The Worcester spy., 1898-10-23
TEMPLES
OF the MUSES.
at Prices
FOR THE MULTITUDE
Cheaper Theatres That
Meet a Popular Demand.

Front street? 1t isn't anything to be
ashamed of. They are really good
sometimes.
OF course, one has to put up with
some uncomfortable things no seats,
for example, or at best only rough
benches, but considering the price of
admission-five cents-and the quality
of the show, one can afford to be un-
comfortable. There is no high priced
piano perched upon high platform in
the rear and pianist who is not half
bad from popular standpoint
BY the way, the musician deserves
more than passing notice. He is oc
casionally a marvel in his way without
notes and without any sort of musical
education, for life and vim he surpasses
many q studied performer. And he
doesn't stop to think what to play next;
he jumps from a "rag-time' jig to a
Misererie and when the comedian is
singing a comic song, knows when to
put in the bangs without looking. He
is all right, is the musician, known in
the profession as Professor.
The comedian is a strange creature.
A kind of DR.. Jeckel and Mr.. Hyde ar
rangement, capable of turning from
nondescript sort of Irishman into
melancholy German at a moments no.
tice. There was one once who played
the negro parts and tended bar zen cos
tune" between the acts. He has always
been in trouble and he likes to sing
about it. If he is Irish he needs a stick
to help him. Sometimes he is a stick
himself. Then he dances in the exuber-
ance of his joy He always uses the
stick when he dances; sometimes in
front of him, sometimes behind him,
but he never gives up the stick. 1t is
supposed he sleeps with it.
If he happens to be a negro he is
very careful with his language He
wants people to think he is really
negro and not white man with burnt
cork on his face, so he says de and
dat and would perhaps fool almost
anybody if 1T wasn't that his collar and
cuffs have rubbed a good deal OF the
black off and have left half-tone
streaks around his neck and wrists.
The negro comedian is pretty happy
most of the time, especially when the
soubrette belts him over the head with
a broom. He loves her so much, you
know, having been a servant in the
house for years. His songs are natural
ly coon songs" because a real negro
doesn't sing them. And he opens his
mouth to an alarming extent when he
sings. Occasionally the audience feels
like yawning too.
/ And the little soubrettel She isn't
always pretty, but that isn't her fault
| She uses enough rouge, in all consci-
ence, to nTake forty soubrettes into
Venuses, but rouge doesn't cover wrin
kles and sunken cheeks and it is evil
! dent at once that the soubrette isn't
as young as she once was. There is
| tiny crack in her voice and just a little
lack of spring in her step that tells her
| age better than would the family Bible
| But she does her best to sing and act
| like a girl and there is sort of sorrow
\ for her. such as one should have for an
! old building trying to look new because
| it was freshly painted.
| The soubrette is always in love with
some one, with the fellow her father
doesn't like, usually, and has terrible
time for about five minutes and then
| she and her adored one steps out to the
preacher who seems to be waiting on
| the back stoop, and are married. Then
| they come back inside and get for
given, and clear the stage for the SEN
timental singer, a man with an orig
inal sort of tenor who sings such
touching bits as Just Break the News
to Mother" and Her Sweetheart Went
Down in the Maine" The audience
mental singer as it does of the COM
edian, and he sometimes gets an en-
core. By the way, encores are not the
rule in these toy theatres. The audience
seems to be afraid of depicting the
actors repertoire and is chary about
asking him to sing anything else for
fear he don't know 1t. If he has to re-
spond to an encore he does it with a
dance.
"A word about the audiences, about
the heterogeneous mixture of humanity
! Dickens would find characters enough
in one of those tiny Front street tenn
pies of the muses. to supply him with
material for dozens of novels. There are
all sorts of people to be seen there
from the well dressed youth who stops
in for a few moments to kill time to the
delapidated loafer who pays his five
cents because he has it to pay and is toe
lazy to walk two blocks for beer. One
seldom sees drunken man inside, for
the simple reason that they are kept
! out. The habitues of those places are,
for the most part, unobstreperous cti-
zens capable of seeing the fun in any
thing and not disposed to complain over
q little scrooging. Sometimes a man
! will wax facetious and handy words
with the comedian, but that only adds
to the enjoyment.
The stage itself mustn't be forgotten,
for it is fearfully and wonderfully
made. An elevated platform, some five
feet above the floor and about twelve
feet deep. it forms an ideal stage to
hold not more than four people at once.
There is drop curtain and wings and
flies a fiat" back and an extra drop
scene for the more complicated dramas.
The footlights are generally overhead,
which detracts not in the least from the
other excellencies.
The program is changed every week,
and new people with new specialties
are introduced. From time to time
amateur performances are given at
which new talent sees the light for the
first time. From time to time, also, the
floor is swept
Taken all in all, however. Front
street theatres are not bad places to
spend a half-hour when one has abso-
lutely nothing else to do.
CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION