Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-26
s TAGE "BUSIN s."

What I'd like to see" said the man Of
forty. with the strong cigar "is q good
play. think IL some felow'd write a good
play and put it On the stage 1t ud make
money In this country. haven't seen what
Ia call a good play in a whole lot more
years than want to figure on, now that
my hairs beginning to thin out on top.
Yet I've been going to the theater right
along every week or SO, hoping that play
would finally come along that would give
me the kind Of thrill that l used to expe-
rience when, as young fellow, I used to
get In the gallery line on Saturday nights
with my quarter in my fist and bunch
OF peanuts in my pocket. and enough
stored-up enthusiasm to make me hoarse
all day Sunday. Now I'm not knocking
the cocktail comedies and the leg and lin
ger1e hop dreams that the people who go
70 the theaters nowadays get so much of.
They're all right for folks that like that
KIND OF thing, although my opinion is that
when you've seen one of 'em you've seen
all of en- I'm only trying to welt the kind
or plays they've been dishing out to me for
my SloO during the past few years. I'm
PLAIN man, and was raised on plain plays
that people of my ordinary mental caliber
can get hold and make something of and
get, worked up over. l haven't been good
and worked up at drama for ten years.
The young fellows that do the pretty
business lin the dramas they've been TAX
ing my tickets foc of late years do heap
of talking and posing and leaning on pianos
alid grabbing women and hypnotizing and
all that sort of business, but they've struck
me as being the worst set of do-nothing
enemirate rag-chewers imaginable. Just
Wnen you think they're going 10 grab the
Villains and make mincemeat of EN- and
throw 'em off the top of q cliff a thousand
feet or so high and poke 'em under the
fifth rib with their pg-stickers after the
regular two-up and one-down strokes. the
ft1cf rrr,3a a
ter OF the stage and remark that they'u
see 'em next week 1T Fcntainbleau, or that
they'll let 'em live to regret that blow or
mat they'll pull their freight just to save
TIE loldys honor, or throw out some other
cheap kind of a con just to cover up their
own cowardice. In the plays that of late
years they've been chucking at me and
other med of my ilk that preserve the
same stage traditions that 1 do. when the
time arrives for the swell girl of the show
to let out on the sneaky scheesicks that's
been foreclosing the mortgage on her
fathers farm and driving her beau TO
drtnk-when it's up to her to crowd right
up to the footlights and tell the black
guard that he's no good and loafer and
thief and cheap guy in general, why,
what does she do, instead Of holding up
and swinging the documents thatu land
him In states prison for thirty years or
so, but just walk to the property bell rope
at the back drop and ring for the footman
and tell him that, she's got an appoint
ment at the embassy at 9:30, he might as
well get the brougham around to the door
so L m Just compelled to sit in my seat and
wait for something to break loose-wait -or
ihe long unheard-of brother to rush in in
bis sailor suit and kick the chap with the
black curly mustache out Of the window,
Tor instance-and never get my moneys
worth of things happening.
They don't do anything in the plays now
adayS They take it out in chin music and
guH but they all seem to be afraid of
tousling up their hair. Instead of doing all
the big and mighty things that they say
they're going to do in full view of the au-
dience. they come a-loping in in the next
act and tell everybody what they've DONE
If these big-talking chaps, who cavort
around on the stage nowadays would do
half the courageous dead game things
right in front of people, the shows would
be worth going to see. Why the dickens
don't some good stage people get together
and give us The Romany Rye and The
Lights o London and In the Ranks and
good strong, have-at-thee stuff like that,
instead of trying to make people like me
tnat hove been through the mill take stock
In all this sex against sex and 'uncon-
genial Wife and 'unrealized ideal fiubdub?'