The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-17

Great Artesto at the Grand this week-ex-
plantations that are quite satisfactory to the
persons who vouchsafe them, but which
are hardly acceptable TO those. theater-
goers who have figured out" the puzzle in
their own peculiar way. In fact, every
auditor at the Grand this week has his own
ideas as to how the trick is done, and IL Is
doubtful If there is one correct solution in
a hundred. The little automaton that acts
as orchestra conductor and portrait artist
Is as great a wonder as was Magician
The trick is performed by a Frenchman
who IS not seen at all by the audience. The
pretty French woman who puts the mechan-
ical figure through its exercises has nothing
whatever TO do with the workings of the
dummy" The Grand's programme is a
good one throughout, this week, and amuse-
ment-seekers will make no mistake In
taking il in"
The midgets have much to do with
making the Royal Liliputians' extravagan-
"a. "Guliver's Travels" a success. Two of
them, James L. Rosen and Prince Giovanni,
do a speciality turn. Martha Weis and
Herbert Rice, two other little people, a
up a team of singers. Queen Nab" per-
haps the smallest of them all, shines by
herself as a ~diminutive Patti. She has a
good voice and knows how to use it. She
is twenty-fOur years old, thirty-One inches
high and weighs thirty-three pounds. The
Liliputians have a trophy of which they
think a good deal and which they utilize in
the production. 1t is the carriage which
Tom Thumb used when he was gaining
fame with p. L. Barnum. The carriage is
on the order, and hardly half the size, of
tnose which roll about indianapolis streets;
but 1t is painted in gaudy colors, and
Queen Nab rides in ii in one scene when
she is drawn on the stage by two ponies.
Inc carriage Was purchased from the Bar
ming tomorrow will be King of the De-
tectives."
Sir Henry Irving's engagement in Chi
cago has not been a successful one so far,
owing to the fact that the theater-goers of
the Western metropolis are being made
uncomfortable by some of the safeguards
imposed upon the managers by the Chicago
authorities. At the end of the third act of
Louis XII" at the Illinois Theater the other
night, the English actor was called be-
fore the curtain for a speech. The speech
was plainly a key of disapprobation, and it
startled the audience when it reached this
plea: And / would like il to be thoroughly
understood by you that sometimes much
Injustice may be done by jacks in office,
and L would earnestly beg of you TO exert
all your influence to allay the feeling of
panic which at present exists among the
officials OF your great city"
Francis Wilson now says that he will pos
itively retire from the comic opera stage
at the end of his present season in the big
revival of ''Erminie,' which. by the way,
is to be seen in this city ere long. During
the original production of "Erminie' at
the New York Casino in 1886 Wilson was the
most talked-abOut comedian of the Ameri-
can stage, and now. on its fourth but most
important revival, he is again the subject
of much ommen
= + 7
The latest book-made play, THE Pit" is
drawing large audiences in New York, and
the theater-going public seems to like the
new drama. but the critics are disagreeing.
as critics will, as to it's merits and de-
merits. John COrbin. in reviewing the play
in the New York Times, starts off in this
way: The Pit is pity, and pity It's tbs
true"
William Collier seems to have struck a
winner at last in Richard Harding Davis's
comedy, THE Dictator which has met
with much success i'm Boston. The piece is
a satire on South American revolutions
and some of the lines and situations are
said to be genuinely funny-sOmething ra-
Their unlocked for in Davis.