Omaha daily bee., 1905-09-03


and by the end Of the coming
week the theatrical season OF
lSO5-09 will be well under way.
From every city come reports Of theaters
opening and Of companies starting. and
the mall is full OF managerial notifications
as to their immediate intentions, all point
Ing to the busiest season the stage has
known In many years. No trepidation.
owing to the more or less serious disasters
OF the last two seasons, is indicated by the
preparations, and It is plain that the men
who have their money invested in amuse-
ment enterprises are confident of sharing
with others in the general prosperity now
being enjoyed by the country. Omaha is
sure TO share in this activity, the addition
Of the Burwood theater adding Just that
much to the Importance of the city from a
theatrical business standpoint This house
will very likely be ready to open on the
18th instant. The Boyd will begin its regu-
lar winter season on tomorrow night, and a
week from today the Orpheurn will Open
The Krug has been grinding away since
early in August. and Is doing a very salts
factory business. although It has had to
compete with the parks in some decidedly
hot weather. With the coming of cooler
nights the crowds that go to see the melo-
dramas will grow to their old-tine propor-
tions. All the local theaters WERE bright
ened up during the summer vacation, and
were never more attractive in appearance
than now. Manager Relter will have the
box once at the Orpheum open ali this
week, in anticipation Of the opening of the
season next Sunday.
One Of the greatest blessings vouchsafed
to man is his inability to foreses what IL
coming to him. He may imagine certain
Il
future on a speculative basis, but the only
certainty he wots of deals with what has
already transpired and is reckoned as past.
This is why we are continually turning our
eyes from the blank wall just ahead of us
to the easy and oftentimes satisfactory
retrospective vista that leads back along
the highway Of human achievement. The
only regret that can seriously affect this
is that our judgment of the present is
likely to be warped by remembrance OF
what has occurred. Nowhere is this more
manifest than in connection with the stage
So universal has the custom become to
compare present performance with past
achievement that even the most optimistic
and cheerful of the reviewers are tinged
with a spirit of disparagement in their
dealings with the drama and its exponents
Now and then someone undertakes to in.
thing the past had, and places left vacant
are being very acceptably filled; even go.
ing to the occasional extreme Of saying
that in some ways progress has been made
But these ebullitions of hope are quite ap
- ~ met by frowns of scepticism or the
QDsrulous shrug of incredulity and tn,
voice of hope is again silenced.
Every age has had it's genius, and non,
has been utterly devoid of worthy achieve
ment, and as the present is heir to all tht
past, IT is not at all hattering to ourselve
TO admit that we are not doing things a.
well as they used to be done. Along Ger
tain lines of endeavor we may not have &C
complished just what was done before ou
day. In certain directions limit may hav
been reached, but this is by no mean
established. what man has done tina
man may do" is trite saying, but IL i
always applicable, and nowhere does
apply with greater force than 1t does righ
here. 1t is probably true that the presen
age seems more prosaic and matter o
fact than any, but this is very likely be
cause 1t is the one we live in. Researcl
and discovery have done away with
great deal OF the material from which tn
romance of the past was manufactured
hut the progress made has not In the leas
extinguished the desire for further advent
ure latent in the nature of every well con
stituted and normally healthy individual
Men and women are just as prone to go o
quests today as ever, the main differenc