The age-herald., 1899-09-07
Tragedies and Comedies
 On and Off the Stage

season sets the pace for this country Tor
 the remainder of the season, all the the
 atrical managers will be in sack cloth and
 ashes long before they go to mass on Ash
 Wednesday. The closing days of August
 and the first week in September opened
 many of the uptown theatres, which have remained closed all summer, and some late
 London successes were put on with most
 fragrant disregard of what pleases the
 American play-goer. A bright season,
 however, is prophesied, and I understood
 that the managers, all over the south par
 ticularly, are anticipating successful
 winter
 Theatrical people,, as everyone knoWs'
 are even more fascinating off the stage
 than on and one sees in New York just
 at this time hundreds of stage people, for
 the rehearsals are going on in every avail
 able place New York is simply crowded
 with actors and a stage is the most diff
 cult place to secure for the numerous
 plays in rehearsal Viola Allen was
 forced to go to the Murray Hill lyceum to
 rehearse the Christian" and when the
 Little Ray of Sunshine" company took
 long breath at Wallacks, Stuart Rob-
 son rushed in for a rehearsal of "The
 Gadiy'
 Mr Frohman opened the Criterion thea- tre formerly the Lyric with Parisian
 play entitled The Girl from Maxims," by George Feydeare, who, it will be recalled,
 wrote "The Gay Parisians." The audience
 who were present the opening night were the most disappointed set in the world They expected little risque play and alter
 the first scene they preferred to spend the
 time in the promenade.
 play founded principally upon Ameri-
 can cocktails, a French dancer with whom
 a respectable physician, a wife and several
 children flirts at a supper house with the
 usual result of the wife finding out the
 entire affair, is a plot which adapters
 should by this time know cannot be made
 interesting, even with stage craft.
 But a New York audience is difficult to please. "The Parlsian, a Girl from Max inns" was not eclipsed by Tine Little Ray of Sunshine" an English play up at Wallaoks. It is presented by English actors and is as deadly dull as the sum- mer season. It ran at the London Royalty theater for six months, and was heralded in America as something worth seeing even on a summers night To remain through the three acts of "A Little Ray oi Sunshine is worse than doing penance, for there is nothing to compensate for the time lost The simple story of an English lord leaving his ancestral place for the Australian mines and returning many years after in time to save the estates of the family, which have been mortgaged by his nephew, lacks the pathos necessary
 to touch the heart, and, played as It was, without any emotion and very little com edy, 1t paled at once on the first nights audience. It was not until the curtain dnNx nr1 Air do lu h T f the audience showed the slightest degree of enthusiasm, and a moment later they crowded the exits and welcomed the elec- tric lights in Broadway, which were far
 more brilliant than "The Little Ray of Sunshine"
 ran for a short time the latter part of the season, opened the Empire the last week. Jesse Milivard, May Robson and other favorites of the original cast are again with Mr. Frohmans company. Miss Mill ward is one of the most fascinating women
 l have ever seen on the stage. The play.
 l understand, will be presented here this
 season, and you must go if to only see little love scene between Ethel and Cap tain Charles Carew.
 We will play the game called matri- l mony," says Carew, and losses up a quar- l ter.
 "If it's tails,'' he whispered to Ethel, q l will begin. If it's heads, you," and sitting | at either side of the table they write in a | tender vein, presumably to imaginary | sweethearts Carew reads aloud what he
 has written, which is confession of love | to his pseudo sweetheart whom he in-
 sists upon calling by the name of Ethel. T think" says Ethel, that I shall ans Wer-that she shall answer I mean" and with this she writes What is your in- come?'
 | Later on Carew declares the game must n tod To tails," he says, "I will embrace you, and | 1T it's heads-why, you will embrace me-" ! What is the use," said Ethel, "of tossing
 at all?"
 1 Speaking of the stage reminds me of | a charming little incident which was told | me the other day by two young girls who | are studying in New York-not for the | stage, however They are southern and | have spent greater part of the time in | the south. They were speaking of some | stage celebrities and naturally referred to l the late Augustin Daily, whose name is | synonomous with all that is best in dram- | atc art. They went to Mir Daly's thea ter for matinee early last season. and af- ter purchasing their tickets, discovered
 that they had bought only standing room, although they were assured that chairs were plentiful The enthusiasm of these
 matinee girls was lowered perceptibly, and the fact that they felt imposed upon by the man at the box office brought out a little | southern spirit. There was good deal of | discussion over the matter and finally l these two laid their troubles before MT. l Daly himself.
 | It must have been a pretty little scene l when these brown eyed girls spoke to Au- gustin Daly. They told me that they
 briefly explained to him the situation and
 that they wanted their money refunded unless seats could be secured, and that l the man at the box office refused to refund | the money. MT. Daly assured them that he
 would arrange for the seats, if possible, | and while they waited in one of the foyers 1 he went off to speak to an usher, and can l you imagine any sweeter scene than MT. ] Daly returning and escorting the girls him. l self to one of the beautiful boxes in his 1 theatre. This, however, Is what he did,
 which is only one of the thousand kind
 nesses of the late Augustin Daily. | If one is interested in the world of play | CTS there is no better place to watch them | unobserved than at the Broadway office of | the Dramatic Mirror. Hundreds of stage | folks may be seen. After the breakfast
 hour they saunter down for the mail,