The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-15
Shares in Companies Sold BY
CurbstOne Brokers.
SOME OF THE SHOWS.
The Fatal Wedding and Fighting
the Flames.
Your Photograph and a 40 Horse
Power Auto.

The Coney Island show business has
gone wild. Wall street has taken it up
to gamble on. Shares in its companies
are not listed yet at the stock exchange.
but they are dealt in by the curbstone
brokers New schemes for next wear
are being financed already. This is a
speculative bubble that, though tiny in
contrast with the copper imitation, will
burst in its smaller way and hurt fewer
persons quite as badly. AS yet, all kinds
of New Workers and tourists flock there.
The rich and fashionable go in private
motor cars, the middling well-to-do in
public automobiles and limited railway
trains, and the multitude in ordinary
cars and steamboats,.
The drama of dignity has no proud
pose at Coney Island, although actors
from the legitimate stage are at the
three topgrade vaudeville theaters. I
met a veteran player one who in his
day had been first assistant to Nc
Kean Buchanan, the tragedian and
said, Are you working?" as the usual
question goes in stageland.
Am I working?" he responded, in a
hoarse whisper; "oh, yes, 1 am work
ing" Then he Strengthened himself up,
looked right through me to the passing
throng and acclaimed in his old-time
tragic voice: walk in, ladies and gen.
tlemen-walk in. Lead the children in
carry the babies in. Your picture in an
automobile for a dime. An Alf Van
derbilt cap-a Jake Astor coat-a Howy
Gould pair of goggles-a forty-horse
power car-and you in 'em for only ten
cents. Enter-enter all!''
1 entered. 1t was one of the many
tintype shops which, this season, have
imitation automobiles for customers to
sit in. If limited spender can't afford
to make the trip by motor, he may at
least get picture showing how he
would look if he did it. The operator
touched off his camera at me and dis
appeared with the plate-holder. A good
looking matron, stately yet gracious,
brought it back to show. I gazed at
her instead. l wasn't mistaken. Long
ago I had seen her play the Queen to
Buchanan'S Hamlet.
| These are uncOmmonly good like
nesses." she said looking from my face
to the plate, on which not one, but four
visages appeared. Twill these four be
enough?'
Enough Great goodness Four too
many. That was my mental response
as I saw the dreadful tintypes. What
said was that I thought I could get
along with those four. She seemed a
trif1e surprised by my meanness, but
retired with the plate. It was a pretty
girl. evidently her daughter, who soon
brought in the developed pictures.
you'll want them polished" she
didn't ask but sweetly asserted, when
I gazed into her demure eyes, not OBJ
| jecting to the extra charge of 40 cents
for 1 am absolutely reckless with
money when 1 go to Coney Island
but keenly interested in this new trick
that the soubrette of the family was
playing. 1.-THE picture will rub off if ii
| isn't polished" she argued, in a voice
of coo and a glance of goo, as she
touched a corner with a dainty fore
finger, making a spot. And 'twould
be a pity, sir, wouldn't it, if the face
got a blur like that?"
What was the use? She had me. ]
was baldheaded in the front row and
she was the footlight fascinator. So
went out with the 10 cent tintype that
cost 80 and told the old time tragedian
that surely his was an acting family.
| Many of the shows, even the big
ones, pay the barker more than any
other employee. A comedian is fire.
quently hired for the role of the per-
| suader. Some of these actors wig,
whisker, and paint themselves and
speak in the dialect of the character
assumed. The barker for Fighting the
flames is made up in close imitation OF
our Fire Chief Croker, and shouts
through a trumpet as though giving
orders. The Fall of Port Arthur has a
sailor who bitches UP his trousers
pulls at his forelock, and talks nau-
tically. A man guised like a clergy
man exhorts in front Of Creation. The
spokesman for Hellgate Whirlpool is
a Neptune, whose horn is mega