The times., 1898-06-05

urea uuCatS.
So they continued to cast missiles at the
orchestra, until he who did play or did
not play that instrument which is called
| the vile bass or the bass viol was struck
In the head with a section of brick house
and did fall upon his knees and cry out
! But the yacht girls and the Japanese
maldens and the queen did smite him. and
I ne rose and was sore afraid. And the
/ youths did sweat and swear and VOW unto
1 themselves that the musicians should not
leave the temple, saying, Woe be to
Z them which viii not play when asked -
But they would not and after a while
! the manager did go before the curtain
! ana before the audience which had been
! waiting there and did make speech, say
/ ing. Complications which were unfore-
| seen have rendered tonights performance
impossible, but it Will be repeated tomor-
row night in this building" And the au
| dience arose and left
And the youths still wished TO kill the
orchestra by their swords, but the man
! ager did protect them against the fury
Of his people. Blessed be the name of the
manager. And so endeth the eleventh
! chapter
| In all due seriousness. however. the con-
! tnued postponement of THE Hula Girl
was most unfortunate for those who had
| anything to do with the presentation. An
audience that has been disappointed three
separate and distinct times cannot be
blamed for some bad humor, and it is
greatly 10 the credit of those who waited
for two hours for the performance 10
| begin on Tuesday night that they We're
sufficiently Interested to come again
There was great deal Of friendly spirit
toward the boys, and the public IN gen
eral appeared more willing to contribute
toward eXtricating them from their diff
ficulties.
II does seem, however. that little
common sense in the management would
have prevented any trouble. The direc-
tors Of the OrEaniZa ton must have known
that money would be demanded by those
who sold their services and they should
either have been ready To have met the
demand or TO have done without those
who made it. There was no reason for
the audience of Tuesday night being
( held from quarter OF until p minutes
OF ID. either. The announcements thar was
finally made might Just rs Wen have been
given out as soon as the musicians struck
Or II was no more impossible to conduct
the performance then with piano accom-
panimeut than it was two days fer and
simple explanation of how things stood
would not only have excused all def
cIencles- but would have won the good
opinion Of those present who admired
spunk and courage. Then the constant
postponement until tomorrow" with the
attendant lesson that tomorrow never
comes, was not inclined to make the man
agement appear to advantage
Another mistake was in the prices. Am
| atedr organizations are generally nui-
sance, and are. at best, deserving Onl, of
tolerance. dollar and a half was entire
y too much 10 charge for any such per
| Iornance as that given. Only a few weeks
before. a the Lafayette, q company which
included Wilton Lackaye Edith Crane
Edgar Fawcett, Nanette Comstock. JOS
eph WheelOck, Henry Jewett. Arthur
Maitland, Alice Evans and q dozen other
people well and favorably known to the
profession appeared at just half those
rates. Before them Nance O'Neil. Nc
hee Rankin and Rose Etynge had been
seen at even less. Every week the poDlI-
lar-priced houses have been introducing
people of reputation. and even now stock
company, filled with clever men and wo-
men and an opera organization which
includes some of the best-known singers
IN the business, are Offering wen-staged
pieces at prices that seem ridicuIoI5s1y
small in comparison
These things being true "The HuIa
IlrI could not have drawn houses from
outsiders with anything less powerful
than a derrick at the rates charged for
seats. As the management have nrob-
aply discovered, it is much more profit
- az "a fhShNft dl % cents head
ihan TO empty it at six times that. and If
Is undoubtedly true that the bows would
rather have seen their audience than the
money. >''N
The Hula Girl is really a clever bt+ of
work, however, so far as its music poes
Inc Hbretto has not a single thing TO
commend it unless il is breyitv hut tbe
score is tuneful, bright, harmonious and
frequently remarkably smooth A nun,
Der OF the choruses and duets, while rath
er reminiscent. are nothing less thar
charming, while both of the airs given
the topical songs will be whistIed here
for some time
carefully edited and overlooked. the
music of THE Hula Girl'' migh+ easiI,,
De htted to professionally-written Ii
pretto ana made successful. At any rate
most or the selections are too pleasing
10 be buried with the closing OF the Co
iumbia Vaudeville Club.
AS has been said, the book has little
merit and had best remain where it is
The plot is involved and fncoherent the
hGmor heavy and frightfuliy far-fetched
while the entire thing, in construction
and incident, is thoroughly amateurish.
1t contains no good material But the
music Is worthy of better things and is
at least. an excellent foundation upon
which some erStWhile able COMPOSER in
search of collaboration might begin
building. Perhaps il would not be a bad
idea for Reginald De Koven to try it.
New York theatricals are in a bad state
just now. and the generally mercuriaI
manager in casting about for something
to lay the blame upon has discovered that
a war exists between this country and
Spain. During the regular season Ii has
not bothered him much, but now, when
not weather and Summer prices have be-
come factors in the trouble he finds ont
a fact that the rest of us had well nigh
forgotten-that we are fighting someone
or something. Perhaps it was reading
the daily accounts of the energetic cam
paign Mr.. Mckinley Is going to conduct
that brought him TO this state of mind
and perhaps ii was not but he has it all
the same.
AS a matter Of fact the evil influence
that the troubles beginning brought upon
the theater is dying away. The unsettled
feeling has been superseded by one of
commence In our arms and the general
public has gotten tired of standing on
one foot in front of bulletin boards wait
ing for Admiral Sampson to locate Ger
vera fleet. Friends and relatives are
naturally worried when those dear to
them leave for the front, and this had
at first depressing effect, but now
that 1t is generally known that our troops
are in no danger of anything worse than
sunstroke, the return to that popular and
eieyating amusement win be steady In
places where men are being mobilized
theaters cannot help doing well 1t is a
historical fact that theatricals a1ways
boom in war times and there seems to