Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-02-08

SOME TiMES'T:00 SPRY
Press Agents Frequ sntly Called Down
By PRINCIPALS.
CVERDo The ADVERTISING DODGE
al
instances Where Their Clever
Stories Have Been Denied.
q n r E w A r D E D YEA
5RDO THE ADVERTISING DODGE
e n r E w RID ED re A


Press agents are variously known over
here as pluggers, touts. boosters, rain
makers, skid-greasers, Svengalis, WATERS,
wand-wavers, graft-clackers, connerinos
and SO on. The individual in the public
eye and deriving his her support from
the public's loose change. who. hasn't one
of these ingenious and fanciful dreamers
at work is nowadays the exception rather
than the rule. The theatrical press agents
came first, but now there are press agents
for every class of men and women who find
if advantageous to get their names in print
IN New York often as the trick can
possibly be turned The coming bantam
weight pugilist has his press agent in COM
mon with the newly-rich woman who es-
says to catapult her way into society by
endeavoring to have at least line or So
printed about her movements every day.
There are at least dozen politicians of the
top sawyer sort in Tammany who employ
professional boosters as members of their
staffs, and it is well known that many
fashy firms of Wall street brokers utilize
| the services of these insistent chaps.
Some of these press agents are so zeal
Gus in their efforts to keep their princi-
pals right in the center of the calcium glare
that they frequently oVershoot the mark.
This has happened on quite a number of no.
table occasions in New York during the
past two months. The most recent in
stance was that in which famous English
acress, now performing here, was alleged
by her press agent to be accomplished a
PLAYER Of the insidiouS game of bridge that
she had won SD 900 at it from women be-
longing to the cream of American society
since her arrival in this country. This
story found it's way. into several of the
solid, non-sensational newspapers of New
York, and it was sent all over the coun-
try The press agent doubtless figured
that the story gave his principal fine air
of rakish naughtiness, conforming neatly
to the character Of the parts of unconven-
tional women Ito put it mildly, which COM
prise almost exclusively the repertoire of
the actress. In justice to the actress, it
should be said that there seems to be no
doubt that her press agent framed up this
gambling story without her knowledge or
consent.
Denied by the Actress Herself.
Now, this actress is a woman who hurries
to her apartments Immediately after her
performances, regales herself on bowl Of
milk and Graham WATERS and goes straight
to bed. She is not little bit Bohemian in
temperament, Notwithstanding her skill in
depicting that sort of thing on the stage
and she doesn't mingle with the "rowdy
all-night social lot Gas she herself has put
it, either when she is at home in London
or when she Is travelling in other countries.
So, when she read Of this prodigious win
ming, she was prompt to nail the yarn
fairy tale Of the purest ray serene. She
told this writer that it had been bad enough
for her press agent to force her to stand
for the idiotic scheme OF having tanbark
spread around the theater at which she was
playing on account Of her alleged queru-
louSneSS over the street noises that she had
suffered in silence when the same press
agent had held her up as an incurable i'm
beetle by stating that she believed her lap
dog, Pinky Panky Poo, to be the reincarna-
ton of an ancient Egyptian princess; but
that when the Industrious young man de-
liberately pictured her a subtle and &C
complished gambler who took delight in
p,ucking society women who had been gen.
erous enough to shower kindly attentions
upon her, she revolted.
She wrote to all Of the newspapers a
short. snappy note in which she declared
that she knew no more about the game of
bridge than she did about boomerang cast
ing, that she'd never bet a shilling in her
life, even on a horse race in her own
horse racing country. and that she'd take
confuse her identity with that of THE No
torious Mrs Ebsmith," one of the parts
she plays This English actress is still re-
ceiving every day large numbers of horri
fed letters written by persons all over the
United States, who grieve over her awful
gambling propensities,'' and the press
agent who concocted the yarn Is said to be
traipseing around New York wearing an
exceedingly pensive and chagrined express
sion, and telling his friends that he Is an
unappreciated and abused man.
Another Case in Point.
Something under a month ago a titled
English woman, who during the past fifteen
years has figured in sundry and divers d.
vorce affairs in England, arrived in New
York to begin a lecture tour on the foibles
of British society. She had barely installed
herself comfortably in her hotel apartments
before the wheels in the head of her lecture
managers press agent began to revolve
Nynln he cr-rof iva
that he evolved out of his inner conscious
ness, with reference to the career of the
titled English woman, simply had every
thing In Dumas. father and son, crowded
into corner. The number of eminent men
that she had absolutely ruined, and glorified
in running; the innumerable occasions on
which she had made the bank at Monte
Carlo look If it had been shattered by an
earthquakes; the dagger dues she had
fought with Jealous women; the heroic
stunts she had performed as a war CORE
spondent; the little, casual trips she had
made to Thibet and Mecca in the DISCUSSES
suitable to such feats-well, the story reads
like one of those Beadle dime novels of
such cherished youthful memory.
rms Titled English woman had unques-
donably lived every minute of her life, but
she could not endure the trimmings, as it
We're, with which the Jealous press agent
had ornamented his account of her career
she weighs close upon 200 pounds. has
grown-up daughters looks a good deal
more. matronly than Mrs. Kendall and
bears about as close resemblance to the
adventuress of the conventional type as
does Evening Star Mary. When the writer
interviewed her, 1t occurred to him that she
would present mighty slightly buxom
ana appropriate figure in a bingham apron
ana with her sleeves rolled up, engaged in
making a mess of soda .bircuits or in manu-
dacturlng saVory Irish stew. She was per-
fecty candid almost distressingly candid in
Iact, IN acknowledging that she was in the
United states solely for the purpose of cap
turing doliars Wherewith to line her decid-
euly depicted exchequer, and she said that
she was quite willing to undergo any
amount UNI OF hardships with that end iu view;
put (she added, warming up) she would be
eternaly-er-sneeZed If she would tolerate
sucn mass of balderdash as her lecture
managers press agent, had written about
ner, ana she forcefully requested that the
yarn De denied In toto. She denied 1t her.
selr IN card to the newspapers, and thus
s anoSher too imaginative press agent was
Still Another Can Down.
y short time before that another English
woman OF the unfettered, emancipated type
who several years ago wrote novel that
created an immense sensation throughout
the English-speaking world arrived in New
YORK. She, too, came here to embark on a
leCtur1nR tour Jhis NON woman had