The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-09

x,ssides New forkers'
m,,rtv years ago the Metropolitan hotel
.hs focus of the town. the gilded
N"Y .h went there for late suppers. The
-, 800 noted politicians of the Tweed ring
~rod out champagne there. Its birds
PO' a,,yavs well cooked, it's steaks were
WIZ r,ed 10 n turn, It's oysters had the
n'1 m and its whisky was famous.
'',. ,ras the plaza for the actors until long
Az. ,he war They stood In clusters all
ai' its steps and held council In Its
Io" 0.ihule for all the noted chophouses
,rere in the neighborhood.
Pound the corner, in Houston street,
the House of Lords and Clifton's,
W" WI nm ON the other end OF the block was
anN payere House. From that corner down
w" oonld meet on pleasant day all the
!ors actors In town-E. Il. Davenport,
%nn, placide, Burton, Dion Boucicault,
Ioa,os w Wallack, Charles Fisher, John
%aa,,obam. Rufus Blake and a double
Inoro of others. II any of them got up as
sov os the Metropolitan Opera House, 1t
l" To- hehind a fast team, and they found
themselves in the country.
when the Metropolitan was opened In
1910 n was the town talk. 1t was inau-
1,,roted with stupendous banquet. Ste
eSen A. Douglas and Tom Benton and
S San, Houston were there. Voluminous
Sescriptions of the hotel appeared in the
uoyvsnopers of that date. People stood in
nnoyds and looked up at it from the other
side of the street. 1t was thought by con-
sentative people to be amost unwarranted
riece Of extravaganza. But the Metropoli-
- ha
lar hotels in the city. And its complement
Of 1000 guests did not fall OH while the
Lelands had charge OF It,
Before and during the war 1t was Gus
tomary for the reporters to go to the Met
ropolitan every night to get the news. 1t
was damned with people on the night of
the cable celebration and on the day that
Sumter was fired on. There was, In fact,
no such center above it on Broadway, and
its walls must have rung with the voices
of many great captains and celebrated
beauties.
There are people in New York who can
remember when Niblo had a garden there.
There are many more who can remember
the first theater which went by the name
Of the garden, and how the American in
stitute was won't to hold it's fairs there,
and the original Christy minstrels, before
they got into Mechanics hall, really
caught the small town there, and how for
several seasons the concert hall was the re-
sort of our small musical population.
Then later the theater spread out into
great auditorium, and Mr.. A. Il. Stewart
bought the property and had IA private box
connected with parlor, and finally came
Jarrett and Palmer to take the manage
ment and then bloomed upon the world
the "Black Crook" and the white
Fawn," spectaces whose like had never
been seen, and which rolled up fortunes
for everybody connected with them.
But at this time the theater was in the
full swing of popular success. The enor-
nous success of tho BLACK Crook" had
secured all the commercial visitors in
town. 1t was denounced by the pulpit
but never waned in attractiveness for
years. Agents were kept in Europe to
snap up every speciality they could find
and such was the pliability and capacity
of the performance that 1t swallowed up
everything, from performing goat to n
prima ballerina assoluta.
Bonfanti was then in her prime and be-
came the rage of the town. Pauline Mark
ham was in full girth of glory and led the
Amazons.
If some one will lay hold of the still vir-
lie beard of the venerable Commodore
Tooker, he will reminisce for an hour on
the palmy days of Niblo's. All the historic
Thespians of the pave will tell of the days
of William Wheatley and the production
of the Dukes Motto" play which made
the most extraordinary kind of hit and
off hot
Broker of Bogota," one of the best orig
inal American dramas of its era.
When Jarrett and Palmer took hold of
Niblo's Garden, a change came over the
house. Then opened the era of Terpsichore,
and for years the place was given over to
avoluptuous orgie Of bacchantes and spec
tacle. There were long rows of the hand,
soonest women in the world in the CORR
doris on Tuesday mornings to draw their
salary
After the BLACK Crook" wore itself out
there were spasmodic efforts to call back
the old dramatic prestige of the house.
Charles Fechter made his American debut
there, playing Hamlet in blond wig and
falling to please the public. 1t was there
that Boucicault brought his 'Formosa'
from London after declaring that he was
going to open "a new path for the drama
through the sewers" and the play was
damned on the first night.
The Metropolitan has succumbed to the
inevitable. Broadway Is a glacier, not a
rock. 1t moves slowly north with all It's
gayety, Its groups its centers. Everything
historic melts and vanishes. Every OLD
stager has marked the shifting Of the cen
ters Thirty years ago the focus of Vanity
Fair was there between Houston and
Prince streets. When Rachel came to this
country, she got no higher than Houston
street. And when the war was over thu
meeting place of all the lions the swells
the haneurs, was between the st. Nicholas
and the Metropolitan.
Those blocks thundcred and palpitatet
with the life that has gone up to Thirty
ninth street. First the crowd jumped t.
Union square, then 1t welt to the FIFTH
Avenue hotel, then to the Hoffman House
tnen to the Coleman, then to the Grand
.nen lowell, you will have to take ca
Die car to find It now. -Nym Crinkie II
New York World.
The vender Of Paternity.
For a Curioua profeasion and ono which