Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-03-26
THEATRICAL ADJUSTMENTS.

GtIdrulue UlmdI Is " dPP0oA ~ s
deville.
Marcus Meyer is to organize an
opera company.
Bernhard will add Hamlet and Ro-
meo to her repertoire.
Nat Goodwin is to produce 'The Cow
boy and the Lady," in London, on
June /.
with Dewey at Manila" a n1elo--
drama, enjoyed run of two weeks az
Frisco.
Kyrle Bellew is said to have re-
ceived an offer to star for the Lelper
Company.
Cissie Lotus, Sam Bernard and May
Robson may be placed at the head OF
company next year under the manage
ment of William Rich, of Rich & Har-
re.
The Chinese are opposed to the ap-
pearance of women upon their stage,
and they are replaced by female I'M
personators who from their infancy
are named for their career and attain
a wonderful facility for impersonatlng
women.
preDarations are on foot for revival
of Diplomacy" in New YORK, TINS
spring. with Rose Coghlan, Charles
OGiA5Hla1, soduIC N1eii Iiuot, oohiA = H"A
Ivan Frederick de Belleville, Robert
Fisher Ida Won Trautman, Grant Stew
art and Mabel Eaton in the roles they
have already played.
ineodGle blrt Sayre's comedy was
produced by Stuart Robson in St. Louis
last week. In addition to the Robson
niece Mr.. Sayre is the author Of Wilton
I.qckaye's Charles O'Malley' and ]. K.
haci.att's Sir Hillary's Wager" E.
H. Sothern has purchased four-act
costume comedy from Mr. Sayre, and
intends to produce it next year. In
this piece most Of the characters are
historical, and Mr.. Sothern himself will
apJear as an eccentric English noble
nan. The actor is so we'll pleased with
this contribution to his repertoire that
he has commissioned the same writer
to furnish still another play for his use.
The testimonial benefit performance
for Lydia Thompson, to be given IN
London on March 81, will enlist the SER
vices Of many performers, the array OF
volunteers including some OF the tore
most actors on the English stage. MISS
THOMPSON has had a career OF ~ years,
and in her prime she was the ac-
knewledged leader of all the forces or
English burlesque She came to Amer
lea in 1868, making her first appearance
in New York at Woods Museum, now
Days theatre in the burlesque OF
''Ixlon I" and at that time she was one OF
the most dazzling physical beauties ever
seen on the stage. Her principal asso-
ciates Me.e Pauline Markham, Ada Har-
lana. Lisa Weber, and Harry Beckett,
and her success, not only in New York,
but in every other American city that
she visited, was prodigious. She has
outlived her powers and her fame, and
the autumn of life finds her in some
need of the means of retirement.
1.-The fault of most dramatic as
pirants, says Hillary Bell, is that
they aim too high for their debut. Our
Newark friend should not set her hopes
on Days, the Empire or the Lyceum
each of which theatres has waiting
list, like a fashionable club. Lillian
Russell and May Irwin began life IN
Tony Pastors variety show. Ada Re-
hans first attempt was in the position
OF walking lady in melodrama. Elean-
or Duse began her career by reciting
short pieces in the tent OF a company
OF transformers. Nine. Melba started
as a concert singer in penny readings,
which paid her only half a crown, or
SAYS Shakespeare, is young ambitions
ladder. Poverty is an aid rather than
bar to advancement. In his early
days Sir Henry Irving was half-starved.
Sarah Bernhard was fagOt-gatherer
daughter. Duse owes her present i'll
health to the privations of her child
hood. Helena Modjeska was a Polish
peasants daughter. Peg Wellington
sold watercress on the streets of Dub
lin. No great player ever owed her
prosperity to a dramatic school, and
most of the worlds finest actors leaped
into renown from the Springboard OF
poverty"
Many well-meaning but foolish folk
comfort themselves with the plat1tude
that young girls virtue is as safe IN
the theatre as it is at home, provided
she guards herself against temptation.
This is a pleasing but fallacious theory.
There is terrible truth in "Zaza." V1r-
tue finds scanty soil for its growth on
the stage and seduction turks at all It's
exits. The managers have no time 10
protect their employees and temptation
In various forms awaits the young act
ress. The wonder is not that so many
actresses go to the devil, but that any
escape him. There are many good wo-
men in the theatre, yet there are many
bad ones, too. There is not space in
this journal to explain all the lures that
are arranged for the overthrow of
young girls in the playhouse. The
Newark maiden should know that even
homeliness is no protection of morals
on the stage, while beauty must hold
on to virtue strenuously with both fists.
The manager has other things to think
of than guardianship of his players.
They must shift for themselves. be pre-
pared for all sorts of insult and every
ingenuity of temptation. Only those
Of sterling character and invincible pur-
pose can go through the ordeal.-Hil-
larry Bell, in New York Press.
The concentration of the circus bust
ness in a few hands has reached an as
tonishing point. The Barnum & Bailey
shows became the property of James A.
Bailey, the surviving partner, by pay
ment to Mr.. Barnum's heirs of sum
said to have been S750000. Mr.. Bailey
has merged them into a limited liability
company. Mr.. Bailey sells the proper
ty and trademark for $2,250,000, of
which he gets two-thirds in money and
one-third in stock. After the death of