Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-24
HUMAN WEATHER WAVES

| your opinion, the variety show audience has
| got the right or the wrong of a public
| question, you are compelled to acknowledge
| to yourself that the variety show audience
| gives audible and visible manifestation of
! the trend of thought of the miscellaneous
people
| For example, the man who looks at the
| matter from an academic standpoint may
not be certain in his own mind that the
| Trusts, with an upper case T, are an I'M
| mitigated evil; he may. In fact, be Of the
| opinion that they are natural and evolu-
tlonary commercial phenomena of the
| times, and that in sense the workings of
| the trust system contribute to the greatest
| good of the greatest number. But the
| academic man who attends variety show
| performance in this state of mind with re-
1 spect to the trusts will infallibly find him
| self outnumbered in the ratio of at least
| a hundred to one when any uncomplimen-
| tary illusions to the trusts are thrown out
| by the stage people.
| Say, inquired one of team of coon
| sketch artists at variety theater last
| week, what is love, anyhow"
| Love-" was the other coon sketch artist S
reply, is the only thing that isn't con-
trolled by a trust
| Voctferous cheers, tumultuous applause,
| tremendous whistling and stamping of feet.
NOW, there probably wasn't a single man
| or boy among all of those ecstatic ap-
piauders of the antitrust sentiment who
mas ever been, or who is ever likely to be,
| a victim of the operations of any kind of
| trust whatsoever, for Washington is less
aHected than any other American city by
| the results that accrue from great COM
Dlnat1ons of capital. Indeed, It may safely
| be assumed that a large proportion of the
| more Juvenile element of those who de-
lghtedly cheered the coon sketch artist
Whack at the trusts carried In their heads
| only the vaguest and most nebulous idea rs
to just precisely what the word trust stood
l Main he hat how
| mad made UP their minds that whatever
| the trusts Were. they wouldn't do anyhow
| and that it was the natural and proper
| thing for them to execrate the trusts when
ever and wherever the latter were men
toned. ~
Again, the man who has made a most
careful and conscientious study of the
Sampson-Schley controversy or the Schley-
Sampson controversy, as it is seyeraliy
cailed by those who have aligned them
selves as partisans on that issue-the man
VINO mas worked diligently to get at the
merits and to frame opinion on that
WATERWAY find himself at the end in more
than one mind as to which of the two off,
GERS Is entitled to the lions share of the
circuit Tor the winning of the naval battle
| or Santiago. But in the opinion of the va
rlety show audience there is no doubt what
soeVer on the subject Schley was the man
me variety show audience doesn't know
anything about loops, doesn't care one way
or other about the formulation of the plan
or campaign that resulted in the American
| Meet coming out Misunderstanding won the
naya! battle OF Santiago, pronounces the
variety snow audience, with terrific and I'M
mlstakable vehemence, and that's all there
Is ABOUT 1t. Schley's name has only to be
mentioned by the variety-show performer
and the performer is sure of a huge
hand" A knock "a bout comedian sang at
local variety show the other night:
Sampson says he done it,
But Schley was the baby that won it."
and the whole house. upstairs and down,
emitted one huge barbaric yawp. So that
II Schleys end of the controversy does not
receive the approval of posterity If his side
OF the story is even now contested by con-
sclentous students of the points at issue
Schley may solace himself with the thought
that he has captured the variety-show au-
dlences. and the variety show audiences are
the people.
Mr. Bryan is already the democratic
presidential candidate, says the variety
snow audience, so that in respect to the
naming of candidates the Forthcoming
democratic national convention will be sim
ply matter of form. If the suffragists of
Washington variety show audiences con-
stituted that elusive quantity known as the
balance of power it seems reasonable to
suppose that the young man from Nebraska
| would win the next presidential election in
| a walk.
The variety show audience. however pro-
nounced as its admiration for and indorse-
ment of Mr.. Bryan seems to be. is 'expan-
sion TO the backbone. Here would seem
to be an irreconcilable situation-an I'M
qualified verdict in favor of a statesman
who doesn't believe in expansion, followed
by tempestuous denunciation of anti-ex-
panslon!sts and the doctrines they repre-
sent But If consistency be jewel then it
is to be feared that the variety show au-
dience has it not. The average variety
show audience is nothing If NOT inconsist-
ent.
1t would seem, to judge from the variety
snow audiences view, that the jurys YER
| dict in the Molineux poisoning case is by
ar nnI. bt- a
female Serio-comc singer alluded Sympa-
| thetically to Molineux in one of the eur
rent events songs at a local variety thea
ter the other evening, and she was the re-
| cipient of big hand from all over the
| house.
They're goin' t kill man in tn chair
| That hadn't ought t. be there
| she sang, in a deeply contemptuous tone,
ment was instantaneous and really impress
| sive. as showing how decidedly the public
! takes sides in these matters.
| There has been no permanent healing
| after all, 1t seems, of that little brea oh
| between the United States and England
| that happened about a century and a quar-
| ter ago, If the variety show audiences fire.
quent pronunciamentoS with respect to the
English-Boer war are to be accepted as
| gauging public opinion. During the prog
| ress of our war with Spain, when it ap-
| peared to be reasonably certain that Great
| britain was distinctly on the side of the
United States, the variety show performers
| illusions to England We're received with
| acclaim. and the British flag, waved side by
| side with the stars and stripes, came in for
\ a great old hand" But the old hereditary
| American spirit with regard to England
| appears to have broken out again-among
! variety show attendants. at any rate
| since the beginning of the Engiish-Roer
war. The variety show audience is over
| whelmingly pro-Boer. and every allusion of
| the performers to the struggle the Beers
are making captures the crowd in front
| horse, foot and artillery.
This Is only rapid resume at the way
| the variety show audience has of looking
| at current events and questions The va
rfety show audience whatever else it NAV
be, Is lukewarm in no position that 1t takes
| on the contrary, it is vehement cock-sure,
| and point blank. 1t thinks decidedly either
| one way the other, and 1t doesn't
| crawtish in the slightest degree when it
comes to a matter of expressing its opin-
ion And what the variety show audience
| thinks in one city. as in Washington, for
| example, the variety show audiences of
| other cities think. for the performers have
| the best of opportunities of finding out the
| drift of popular opinion and popular opin-
Ion is what they cater to If, for Nuisance.
| the drift Of American popular opinion were
| in favor of the trusts, 1t Is very certain
| that the variety show spielers would twist
| their illusions just that way; for the per-
formers themselves don't care one way or
the other. If there is any more Indifferent