Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26

dence. A topic is lost to the bard who in
past decade warbied this plaintive qua
train:
The boy sat in the gallery seat
At the naus.ty buresque show.
He r,i not move. for his pas bald head
Was frs. in the foremost row."
The boy is now undsputed master of the
field The bald-headed man sits back with
his family and gazes at the footlights
across shaggy wilderness of college hair
that has sprung up on his old stamping
ground
Although there is glimpse of spring in
the sky. the season in Washington promises
much to interest before the expanse OF
foliage in our parks shall finally signal
that the curtain is rung down for the sum-
mer. Ethel Barrymore in her new play,
SUNDAY is one of the attractions an
nounced for the near future. Miss Barry
more Is a relief. She is one of the ac-
tresses about whose age there Is no ques-
ton. She is young; obviously and unmls-
takably young There are moments when
her wrists and ankles loosen themselves IN
a manner that suggests almost cub-like i'm
maturity, and yet she is graceful withal,
and charmingly feminine. And she has
temperament: good, honest, hereditary Bar
rymore temperament
This constant discussion of ages has
aroused Lillian Russell, and she is out tell
ing stage secrets.
Prima donnas are not noted for patience,
nor professional beauties distinguished by
forbearance. Miss Russell is tired of hay
ing her age talked about, and since she has
1x-l,in b
Richard Brinsley Sheridan figures as the
passive and unconscious collaboration with
John Kendrick Bangs, she has begun to
sit up and take notice. She scans the
horizon and bids the faithful press agent
record her protest and, having marked it
mot duplicated" to speed it broadcast into
the sanctum of the bucolic dramatic editor
Among other stars she notes Viola Allen,
who still disports herself with the coy
graces of her Shakespearean namesake in
'"The Winters Tale" Viola Allen, she de-
clares, is one of her earliest recollections.
And Annie Russell. demure. gentle Annie.
whose juvenile simplicity permits her to
take off her shoes and stockings and wade
barefoot in our sentimental tears-huh!
One can almost hear Miss Russelrs scornful
exclamation as she says: Annie Russell
and l made our debut on the very same
night" On the eventful evening to which
she refers. Annie Russell played Esmeralda
and Lillian Russell appeared in THE Snake
Charmer." 1t was a gala season for the
Russells.
But all this protest is superabundant.
Miss Russell is to this generation of ado
lescence she was to the last, the paragon
OF pulchritude. There Is no need for her
to confess that she drinks weak tea and
takes long walks in order to preserve her
figure, or that she uses cold cream for the
complexion. Whether in grand opera or in
burlesque, whether fat or thin, whether
married or divorced, she Is still our airy,
fairy Lillian.
Fortunate 1t Is that this twentieth century
Spartan, DR.. Osler, who, venture to pre-
dict, will get his just punishment by being
put into a musical comedy before another
season has passed managed to restrain him
self in his sweeping denunciation of old
age, and with true Baltimorean chivalry,
to omit the ladies. Had he dared to in
sinuate that feminine usefulness ceases at
forty he must have been mobbed by stall
wart soubrettes and portly prima donnas.
The stage would be in sorry way If this
Osler theory were accepted. Imagine Kyrle
Bellew. Sir Henry Irving, Sir Charles
WyEdham and dozens of others whose
great mission in art is to teach the younger
actors of the day how to seem youthful. be-
ing loaded up in a tumbril and amid the
walls of myriad matinee girls carted off to
the gas house!
X X X
There is little in review of the past to
call for real regret. The theater that has
departed is obsolete, and the specimens of
its work that are brought forward from
time to time, however grateful they may be
to the student need all the artifice that the
modern stage can command in order to
make them acceptable to the general pub
lie. to whom the drama of today is frankly
and consistently devoted Even Lady
TeaZle' must faunt her plumes to the
strains of musical comedy like a "Floro-
dora" girl. AS to the future 1t will take
care of itself, as 1t has had way of doing
ever since Adam took Cain and Abel to see
the menagerie.
PHILANDER JOHNSON.