The times., 1898-02-13
FRIENDS OF LAST WEEK.

FRIENDS OF LAST WEEK.
Within few feet of the tracks on
! which the putting and blowing locOmo-
| tiyes of the Baltimore and Ohio railway
/ are continually coming and going, last
week stood rather an interesting speci-
men Of the modern car On the outside
! il looked not unlike the rest of the roll
| ing palaces that were in every nook and
/ corner of the depot, but the name painted
! on its black sides was even more COM
| plex and difficult of pronunciation than
! are those usually turned out from a side
/ factory in the Pullman works. To a
| casual observer there was nothing dis
! tinctive about the sobriquet, Anna
held" but one who looked closed soon
learned where to discect the name. and
Immediately arrived at the correct con-
clusion that the coach was the far
famed car of Mile. Anna Held.
There is probably no set of apart
ments in this country that excel in
beauty those in the interior of this
travelling mansion. 1t was built some
few years ago for Lily Langtry by
Fred Gebhardt and cost,1at what was
considered marked down" price, just
s37 900. In the course of time il passed
out of the hands of the actress and
was bought by the magician. Herr
mann. While owned by Iim it journey
ed all OVer the country, standing fire.
quently in the railway yards in this
city It was a source of no little pride
to the wizard. and when he finally
breathed his last it was in one of the
downy beds of this coach. After Herr
mann's death the car was idle for
some time. Theatrical people are
proverbially superstitious and no one
cared to risk seeing the ghost of the
dead magician Then the season was
not good and few felt able to pay out
the money asked for the car. AT last
Manager Zeigfeld purchased it for
Anna Held, had it newly fitted out and
consigned it to the road.
The car is divided systematically
into an even dozen rooms. so placed
as to require very little space. AS one
enters the front door he is escorted
into what Mr.. Ziegfeld calls the ante
room and Mile. Held her smoking par
lor. The walls of this little apartment
areas in all the rest of the car-of
figured papier machie, heavily gilded
with a bronze relief. From panels in
the ceiling hang hundreds of pictures,
many of them of Mile Held herself,
while luxurious sofa and a ombina-
tion wine chest and desk go TO COM
plete the furniture. BY the way of the
hall one finally comes to the most
beautiful room, in what the
chanteuse has termed La Palaise
Roulon'' This is the boudoir of the
little PariSienue and in ii any one with
a particle of imagination might fancy
himself in fairyland. Here is the sin
gle exception to the paper walls of the
he sid Of Holds
vate apartments being of padded silk.
The floor is covered with Turkish
rugs and the pelts of different animals,
while six mirrors in the wall give the
occupant no end of chance to admire
herself. The room is built for con-
venience. too. for there is a passage to
the storehOuse under the car, opening
from a trap in the floor; a little safe,
built in the wall, and a large bathtub
under the bed. On the other side of a
tiny connecting passage, which. small
as it is, has room for wash basin and
Iavatory, is a guest-chamber, decorated
almost as lavishly as its companion.
Then there is the dining-room with its
handsome furniture, its SteinWay pi-
ano. it's pillowed divan and it's side
board filled with rare old wines and
covered with silver and Bohemian
glass.
Back of this are the kitchen and
servants quarters. "One does not
need many assistants says Mile.
Held: "a cook, a valet, a femme de
chambre, a waiter and secretary"
with an almost injured air, "are quite
sufficient" And so she rolls over the
country, never leaving her palace, but
taking it with her in a way that would
not have been considered possible
even fifteen years ago.
Two exceptional bits of character
work were done last week at
the Academy by W. H Tur-
Mr. Watkin and Sir Richard, in
Sowing the Wind" In both there was
an amount of detail and intellect that |
made each as smooth and finished as |
a well-made billiard ball. 1t seems !
singular, by the way, that so we'll bal |
anced and generally clever a compa- |
ny as this in its smaller roles. should |
be headed by persons so incompetent |
as Herbert L. Sears and Elizabeth |
Holloway Not that the first named of |
this pair did not do some good work.
and his voice and manner were so |
pleasing that one could almost forgive |
his many faults: but Miss Holloway |
had no single feature to recommend |
her. She has neither the voice nor the |
Of a Rosamond and her |
nearest approach to acting was hard |
y within speaking distance To pre- |
serve the reputation of the company
better leading woman should be got
zen without delay.
An imposition on the public that no
theatrical manager can afford to tolerate
s Charles E. Blaney's latest compilation
Of clap stick nonsense and cheap horse
play. "A Hired Girl" Were it not fos
the respect admittedly due to anything
so venerable one might amuse himself
FOR several days in naming the faults of
he piece. Without situation or a wit
" line. devoid of so many as one good
or pretty girl, lacking even in
hat it had not single clever speciality I
he farce" had no detail or portion that
vas worth a hundredth part of the price
,aid for. admittanee. The whole per-
ormanee reminded one fofcibly of anna
eur night at a Bowery museum and of
1ething else in the heavens above or the
,arth beneath. Waldo Whipple. who
vas. seen as Lord Green Goods, Is as ex-
client tragedian as has been here in
many a day. His lines were given with |
,athes and quiet suggestion that brought
he tears to many an eye that had not