The times., 1898-05-15

leaving home for good that some few
signed their wills, and that certain mi
noIity attended the performance equipped
with temp rature thermometers, pulse reg
listers and soothing syrups. Small boys
! who had stood in the lobby of the house
at intervals for week fought for places
in the gallery. and told their parents of
supposed fishing excursions into the
country. Different prospective purchaS-
ers of seats invented different stories for
their families and the opening overture
found a large and rather molly crowd as
sembled within the portals OF the New
National Thea,er.
i he fact that morally speaking, Char
rlion's chariot wheels were sunk deep in
the slough of Tnediocrity served to disgust
nearly everyone who attended the per-
formance The really good people present
were duly displeased and the sporting fra
ternity were sadly disappointed. All dis
covered that contrary to reports the
stellar act of the show was neither filthy
nor inexcusably vulgar. Of course con-
vention has made morality a most elastic
term and many who were present, as has
been said, found fault with the entertain
ment. but these people were of little mo-
ment. The interest that had been Gener-
ally excited and more easily kept sup than
would have been the case with visit
from Bernhardt or Duse died out with
/ astonishing swiftness. The acrobat's per-
| formance proved not even to have the
merit of originality. cyrene had delight
ed audiences at Kernan's with the same
| act, and a generation of circus perform
ers had exhibited it with fewer furnishes
! ard a little less artistic suggestiveness.
! Neither had had rIbboned lingerie or rib
/ bed stockings but their work had been
! practically the same as that of their sue
| cessor and. what is more, it was equally
| clever
! The French woman had toned down her
speciality greatly since leaving the me-
| tropolis. Her skirts were not allowed to
! fall over her head they did at Roster
& Biars. the gravity being apparently
| less, and, with the laudable purpose Of
preventing trouble in Washington homes.
she threw her garters into a net instead
| Of into the audience. Then the process
! Of undressing was not so prolonged the
relief at removing her corsets was less
! pronounced and the more revolving fea-
lures of the turn We're completely eIimi-
! mated. This was perhaps fortunate. Had
| il not occurred Charmions act might
| have been done in the select seclusion Of
! police station with a comfortable suit
! of striped black and white laying on
| convenient chair waiting fer occupancy
| Luckily Washington and New York are
! further removed from each other than a
! glimpse OF time table and measuring a
/ map would suggest. They are even more
! separated than one would be led to be-
| heve from the purchase OF a railway
| ticket from one TO the other. They are
| kept apart by ruies of decencY and COM
| mon sense apparently woefuily lacking IN
the latter city within the last few years
New York seems to crave and long for
! all that Is filthy and disgusting in theat-
rical or other life. Residents OF the gay
metropolis and visitors from outside ap-
! parently lay aside considera tions of merit
| IN prurient desire for all that is coarse
| and disgusting in stage work Under the
banefuI influence of such a class of the
| atergoers has been hatched The Con-
querers The Tree of knowledge" THE
! Telephone Girl" and a dozen other filthy
concoctions of worthless lewdity. All OF
| these have been largely patronized The
city appears 20 glory in it's desire for what
| Is coarse and weaTisome. Newspapers
| nave made its French baII-an annual af-
fair in which low women and business
| men meet on equal terms before the de-
| lighted multitude-famous. dramas of one
| sort or another have reveled in the crime
| OF its lower quarters. and farces have
| exploited a side of its life only less putrid
than that of Paris because less univer-
| sal.
Into New York pours a daily stream of
proyincials anxious for amusements they
could not afford to patronize at home.
And the great city IS quite ready to af-
! ford them. A dozen BoWery theaters are
continually flied with the most vicious
people eagerly watching for the worst
| phases of the degenerate performances
| given. Sam T. Jack came to Gotham with
/ the announced purpose of providing it
| with all the lewdity 1t could desire. He
! took a theater on Broadway that had
been SO pronounced a failure that il had
| been facetouSly termed 1.-The JONAH Of
| course. he was generally laughed at, and
| frequently condemned. His losses during
| the first week the house was open We're
| terrific, and certain egotists began point
| ing toward the failure of his policy. But
| the following week New York was posted
| with three sheets. announcing Jennie
Yeamans in Tights-Fifty Sensational
Acts-Living Pictures, and people fought
| to get seats to see the performance This
| was not pruTient curiosity. The pueriie
hut licentious shows given at Sam T.
Jacks Theater continued to draw enor-
| nous houses. and are doing at the
present time. The managers belief that
art in the metropolis meant legs" has
been yindicated.
Newspaper condemnation of the morals
| enacted at the Empire Theater and the
| Lyceum only served to fill those houses
| to the doors with the elite and fashion of
| the city. Matinee performances were par
| ticularly well attended, and long lines of
| carriages We're seen at the curb during
| every performance. When London
| Sleeps" a cheap melodrama began to
| make money directly after it was learned
| that the piece contained a scene in which
| dozen more or less vilifying lines We're
| spoken. From the Tenderloin came Little
| Egypt, and when the Seely combina ton
| had finished with her there were twenty
| burlesque companies eagerly waiting to
| present the elevating spectacle to the pop
| ulace Silly Dinners and 'Scaley Din
ners" sprang up as If by magic and the
| performances were well attended. One of
| the most fashionable of metropolitan re-
| sorts, Roster & Balls makes a speciality
| of introducing sensational acts. Anna
| Held had a long run there, Charmion
| made her first hit there. and, now that
| she is on the road, Adele Richie is pre-
| more sensational than either of it's prede
cessors.
A press notice sent to The Times for
| publication before Charmion's arrival
! here and which found refuge in a nearby
| waste paper basket summed up the en-
| tire situation In New York II said: Her
! entertainment is said 70 be risque in the
| extreme and shocked the sensibilities OF
| even the blase Gothamites who crowded
| Koster & Balls Music Hall during her
| remarkably successful engagement of
| twenty weeks" A nice recommendation
| for any enterprising artist. trulyl
In this atmosphere Charmion found her
element and her act its indorsers-not
because it was more than ordinarily vul-
gar, but because it was advertised and
| expected to be. 1t is this that makes the
| success of her entertainment a shame
| and a reDroach to local and national
| theatergoers. That an act of mediocre
| merit could draw thousands because of a