Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-10-05
DRAMA

tiOH was more tHdH lNISt SlSc ihal
of any travelling company. We have made
a strenuous effort to present clever bur-
lesGues on well-kaown plays and with the
burlesques on ''Florodora," Arizona and
next week "Erminie'' I think
have proved our contention that Washing
ton amusement lovers will turn out to See
a really clean performance with plenty of
good vaudeville features. We have made u
steadfast rule that no performer on the
BlJou stage will be permitted to utter i Sill
gle word that might be construed Of
fensive by the most captious. The fact
that our audiences have steadily increased
in size is, / think, a good and sufficient
answer to our side of the case. The first
week of the stock burlesque one Of he
secondary members of the company added
big D. to his lines and he was promptly
discharged
While on vacation in Kentucky some
years ago, George Primrose of Primrose
and Dockstader's Big Ministries walked
quite distance in wrong direction be-
fore aware of his error. Meeting darby
on the road, he asked how far it was back
to the hotel. Looking George over from
head to foot, the dusky philosopher re-
piled: Well, boss, it am dis way: Eff poor
white man war to walk it, it's bout four
miles; eff man on horseback war ter
gwine it, It's about two miles, but eff a
man what wears a big damon like yous
has in your shirt bosom ter trabble
it.. why it wouldn't be morn half mile
hind a real spry mule, an dat is bout as
near as l can come to 1t, boss. Does you
think yous need lift. boss?
The announcement of the coming of Miss
Elsie de Wolfe to Washington-she is to
come as a dramatic star this time: not as
social figure as a mere leading prin-
ctpal of one of the Frohman companies
recalls a curious collecting hobby of this
delightful young woman and clever actress.
Most people collect autographs; some COL
lect photographs; Miss de Wolfe collects
shoes.
Shoes?
Yes, shoes: and the older they are the
better Miss de Wolfe likes them.
Miss de Wolfe in New York city lives in
the old home of Washington Irving-a
quaint, low, white faced dwelling, still pre-
serving its original aspect of Dutch dis
tinctiveness-on the northwest corner of
Irving Place and 18th street
In one of the rooms of this old fashioned
home, some of them under glass for their
better preservation, but most of them hung
about the walls in strange display repose
the soles of Miss de Wolfe's collection OF
footgear.
There are French shoes of the fifteenth.
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; there
Is Spanish, German and Portuguese foot
gear of the same period. Here is the shoe
OF a Venetian noble and here the boot,
spur-fretted, that a hero of the league has
worn in stirring and bloody times Nearby
are ecclesiastical shoes, gold embroidered
velvet-soled that have pressed no pave
ment save the marble of the Vatican
Here are oriental shoes that have waited
at the white mosque door in the yellow
blaze of an eastern sun while their owners
prayed within; sandals from royal Egyp-
tlan, dead and mummified these 1000 years:
the pointed, upturned toe that a Circassjan
favorite Wore; tiny shoes that have confined
the crippled feet of a Chinese belle Here.
100 are moccasins of the red skinned North
American Indians, which have followed the
north star on enterprises of bloodshed. and
here is the sealskin shoe of a Lapp which
mas served in weary tramp during the
sunless days of an arctic winter In the
collection are African shoes from various
provinces. Here, too, are heeless Turkish
SHOES richly sewn with gold and gems This
heaVy. square-toed shoe of dark leather be-
longed to that fighting governor of T.aneue-
doc, Henry, Duke of Montmorency
Here is a shoe that has belonged to no
less person than Catherine de Medci It
Is easy 10 imagine that these very pieces of
skilled workmanship clothed her slim ItaI
ian 1eet as she paced the Amboice terrace
more than three centuries ago weaving the
web that later closed about the victims of
Saint Bartholomew.
clyde Fitch, whose income last year is
conservatiVely placed at 500, 900. received
In royalties from his plays, will it is COM
puted, receive double that amount from tho
same source this season. He will have fif-
teen productions in this country and Eng
land. William Gillette's returns from bis
dramatic writings should net him at least
S2ooo0 annually, and this does not inc1ude
his published salary of 81 900 a week nc
star and larger amount received for bis
share as partner with Mr. Frohman in
the Gillette tours. Harry B. Smith, the ner-
ennial librettist, annually earns more money.
through the medium of his books, than
the President receives for his services. If
Is interesting to contrast the opuIent con-
dltlon OF the modern playwright who Ia in
vogue with his contemporaries of the past
Shakespeare's immortal contributions to the
stage literature of the world earned bnt
enough to maintain himself and family in
moderate comfort. Dion Boucicault wrote
ana adapted 400 plays and yet left merely
meager estate. Lope de Vega, who is
credited with the authorship of 1 400 stapa
p1eces-besides 400 minor effusions-wouId
have esteemed himself well repaid with a
small portion of Mr.. Fitch's rotund remit
tances The names Of the many PLAYS writ
ten by BARLEY Campbell were once blazoned
on three sheets from one end of the coun
try to the other, but their earnings were
small. Charies H. Hoyt was more fortu-
nate AT one time thought to be merely
ephemeraf. his comedies were large revenue
producers during his life, and their earning
capacity is still active. John w Dunno
manager of the Hoyt REVEALS now locally
current, has paid to the Hoyt estate $40 O00
In royalties during the past several years.
1t has been estimated that the American
public has paid much more than a million
dollars to see the eighteen comedies that
came from Mr.. Hoyt's fertile pen.
Richard Mansfield will dedicate the new
Garrick Theater in Philadelphia Monday
evening, presenting for the first time on
any stage his new creation. Beaucaire. In
the original four-act comedy of that name
by Booth Harrington and Evelyn Green
leaf Sutherland. Such is the demand for
seats for Mansfeld's Beaucaire, which have
been successfully kept out OF the hands of
the spectators and hotel agencies, that the
spectators are Offering to pay from So to
$40 seat. Mansneld's engagement In Phi,a-
delphia is for fourteen appearances only,
He then goes to Boston for fourteen an
pearances in Beaucafre, and. the last Of No.,
vember to Baltimore and Washington Tor
seven appearances in each city. The lat of
December he goes to New York for fafty-
eight appearances at the Herald Square.
Beaucaire is the fifth Frenchman thar
Mansfield has created In the course Of his