Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-16

of him at all. and the fierce-looking tat
the wrinkles out of his ornately pictured
tights and the phenomenal giant who,
fuily six feet five inches in height had
sort OF arrangement of stills in his boots
and wore helmet and plume that made
him look at least two feet higher, and the
chubby, brownie-faced dwarf who imagin-
ed himself great wit and seemed to be
forever saying saucy things to all the rest
of the freaks on the platform without CIV
ing any offenSe whatever-oh, well, it's all
right to smile sardonically like that, sup
pose, but you never visited the Old Dime
and so you can't be expected to apprehend
the intense, soul-inflating bliss Of it ALL
A Truly Great Man.
After while the lecturer would make
his appearance on the platform. He was
a young man, with a very black and very
nuch-waxed mustache. I always regarded
MS as a very great man. l am bound to
say that 1 can't help considering him a
very great man to this hour. If 1 were to
meet him on the street tonight 1 think I'd
lnVoinntariIy feel somewhat humble in his
presence you see, he seemed to be so
easy and familiar in his dealings with the
wonderful folks whose peculiarities he ex-
planned, and laid his hands on their Shout
ders so fearlessly-almost recklessy l
thought-and then, again, his language
was so perfectly gorgeous and filed with
Dig words that we didn't understand; but
no matter; we knew it was extraordinary
language-no, L can't ever get over believ-
ing that that lecturer at the Old Dime
was a great man.
When the great man had concluded his
tour, with bow-his hand pressed fer
vently to his boSom-to the right and left,
we'd look at the monkeys and the snakes
and the rabbits and the birds for q while,
and lay in stock of peanuts, and then
mass ourselves up at the gallery door to
await its opening. Now, it cost cents ex-
ira to get seat on the ground floor, and
We were always explicitly instructed to
| pay the cents extra and sit on the ground
moor AGAIN grieve to say that we infal-
IDLY d1Sobeyed. 1t seemed such a needless
extravaganza. True, the gallery-there
was but one gallery-was almost exclu-
siVely given over to the black children but
We were devoid of any such ideas as class
distinction and the gallery seemed all
right for us. To get seats up there when
the door leading to it did open a job
worthy of the strength and agility of a
grown man, and it was especially difficult
to drag younger and smaller brother
through the Swrlng vofteX-T wouldn't do
it now for considerable amount of nego-
table paper; but l always accomplished it
then, somehow or other; and one of the
few sources of pride that l still possess is
that l never did get left when it came to a
matter of securing front seats for myself
and my brother in the sheer and almost
topping gallery of the Old Dime We'd
always be hemmed in, it is true, by black
boys, whose enthusiasm and torridity
caused them to diveSt themselves of their
coats, and, in some cases. other articles of
their anparel, but that didn't bother us
little bit.
Finest Kind of n Drama.
wei, I've seen some great theatrical
productions since then, of course, but L as
sure you l never saw any shows such as
witnessed at the ''Old Dime There was
one in particular that got me into sort of
daze of admiration and kept me there for
many weeks 1t was called Black Dia-
monds,' and had to do with the Molly Ma
guire outbreaks in Pennsylvania. Well, the
hero of that play, who wore fine red shirt
with a black tie, broadcloth trousers, tuck
ed in exceedingly well-polished topboots
and great black sombrero, which, L I'M
defStand, is the precise costume affected
by locomotive engineers-he was loco
motive engineer-in the state of Pennsyl-
vanfa-this man struck me as being about
the noblest of created beings. 1 had al
ways given my father the preference in
such considerations, but 1 afraid that
was forced to the conclusion that this man
In the red shirt would have been able to
lick my father had it come to a matter Of
fight between them. He had two shiny
pistols stuck in his belt all the time-an-
other custom. SO l am informed, of Penn
sylvania locomotive engneerS-and the way
he blotted out Molly Maguires with those
guns was sure a caution to conspirators.
Famous Boy Actor.
"Then there used to appear at the old
Dime a quite elderly personals 1 have
since ascertained-who was called the
boy actor How I did envy him.
had him figured out as being
about seventeen years of age and l
used to lie awake o. nights, after seeing
him. and wonder if, at his age, I would be
anything like powerful, and heroic, and
such dead shot with a rifle, as he was.
He used to play in those border plays in
;1l,} 1Iafv
lovely young creature in the pale pink
party dress off to his cave on the pommel
of his saddle. and the boy actor would al
ways lasso him, or shoot the off-hind leg
of the horse, or put copper on the viii
lain's game somehow, that would just make
US boys up in the gallery alternately fren-
zied and speeches. with enthusiasm. With
him was a very young soubrette - she
couldn't have been a day more than forty
two-who used to trip down the stage from
the top Of one of the very highest of the
Rocky mountains, swinging her blue
checked Bingham sun bonnet in her hand
lessly. despairingly in love with that beau
teous, silyer-voiced being, that l couldn't |
eat or sleep, and that for months after she |
went away from the old Dime I fairly |
worshiped her from afar, like a dfmnu- |
tive Chaldean shepherd pouring out his
alteration to a star.
Then another of the great dramas that |
used to appear at the old Dime"
however, tne washington man VINO nad
INDUCED a sentiment, found that he had to |
run for the "owl'' train, upon which he |
was booked to return to the capital. But. |
from his account of the "Old Dime mu-
scum down there in Washington-an ac-
count which the writer has most imperfect |
ly reproduced-it must truly have been a |
singularly fascinating establishment, to |
have held the Washington mans magma |
ton captive for so long time. c. L. c. :
GOLF BALLS INVENTOR