The sun., 1903-12-28
PARTY FOR STAGE CHILDREN.
500 or THEM MADE HAPPY WITH
(URIy7MAS TREES AND GTFTS.
They We're the Entertainers, Too. as We'll
as the Entertained at Tony Pastor
(Oncprt--Dinner at Tammany HAL
aud q scramble for Presents Later.

Five hundred stage children got clothes
presents and food and enterta aimed each
her at Tony Pastors Theatre and Tam
many Hall most Of yesterday. Mrs. +. Ia
Fernandez, Mrs. Ant onio Past or, Miss
Amelia Bingham, Abe Hummel and other
friends of he stage have been receiving
applications from he little ones for tickets
10 the annual festival" during the whole
Of last month.
The clothes were given out in the morn
ing, SLIGO having been invested in these
articles: Thirty suits, thirteen dresses,
eighteen overcoats, eleven cloaks, thirty
four pairs of shoes, sixty-two sets OF under3
wear, rty-ive pairs of socks, ninety
pairs of gloves, i2l pairs Of rubbers and
thirty-four pairs Of st ockings.
The children needed them. Two -and-a-
half-foot-high Colonel" Blair appeared at
the Hall in veritable rags. The colonel
was resplendent on the stage last night in
an Eton coat and waistcoat and iInnacu-
late white duck trousers, lie carried
bamboo cane.
"Of course those weren't the only clothes
We gave him. explained Mr.. Humlnel.
He belongs to a strolling company. and We
gave him u suit that's Warranted to stand
the blasts of the tlnsie-t Western road
house
The children, like Tommy Tucker. literally
sang for their supper They furnished
the whole OF the evening entertainment,
After s1all Col. Blair had piped an ener-
getic Wont You Come Home to Me?' The
DimpIes,' two diminutive girls in black
velvet coats, short red skirts and clogs,
sang German yodel, Then they changed
to green Jackets and low-crowned, high
to Old Erin" When the younger of the
pair, ur-year-old, "t'rw a chest in APP
proved professional style, she brought
down the house.
Fay Cusick isped the prospective en-,
10 "wear her hair all pompy." and Dave
Runkle. with three and a half feet Of scarlet
fringe whisker and shillelah sang the story
of kelly the Long Man Kelly, the Strong
Man"
with an orchestra, which insisted on pitch
ing .When the Harvest Days are over"
a good three notes below the most sepul-
chTal stretch Of her voice. Then she came
back and sang Just Because She Made
Dem Goo-goo Eyes" with such realism
that Georgie Game Of the Gay Girl from
Paris" who sat with Nis Tony Pastor
in the right stage box. uudeed ">-r com
panon and gigged comnois5euL's; :; "She
can! She can ma ke 'em all right
Master Willie Mc%eeuy. "ho rivalled
Col Blair az the smallest 10y performer.
forgot most OF his words III The excitement
of brand new nArin, : suit but didn't
yet any the less applause The performance
wound up when an unnamed four-yea r-old
girl with Il doll wandered ont on the stage
and calmly informed Stage Manager Tony
Pastor that she was going I o perform too.
And what are you going to do?" queried
the veteran meekly. The small girl, finger
in mouth, said she didn't know, but finally
decided on Let me go.
Then all the 500 little ones who filed the
gallery piled over to Iamlnany Hall. First
they gorged themselves on turkey and ice
cream Then they collected around "a
stage in the main hail and scrambled for
the 1000 presents which had been hung on
two Christmas trees on the rostrum and
which half dozen laughing women handed
down.
In the wine room Mr. Hummel distributed
wine checks for grown-ups with both
hands.
Eleanor Robson, Elsie Leslie, Tom Rus
sell, Harry Woodruff and Willie Collyer
performed here as children once he re-
marked. Hey, you folks, | give you the
stars of thirty years hence!'