Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-02-27

New York City, to the Iowa man.
is Il profound study. When l was here
two years ago, my letters to the T.-R
concerned the city government. The
facts as l have found them We're as
much a surprise to those who read my
| letters as they We're to me. Since then
Iowa people have grown more familiar
| with the situation, and it no longer as
| tonishes we'll Informed man to be
told that this is one of the best regu-
lated, best governed communities in the
world; that the principles of paternal-
ism prevail as in no other city in
America. 1t is but one short step to
municipal ownership, and l predict it
will come before long, sooner, in its en-
tirety, than in Chicago, for the reason
that the rank and file here are more
intelligent, more law abiding.
They will have municipal ownership
here not because they are socialists,
but because it is the only proper way
to conduct the affairs of a great city.
| Street car fare in New York City is
cents. You can't buy eight tickets
| for % cents, nor six. You can't buy a
ticket at all. Every time you board a
street car you must give up nickel.
Just think of it. Four million people
dropping nickels. Every hour, every
minute, every second, into the hands
of the men who have appropriated to
| themselves all the avenues and streets
of the city.
| When one sees the crowds in Broad
way at night, he wonders who they
are. what they are. where the go, what
they do. Every night it is just the
same. From II p. m. to 1880 p. M. he
can see $4,000 people in Broadway be-
tween my hostelry-Fifth avenue no.
leland Fortyfifth street. He Won
ders when they retire, when they get
up. and how they do their work, and
how they get all the money that such
life requires. When Sunday comes
they have all disappeared, street cars
run empty or nearly so, streets are as
quiet as a country lane, hotel Hobbies
are no longer thronged, the bars are all
shut down, stores all closed. If one
wants to find an open Sunday town he
mustn't come to New York City.
And yet the men and women one
sees are just like the people you and
know. They are better dressed, and
carry with them that easy, unconscious
city air, that the man from the country
can only acquire by association. The
men are not sharpers but nice, clean
looking gentlemen, who look as If they
mean to be honest and do right. The
women do not show late hours, they
are pictures of health, with most beau
tiful compilations and While they go
freely without escort and appear to be
perfectly able to take care of them
selves, they are not mannish, not
bold.
So the notion that such life, such
whirl, means debauchery, and must
produce a bad moral atmosphere, has
to give way in face of the fact that it
don't Statistics bear this out. New
York City contains more people than
the state of Iowa; Iowa has three times
as many divorces as New York City.
Will some one explain this? One ex-
planation is that a very much larger
percentage of the people are not mar
red Whether this is sufficient ex-
PLANTATION 1 can not say. But it is true
that the criminal population is very,
very small per cent of the whole. Grim
inals belong to the two extremes, the
under world and the very rich; the
principal difference being that Offend
ers in one class go to the penitentiary;
and in the other they don't
There doesn't seem to be such a
prodigal spending of money as there
was when I was last here. The hotels
are not doing much. AT Washington
was told all hotels were full, that
would have to engage room in adj
vance, that Grover Cleveland was
turned away from several hotels. l
am inclined to think it was not be-
cause the hotels were full-Grover eats
with his knife. The theaters are not
well patronized, and especially are the
expensive seats not taken.
Thursday twenty-five out of TWEEN
ty-six boxes We're empty, and the first
balcony showed two-thirds of the seats
unsold 1t is true the play does not
deserve much, but the star, Ethel Bar
rymore, is a popular favorite, and the
piece is considered a success. But all
the theaters, except possibly those
running the lower order of plays are
playing nightly to small houses. Mrs.
Carter in "Du Barry is playing to
pretty good houses. DuBarry is
nasty page from the nastiest period of
French history, but then Mrs. Garter
would not be at home in any other
kind of a production. The Girl of the
Golden West" strange to say, draws
good houses. In the west the play
would be in luck not TO be interrupted.
1t is coarse, vulgar, and unreal. The
author has about as true a conception
of a mining camp as he has of heaven.
When 1 say vulgar" 1 do not mean
nasty or obscene: l mean coarse, UNI
couth Blanche Bates is the star. in
fact they are all stars in all the pieces
now running. Mores the pity.
The idea of Ethel Barrymore wasting
her superb talents in a light, trifiing
farce like "Alice Sit by the Fire" is
pitiful.
David Warfield in the Emusic Mas
ter" is a great success but then, War
field can make anything interesting. He
is certainly charming in the role of the
old musical professor. tender, refined,
pathetic, living in poverty in America.
searching for the woman who aband-
oned him in Lepsic taking with her
their baby At the end of the old mans
wanderings he finds, not the wife, but
the baby-a woman.
"rhe Bonnie Briar Bush from Ian
McClaren, at Proctor's, is we'll present.
ed, and is a charming thing.
Peter Pam is very light, but very
pretty. Maude Adams has made of it
a success. 1t is beautifully mounted.
Excepting "Peter Pan" and "The Girl
1T 1o