Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-18
HAPPENED IN FRONT.
PLAYERS TELL OF FUNNY ExPER..
 ENCE6 THEY HAVE HAD.

Wanted Burr Mcintosh to .ssoaIz Fir,t
 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 i'll an aisle seat, three rows from the front, at performance of ssE} Gapitan' the other night He was fat man, and he gave a sneeze suddenly-a 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 ill high note such as seldom had been heard in those parts, though the Metropolitan Opera House is near by Fl CapitaD stretched out his long arms toward the man, rolled lis big eyes heavenward anu kald II q sepuIchral Yo1ees
 Heaven bless you, sir. J
 This brought the audience back to the stage with roar. and in a second the 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 audi. ence. After getting grip on Fl Capi- tan's nose and throwing down 8 cup of hot coffee, as he does between acts. he answered:
 American audiences are not demon. strative, and as 8 rule things don't bsp- pen in front. Of course the man who sneeZed tonight couldn't help it, but he made such blasting success of it that 1t 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 9 pause. '
 May Irwin is an actress with whom even metropolitan audiences take fiber. ties. People have habit of calling to me from the audience when they want me to sing q special song or to recits something, , she said the other evening. "One night man in the body of tha house called out to me to recite 'Hia. watha. He took me off my feet for minute. I couldn't remember @ line of it. btt called back: I will if you'll give me my cue. I've forgotten how ii starts. He gave me the first line, and shouted 1t for him.
 When I was playing the Widow Jones one night, during tho kissing scene between Rice and myself naD shouted, I'd like to be ill your place, MT. Rice 1 would. Rice and l were both convulsed, 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 l had while playing the Widow ill Cin- cinnati, though of course it isn t art for an actor to see anything that goes on in front or to recognize anybody ill the au- dience, and 1 never dol don't think. One night, as was saying, ill the city of cinders 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 i'll all my 1 life I never saw q human being take play so seriously She was with another 1 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 rasp- ing, western twang:
 4 Well, you don't look one hit like her
 q was fustered, but I managed to gasp:
 '' Like whom?'
 Like the Widow Jones, she an swered
 Well, am, said l.
 C I don believe a 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 'en when they was hitehed, and you don't look like her. She went off from these parts, and heerd she was q 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 fiounced out, but the next day when appeared at rehearsal she was on hand to give me another blast I 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 time whe1 such things frightened the life out o' me. but I've learaed to turn them te good account. ,
 Perhaps there is not another man on the stage so phlegmatic as Burr Mcln tosh during unusual occurrences III front He lays his coolness all to the l