The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-16
ART DEFEATED.
Came in Contact With Stockings
and Lost.
s'Naughty Anthony" Company
Gave Away Souvenirs.
HOSIERY FOR WOMEN.
Sir Henry Irving Played to
Empty Benches,
WhileThOusands ahmed David
DoI0rooS1 FE1hoofoTs
FOR WOMEN.
WhileThOusands ] damned David
BelaScO's Theater.

New York, March 16.-Art and SILK
stockings came into direct competition
last night and art went down IN dis
astrous defeat. Sir Henry Irving play
ed to hundreds of empty seats at the
Knickerbocker, while at the Herald
Square, where Naughty Anthony was
presented for the seventy-tifth tlme' the
crowds of women who appeared 10
claim the silk stocking souvenirs was SO
great that the management was over
Whelmed. Sir Henry Irving fetuIneu 70
New York last night and revived Ro-
bespierre'' at the Knickerbocker thea
ter without Miss Ellen Terry IN Tue
cast Her absence caused two astonlsh-
ing and unexpected results Inc tnea-
ter, which mad been packed TO me i uool ,
every time Irving and Terry nau dp-
peared in it during the last decade,
contained empty seats which numbered
into the hundreds. ON the sl1eWaiks
outside three score OF halI-Ifenzled
ticket spectators with bankruptcy star
ing them in the face, mauled each 9TH
er and fashionable playgoerS VINO allghI-
ed from carriages at the curb in an at
tempt to sell at any price seats Ior
which they had expected to make from
81 to 81 profit.
Ticket speculation has never been the
cause of a more diSgracefu1 disturbance
in the theatrical district. Spectators
waylaid cabs, insulted men and women,
CIung TO their coats anu JOSl1Cd bAiCAA
about trying to get rid of seats, offer
ing them at So at first, and then 81 and
then 81, and Is minutes after the cur
tain rose at Is cents each. These same
men made hundreds of dollars practlc-
ing extortion on the public when Irving
played in New York in October Last
night their losses were estimated at
from 81 900 to 81, $50
There was a remarkable lack of en-
thusiasm within the theater.
HT)aWne Rala S0OfS Silk-StOCKln0 hand-
out" the people on the rialtO called 1t,
and the women-2000 or more of them
heard of it, were Skeptical, became con-
WINGED, then plunged headlong into the
scramble. 1t was the seventy-fifth
time last night that Blanche Bates had
taken off her stocking in Naughty An
thony'' in her effort to elevate dramatic
art. Her manager celebrated the event
by giving away silk stockings to every
woman who came to see the play.
Women, old, young, pretty, ugly,
dainty, careless, coy and self-aSsertiVe,
DIT like bass at this allurlng bait. They
swarmed around the box office and be-
sieged the doors. There were five of
them in the crowd to every. man, and
every man seemed ashamed of his sex.
1t would have taken strong arguments
to convince any man in the crowd he
was not in a boudOir. Even while the
attack on the box office ragged at its
height, girls from an uptown dry goods
store stationed behind an inpromptu
counter in the foyer were busy handing
out hosiery. The crush in front of them
made their regular duties on a bargain
day seem like child's play. When their
job was finished they had given away
500 pairs and issued 2SS I. o. IT's which
will be honored tomorrow. It develop
ed that eight and a half is the aver
age size of New York women's feet
judged, of course, on a stocking sche-
dule. There were a few demands for
'elevens,'' and they were profanity fill
ed from the surplus stock. A strange
confusion developed before the trouble
ended In most cases the men refused
to accompany the women to the coun-
ter, but volunteered to wait for them
besides radiators. The crowd of wait
ing men was so great that many cou-
pies were not reunited until after the
first act was half over.
One woman applied to the box office
and asked to try on a pair Mr.. Belasco
fled.