The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-05-21

Al EW YORK. May IA dozen coach
IL ing parties trundle from the theat-
rical center Of the town. every
evening, down Broadway. across to the
Bowery and 50 on through what was
long ago notorious as the Five Points
Of depravity to the Chinese theatre in
narrow, crooked Dover street The
parties number twenty to sixty, and Ehe
coaches are auto cars so wide that the
superintendent Of police has asked foI
an ordinance prohibiting them as OBJ
stacles to traffic. Seeing New York
from the tops of such carry-aIIs has
become a subject Of jest and ditty or
the stage, and is to provide a title for
one of the summer extravaganzas: and
TINS mode OF showing the city to stTan-
gers is now pursued by four rival com
panies. Do you know that New York
mas more visitors for recreation in sum
mer time than any watering place il
America? The daylight trips by these
electric vehicles. each with a conductor
| racing the passengers and talking
through mega phOne are hardly ever
taken by residents. but are left to the
strangers within our gates. who don't
care if away from home. they become
sights themselves while seeing those OF
New York
But the evening triDs TO the Chinese
| theatre are a transitory fad with the
same people who make up our first
night audiences for new plays during
the dramatic season. Within a, fort
night they VIII discover Coney Island
again. and find seaSCrabIe diversion in
the shows there, which viii be bigger
odder and pIentier than the Pike had at
St Louis. But their May quest of the
atrical novelty is in Chinatown. the
very existence Of which they have ig-
nOTed hitherto The Chinese play
house is a shabby makeshift from a
dance hall. where BOwery bhOyS an
gurTelS used to be led in their spelling
by Chuck Corners, who has since gone
on the stage as an impersonatOr OF
himself in the slanguage and slummery
of that quarter. The stage is a plat
form without so much as fUotlights TO
mt IT for dramatic use the auditorium
has baCklesS benches for seats. and the
whole Sheebang would shame any Okla
hoTna town more than one year old.
Yet 7 saw hundreds Of cIean-bodied and
good-clOthed men and women there.
last night, crowded in with as many
yellow fellows. while public and private
automobiles, bTOUghams. Coupes and
hansOms lined the adjacent streets.
Cinnamon devote the evenings of a
week sometimes of a fortnight. to d
single one of their historical plays but
quarter of an hour Of the sdueaky-
weak gibbeTish. with ding gong accom-
paniment. is d sUfiCienCy for the white
folks, and half an hour is d surfeit. So
these faddiSts are very transient Wis
ltorS. ana their noisy coming and going
annoy the regular patrons of the Chi
neSe drama very much. I earned the
nigh esteem of a Chinaman next me by
remaining quietly an hour. He must
nave been a bad ChinamaR in the eyes
Of his Countrymen. for he had become
AmeTicanized TO the disEracefuI ex-
IRENE Of cutting his queue off and not
shaving the front half Of his disIoyaI
head But he was q pleasant chan. and
he tried TO pronounce r in the English
which he spoke. He told me that the
play had been nine evenings working
It's historic way down to the illustriOus
reign Of SH OuCHC: that the individual
With red clothes, green face and purple
hands was that august emperor as en-
bodied by the talleSt and therefore the
best actor in the company. that the one
with thin figure was the most faIset-
20 and for that reason the most famous
male imOersOHatOr Of greens that ever
came out Of farmland. and that the four
men in hideOus masks who carried
swords shaped like snakes and banners
pictured with dragons. were SIi Quong's
daredevil army soaring his enemies to
death The racket Of gongs. drums and
horns was as horrible as the sights. 7
Surmlsed that the assaults on the foes
eyes and cars might be followed with
an onslaught on their noses with Chi
nese StinkDOts. and I withdrew To the
Temple OF COnfuCius across the street.
where there was a beara BILE odor Of
burned joss sticks and religious sane
Uty-