Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-21

| in His Excellency the Governor; | want want
to write play for you-ose in which you'll
star under my management.
] "A play?' asl-ed Norris. Why MI
\ Hoyt, do you not think I'm too mild for
| a play of your style? Aren't your pieces
| very rough things?"
! WE'LL" drawled Hoyt his Yankee
dialect rising always when he grew
deeply interested, some of them have been
admit; but I've been encouraged fire.
| quently to do something better"
Yes" said Norris. muSingiy: but In
afraid I'm not just your style. You see,
| I'm a light-waisted fellow. without much &C
| tivity. l make my points in refined sort
| of way, before audiences of nice people. L
try to reproduce life-not cartoon it. In
short, I'm an actor; what you want is an
acrobatic song and dance man, judge.
Hoyt by this time was well ruftied. but
he was SINGER with regard to wanting to
write for Norris, and kept his temper down
while he remonstrated
MY dear Mr.. Norris, l did not use song
and dance men in A Texas Steer nor in
"A Texas Steer?' repeated Norris. with
irritating assumption of the air of man
who had dimly heard CT such a play on.
yes, l remember. noisy affair. though;
lot of pistol shooting and yelling and pro-
family, wasn't there? You see. Mr.. Eoyt,
I'm legitimate actor, not "a
Young mani" screamed Hoyt, now mad
clear through.
Mr. Hoyt." replied Norris quietly. Il
want to tell you, in all seriousness | am
fattered by Your appreciation of my work
and by your offer to write play for me-
I hope we shall come to terms, for play
by YOU is almost certain to be the making
of me- as 1t has been of half dozen other
men in the past ten years.
| Then, as Hoyt looked at him blankly,
Norris told him CT their first meeting,
nearly ten years before, when Hoyt had
dismissed him without trial of his abiii-
ties. When he had finished Hoyt looked
rather foolish. admitted that he had been
paid back in good coin, and then proceeded
l A. L. e. r; fria 10 nc
wrote a play for Norris. for he soon after
ward contracted the illness that resulted
fatally in the autumn of 1870. Among MS
scenarios found after his death was one
| there was nothing to indicate whether or
not it had been the play he had under
taken to write for Norris.
A NEW MAYHEM PLAY.-Stella May
hew, whose name appears in big type on the
Academy program this week, is in training
for a rev play next season. Manager Stair
is having the necessary vehicle constructed
for her by Herbert Hall Winslow. Miss
Mayhew has wearied of Aunty Indy, the
"culed lady" in ION the Suwanee River.
a part which. with ton!ght's performance,
she will have played just one thousand five
hundred and thirtythree times in period
of five years.
She says she is crowding Joseph Jefferson
Il
the advantage of her in the matter OF age
| he doesn't play twice day.
Her first appearance on the stage, by the
way, was in the part of Minna, in KIP
Van Wrinkle" Miss Mayhem has a fondneSs
| for fancy chickens, two of which share her
| dressing room. one prize Houdin and the
| other White Leghorn. Another unusual
! dressing-room article is a small punching
| bag which the actress resorts to for eXer-
else. although it is whispered that 1t Is
really to offset a weighty tendency which
good nature and a proneness to laugh are
| known to induce.
BARROws LIKES VAUDEVILLE
James O. Barrows, Jimmie" to his friends.
is well known here in Washington. where
| he has appeared upon the stage in many
| varying roles and capacities 1t is rather
| interesting that Mr.. BarrowS and John Lam
| caster both popular favorites in one of the
| summer stock companies at the Columbia
| Theater in this city, should have formed
| one of the most successful combinations in
J vaudeville. Mr.. Barrows was asked re-
| Gently how he liked vaudeville "Do 1 like
! it?' he repeated: ''if / didn't | wouldn't be
| in it. That's logic, isn't it. L might add
| that | don't have to be in it, only l might
| be considered self-important. The fact is,
| like it, and it is profitable. Perhaps you
| don't get so high In public estimation in
! vaudeville as you do in the more legitimate
| domain. but that is largely a matter of
| opinion. and l say that art is art. whether
| in blue jeans or evening dress. Sometimes
| l think the requirements of vaudeville de-
velop more ability in actor than the
| legitimate stage. To put it so that he who
| runs may understand. / ought to say that
| an actor has got to have more speed in him
| for vaudeville. because practically from his
| first entrance he has to carry his whole au-
dience with him.