said she, for 1 lnow'd the Widow Jones and her husban nigh on to 2t years ago, l stood up with 'cm when they was hitched, and you don look like her. She went off from these parts, and I heerd she was a widow and that Jones was dead, and then I heerd she was at this the ater, and cum tosee You ain | tho 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 q rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast l explained to her how 1t was. She Il never seen a play before and had come 20 miles to see her old friend, the Widow Jones There was a time whel such things frightened the life cut oi me, but I've learned to turn them t. good account
 Perhaps there is not another man on the stage so phlegmatic as Burr Mcln. tosh during unusual occurrences ig front He lays his coomess all to the training he got on the football field when he WAS at Princeton
 I find more unexpected things hap pen on the stage than in the audience, y said Mir, Mcintosh However, the first night we opened in At Piney Ridge l got piece of advice from the front l said to the villain, You lef the colo f3,.,,, .,n y-s,,, l,,,,,,,es ,.,