Evening star., 1901-01-05

Raff1es, the amateur cracksman. is en-
deavoring to swindle a jeweler by pretend
ing to be a wealthy American visitor IL
London. Here's the way Hornung pre-
sents the American method Of speaking
I'll Just read you an excerpt or two.
" This is Mr.. Robinson the cell
lerbrated joolers on Regent street.
figured on Miss Martin bein' right
here. too, but I regret to say she's not
feelin' so good. We light out for Parrus
she guessed she'd be too dead.
=" That's right. Thatd be dead cheap. 1
allow But then, my boy. you gotten ready
cash. and don't you forget it,.
I've heard no-end yarns about the
joolers stores in Parrus.'
You'll mail us this darned box with my
seal unbroken. It's no use you lookin so
sick, Mr.. Joo,er.'
Depicting Americans.
"And SO on, and Now, that's the
conventional English idea of the way we
talk over here It's almost impossible to
drive any rooted idea out of the English
mind. and the English have got a rooted
idea that We all talk through our noses
they call it the .twang,' and guffaw vocifer-
ously every time they use the word 'twang
and that we converse like the Hatfield
Mccoy feudiStS or like Wagonload OF far
western country people on their way to
the circus That's the way the English
can on the stage, and the gruesome funny
stories in the English Ally Slopers' and
other runereal sheets of the sort Inevitably
depict the American as a 'b'gosh' individual
with his trousers tucked in his boots and
tobacco juice streaming down at the cor
ners of his mouth. These English actors,
by the way. in depicting Americans,
| whine through their noses in a fashion that
is absolutely sickenng. and the audiences
go wild over the 'twang.' The American
girl is always represented on the stage and
In print as slangy, horsy young person,
who invariably chops off her final gs and
says Dew tell and L want to know. and
talks about her paw havin' tn biggest
pork packery, by ginger, this side o tn
Rocky mountains And all of this in spite
of the hundreds of thousands of educated
American men and women who have visit
ed London since the English folks first
gained their conception of the alleged
American manner. An American visiting
in London at length ceases to extract
amusement in the contemplation of this
perpetual misrepresentation of his people.
If the carcature We're apt and fitting-and
some OF us really have some character
istics that are quite worthy of being prop
erly caricatured-wed feel like taking it
all good-naturedly, but when. the thing Is
an utterly monstrous libel of the continuous
performance variety. L think we have
right to protest The United States Is
big country, and there are doubtless in
habitants thereof who say 'abaout and by
cracketty,' and if the English actors and
funny writer's would insert footnotes
it We're. setting forth the kind of Ameri-
cans they were ridiculing it wouldn't be 50
bad, but when they attempt, as they con-
tinually do, to make it appear that all
Americans of both sexes and of whatever
class whine through their noses and con-
verse like country bartenders for one OBJ
ject.
.The English who thus take off Amer
leans quite fail to realize the fact that
there are parts of their tight little isle in
which the alleged English speech of the in
habitaEtS actually can't be understood at
all even by Londoners Supposing every
English character in a play produced in
this country were to talk The Yorkshire
the Lancashire dialect for instance, and we
were to accept the speech of such charac-
terS as that of English gentlemen and gen.
tlewomen-or supposing we were to give
evidence that we believed the coster patois
of the AIRY to he the universal speech of
the English gentleman-wouldn't the En-
gliSh people regard us as plain fools? And
yet the cases are parallel.
1T is pretty nearly time for the English
man who shines in public, either on the
stage or in type. to revise his portrayal of
the American. His present version is in
sufferably insulting.''
Critical WnshinGtOnians.
In the progress of a New Year night dis
cussion at the Players Club between
party of well-Enown actors and prominent
theatrical managers as to the most difficult
city to please in attractions the most no.
table manager in the country. in the num-
Der Of enterprises he fosters, had this to
say:
.'Washington is the most critical city in
the United States in the matter of theatre
cal attractions That is the reason why 1
have SO many of my openings there. Hence
forth l am going to make all of my pro-
ductions first in Washington I have found
out that the Washington verdict is abso-
lutely reiable-tnat it furnishes an infalli-
bic line as to the success or failure of a
piece. I have never yet made a production
in Washington that pleased the Washing
tonians and failed to make hit elsewhere.
On the other hand have tried to force. in
other cities, productions that the Washing
tonians would have none of-have given
them big productions right here in New
York after d week of dullness in Washing
ton-and have invariably found the disap-
proving Washington verdict sustained.
Now. there is TO other city that 1 men
ton of which this can be said. 1 used to
have my first nights in New Haven. or
Hartford. or Rochester. or Buffalo, or AL
bany. The We diets of all of these cities on
my productions have been reversed times
without number so that 1 can't accept
them any more as furnishing me a proper
line.
Verdict is Valuable.
when 1 say that the Washington thea
ter-goers are critical don't mean that they
are frosty. Far from it. They're nothing
of the sort. But they have unvarying judg-
ment in their estimates of theatrical attrac
tions Of all sorts. If they get the right
thing they'll warm up beautifully. If they
can't see it the word goes around in ex-
traordinarily quick time and everybody
stays away Perhaps the reason why the
Washingtonians' verdict is so valuable Is
because Washington is the most essen
TALLY American city on this continent.
There are few Europeans down there.
imagine; certainly not enough of them to
leaven the great majority of Americans
and to twist the taste of the Americans
with respect to their theatrical attractions.