The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-09-23

Old Mr.. AIDE went to New York not
long ago, his first visit there in sixty
three years. His first view of the me-
tropolis of our country was obtained
when he was a boy of 10; it failed to
make a very deep impression on him
then. No more did it when a few
days ago, at the age of 76, he rode up
Broadway for the second time i'm his
life. When he got back to Kentland,
Ind, 900 souls-his son George asked
him if he observed many changes m
New York since his first visit.
81 noticed they'd put up the tlatiron
building" replied the old gentleman.
He did not smile as he spoke. HIS
tone and expression might, however,
have been described as dry.
His son ventured question as to
what he thought of the city
Il thought" he said unsmilingly that
I'd be lucky if l got out alive"
1t will be gathered that MIR. AIDE Sr.
is something of a comedian on his own
account.
In some photographed notes
George AIDE prepared for magazine
about the time the first series of Pa
bles in Slang was beginning to make
him a national character he recorded
the fact that in 1852 his father estab-
lished at Morocco, Ind, an institution
which he named "the Bank of North
America" Fifteen years ago Morocco
had population of 1897. What it was
in 1852 may be inferred; it also was
fifty miles from a railroad. and an In
diana horse trader, who had made some
deals in Lafayette and had some notes
to cash, hunted four days for it. HaV-
ing recorded the name of the bank,
George AIDE appended one of the best
lines he ever wrote in a play or out.
1t was: IF I have any sense Of humor
it is inherited"
Last Tuesday evening, when the au-
| dience at the Studebaker was repeating
after the third act of THE College
| Widow" the almost delirious demon
stration of enthusiasm that had mark
ed the opening night, the playwright,
who sat on a stair rail i'm the rear Of
the house, was asked what his father
thought of this dramatic proposition
and all the fame and profit that has ac-
| companied it. The bankers son gave
| one of those curious twisted grins of
his, shifted himself along the stair rail
| and said:
He thinks I'm burglar"
Then he told a story about that
favorite son of the West Side, Lefty
Fitzgerald known on the American
! stage as Eddie Boy"
"Whcn Eddie" he said, "was in the
! dawn of his extravaganza popularity
with David Henderson at the Chicago
| Opera House he asked his mother to
come to see him act, adding that he
was earning $500 a week and she ought
to learn how it was done. The mother
sat through the performance one even
ing, and if as such as the ghost of q
| smile appeared on her face during Ed
| dies share i'm the show it wasn't con-
| spicuous enough to make its way from
the seat in the front row to Eddie on
| the stage. After the performance he
met her and said well, mother, what
I do you thing of my work?"
"She dropped her voice to a half
whisper Eddie, you get $500 a week for
| doing that?"
That's what l get
We'll, Eddie, you fool 'em as long
as you can
81 think the family feels something
! the same way about my plays.
| Sometimes my mother Games across
interviews with me in the papers.
! Usually the ones she sees begin: g
met Mr. AIDE in the cafe of the Holland
House as he was slipping a Sultan of
! Sulu" cocktail Then she worries
Father thinks my play royalties are
the fruits of larceny; mother wonders
if I'm taking to drink; meanwhile l am
on my farm a few miles from the old
home going to bed at o'clock and get
ting up at in the morning to dictate
new work to a stenographef and revise
! what he has put into shape"
George AIDE did not flash across the
vision of Chicago; he wormed his way
into its affections with his gentle, UNI
obtrusive drOllery. In June 1890 he came
| here from Lafayette, Ind, He was then
"A years old and did not look it. He
had entered Purdue University in 1883
and graduated in 1887. The three years
! intervening between 1887 and the be-
| ginning of his Chicago career were
spent in reporting on a Lafayette paper