Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-11

are being awakened with hammer and nails
at the local theaters. The various houses
open one after another next month, and
the season will be steadily under way
within the next four or five weeks.
The suburban theaters have tested an
interesting proposition i'll connection with
summer amusements. and there is little
doubt that Washington will support capably
managed vaudeville the year round. The
erection of theater at River View is I'M
Ger serious consideration. and Chesapeake
Beach which mas already added spectacu-
lar and athletic features to its list OF at
fractions. Will be in the Held with foot
lights and scenery next season
The arrest of the management of the
Palm Garden at Cabin John Bridge for
giving Sunday performances brings UP
the old question Of how much license
should be permitted in Sunday diversion
The subject is one which must be decided
in this case by the individual conscience
Of the amusement patron and the state OF
Maryland The Palm Garden dropped the
subtcrfuge, So long maintained in New y DIRK,
of calling the affair a sacred concert, and
having performers dance and MARBLE with
out makeup or professional costume. Just
why the singing of a secular song without
rouge or spangles should be considered pro-
uuctive of an atmosphere of sanctity has
never Vet been made plain. The Palm
Garden Sunday players disported them
selves in all the adornments of their trade
and declined To accept the money OF the
unhaliuwed bunch of spectators in front in
exchange for inferior, CARRIED and
frowsy performance There is gloom and
inCuugTuity about the sacred concert
as ii is dGnc i'll Gotham whose memory a
lifetime of subsequent joys could not dis
pei Fortunate is the play patron who has
been spared the shock of behoIding. for
instance. tine ordinarily beruff1ed Press FL
dri'lge walking down to the foot lights,
dressed like any commonplace citizen and
free from burnt cork as razor and tow
els could maize him. II was not Press Ell
bridge at all. II was merely 2. Eldridge,
esq. And when, forgetful of everything
save his customary patter. he beloved to
the audience, Hello white folks," the eff
feet was only little short of CHASTITY I'm
agine L0ttie ellison and the other pert
Suubr-tteS appearing i'll long skirts and
shirt waists pinned with department store
jewelry- Despoiled of its Illusions the the
atriCaI profession like most professions
would bc indeed a sorry affair. The vaude-
vile SUNDAY concert may he open to blame,
but the make-believe sacred concert is
indefensihle, adding as it does the vice of
hypocrisy to It's other moral and artistic
atrocities.
Actors should not be permitted to drop
their stage characters while before the foot
lights. Sunday any other day. Any
thing which tends to efface the line be-
tween payer anu spectator IS 10 De de-
plored. Frank Bush made a mistake when
he stopped telling stories one night and
tried 10 Sc, a personal chatty footing
with his audience Fields and Ward, the
monoIogue team. who appeared at the Palm
Garden the week before, had some good
talk. and Were genuinely funny, but their
tmpudent familiarity with the audience
caused their stock drop about twenty
points before they had been on the stage
five minutes. The element of theatrical
patronage which enjoys being .jollied'
across the toOtiights, is so small in this
city that it is not worth catering to. and
thr question of when II ia permissible to
make Il member of an audience thus con-
sp!cuous is too delicate to be left to the
judgment Of the average stage wag. Ii
should be handled by the managers not
only of vaudeville entertainments, but of
variety theaterS. where, in some cases, the
famillariJies between the Comedians and
their friends have been so absorbing as TO
spoil act for all who might not be in
ttrested in the private affairs of the par
Elephants. The ranks of hiSh-c!asS vaude-
VIII have necessarily been recruited large
" from performers accustomed to audiences
with whom everything goes" In many
cases they fail 10 adapt themselves to their
new surroundings, and their cOmplacent i'm
P~rtinencr has constituted a difficulty
against which every manager in this field
of amusement has had 10 contend.
The talk from New York is full of refer
ousv 10 The dramatized novel. One of he
most Interesting announcements in this line
was that which brought John Drew for
ward rs possible Richard C;.rveI'' Mr.
Drew has long been a strictly drawing
rroin comedian, the perfect pride of the
pix yea contingency, that his work in a
character of the more robust type would be
watched with interest. Mr.. Drew might at
least proceed with the assurance that his
TF~SiIs'' ana experience actor are
too great and that his personality is
too agreeable To permit the possibility
OF unqualified failure. 1t is said
Wat the piece which was originally intend
81 for J&mes X. Hackety, Will be handled
by thu Empire Thcater Stock COMPANY
with F.versham in tn cast.
Amos aer Important dramatiZatiOn from
current fiction Is thai OF The Battle of
the strong n which Daniel V Arthur is
10 present t.he word IS used with apologies
I" Mr.. FruhmanJ Mss Marie Burroughs
Mr. Ar'h ETS success in organizing the sum
Hgsr stock company at the Columbia Thea
ley makes whatever he undertakes for the
fE.tr" "a mstt~r Of interest to the play pa
irons 90 his ci.y. He continues in the
NJ. I-Isse-rant Of Stuart Robson in oliver
Goldsmith 1t Is quite possible that Some
OF tHe plays from new books. which were
aLG9uu2 d. VIII nnt materialIze on the
sag, for publishers would scarcely he
backward auGu. SEEING on any sort OF en-
enlargement. tacit or expressed from man
ayers. as d mems Of calling attention TO
their literary wares
developing some sort of gossip involving
Mrs Leslie Garter seems among the i'm
possibilities. Late reports from London are
TO the effect that Charles Stevenson. who
played leading roles with Mrs. Garter last
season. has written TO his wife. Kate Clax-
ton. In this country. proposing divorce so
that h can marry the auhqrn- haired
'ZaZa." 1t will be recalled that Kate Clax-
ton left here first husband to marry Mr..
Stevenson. so that. crediting the rumor
sympathy in either case may be more or
les modified Mrs. Carter IS in Switzer-
land Mr. Stevenson has just arrived in
New York and denies the story.
Manager Herman completed an improve
msut n the Lyceum during the summer
recess that will be appreciated by the pa
irons Of the front seats in the house. There
had been complaints for time by the
occupants of these seats that the gallery
gods. instead of expectorating in their
owu vicinity, have made themselves occa-