New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-03-10
THE PRESS AGENTS EASY DAY.
AN OUTSIDER DELIBERATELY HELPS HIM
WITH HIS WORK

AN OUTSIDER DELIBERATELY HELPS HIM
WITH HIS WORK
The theatrical press agent often has hard time
and seldom has an easy one. the regular.
thoughtful and compassionate readers Of these COL
umns know The newspaper men with whom he
has to deal complains that he works too much. and
the manager who employs him complains that he
works too little. and the star actor comes around
and makes fuss because his name does not APP
pear In the columns Of the paper a sufficient num-
Der OF times 10 the running inch 1t is seldom In
deed that anybody entirely outside the theatrical
and newspaper cangs goes out Of his way to do
the press agents work for him. But this time
somebody did. as you shall hear
A kind woman the theatre the other night
and fairly pleased with what she saw till a
decrepit horse was led upon the stage with an
obvious intent make the unskilled crowd to
laugh. And 1t did make the crowd laugh, as the
kind woman admitted In her letter But 1t made
her grieve. for the ribs OF the horse showed IL
there nothing over them but skin, and not
much Of that. and he had red flannel around his
throat as if he attempting doctor 1t by the
unscientihc method Of twenty years ago. and one
of his legs had bandage around IT, as If the limb
were spraired. The kind woman called II a limb
In her letter being careful Of her language well
kind
She thought that this piteous spectacle.
for 1t seemed clear 10 her that the horse did not
get enough TO eat and that the cruel evidence Of
the fact deliberately heightened by the flannel
and the bandage. In short. that the horse
starved to make Borough of Manhattan holiday.
Anybody see how funny this horse must have
been, and the kind woman herself admitted that
she should have thought too, II she had not
felt so sorry FOR him. And this shows that she
accomplished woman. for she could exer-
else the sense Of humor and the emotion OF pity
at tho time, and that is hard TO do. She
showed all this In her letter. And by the way this
story has got ahead TOO fast somehow, for 1t ought
to have been mentioned somewhere along back that
she wrote letter the S. +. T. p. G. T. A.. which
De Wolf Hopper used 20 sing about. and 1t was
in this letter that she said all these things. and
said moreover, that something ought TO be done
about it. There old man In the play too,
who shook his less-that is TO say. on two OF
his Mmbs-who had sunken eyes and wrinkled
brow and a thin quavering voice. 1t was obviously
unkind TO make such poor old earn his
bread Of which ne did not appear 10 get much
in the knocking glare CT the footghts and TO make
him raise his failing voice 10 Ill the great, echoing
space OF the theatre and TO raise ribaId laughter
But the kind woman dld not think OF nm w "en
people think Of some things and DO not thlnk OF
the morse lust like the man. might be made to
look older than he really was -. ,o.,or an,
sent a man around TO the theatre TO read the riot
act still according 10 Mr.. Hoppers old song. ANA
il was when he told the press agent about the
letter that the press agent cheered up for the first
lime since he lost his last job seeing that some
body had done some work for him. And the per
Torrance being just over the press agent took me
stage and there was the horse standing, with an
air Of studied indifference, over bale OF hay and
shifting with the scorn OF second heavy man at
a bushel basket fun Of oats, while groom was
rubbing of his painted ribs with Vasellne and
smoothing down the glossy hair on the neck. where
the red flannel had ruff'ed H. The agent OF the
S F.. etc, said that ne fine animal and an
honor to his art. and gave the kind lady's letter
o,the press agent for advertising purposes
When the press agent told this story 10 Tribune
reporter he mentioned the name OF the theatre
where 1t all happened but the reporter was think
ing more about a professor OF history whom he
was looking for to ask him whether Spain had
won any battle since the expulsion Of the Moors
and ne carelessly forgot what theatre II was, but
II really doesn't matter much-the story itself is
the' main thing.