Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-16
EASTERN PLAYGROUND OF THE THESPANS
Something About "seonst the Actors
ls Something Every Mlnute'
From, the Kansas Nv Star

When you have travelled on foot, by
carriage. in the train, on a boat and
then again in a stege you come to
| Sconset. And Il is worth while. IL Is
worth while even II you do not live in
land; and IL you live far, far from the
ozone and from the wonderful deep
blue II is doubly worth your while. It
is only three hours sail and I'm that
time you have been out of sight of land
and you have opened the door of your
lungs and your chest rooms have ex-
panded until you feel you might take
wings and tie a string to yourself so as
to get back some time-just swinging
out into the glorious blue of air and
wave. Finally you sight a pretty cove,
then quaint harbor with boats and
buoys and peaked roofs and things and
you have arrived on Nantucket island,
where, as you will drive through, you
note the narrow streets and the old,
old houses. Every door has its knocker
and knobs and door plates of shining
brass or silver and all the windows
have little panes, and nearly every
house has roof balcony. Here the
wives and little boys and tiny girls may
watch for the return of a father whaler.
From these roof balconies they call to
each other of a summer evening aud
watch the play Of the people on the
beach AS a sort cf guardian over ell
The old windmill, built over a hundred
years ago, rises oil the highest hlI.
Just from the birdseye view 'Sconset
doesn't create any excitement; hardly
interest. 1t is made UP en- tirely of the
gray shingled fshermen's huts and the
town pump. But when you've gone into
those "huts" and when you know
'Sconset and its people and have
breathed its blessed air of heaven how
rich in interest it is!e
When you come close to the first hut
you see something queer over the door
and are Informed that IL is the iawbone
of whale, and you discern that the
name Of the hut is "Snugcote." A few
steps farther and you come to another
hut; this is Castle Bandbo." A third
has Russian or Hungarian name, you
imagine at first and the pronouncing of
1t is jumped at, hit or miss, by several
knowing persons and it is spelled
"Takitezie." After 1t has been called
a-kit-ezie." "Tak-ite-sie" and few
company that 1t is simply another SPELL
ing for 'Take-it-easy.' The oldest
house comes next. It has a sign, "Auld
Lang Syne," on the door.
The lines are narrow in 'Sconset and
you walk them In the evening when on
discovery bent. You pass the Cap
tains Gig" and the House of Lords,
1776," and Columbia" Rosemary"
the Double Decker" a tiny cottage
called "Thimblewold" and up toward
Sankety light to "Sankety Lodge" This
is where Alice Fisher lives, the woman
with the laugh, someone says, and from
that moment you begin knowing of the
summer life of long list of celebrities
Who, after the strenuous winters work. !
come for new Inspiration and new
breath to old 'Sconset, where conven-
tions and hats and frilly garments and
work are flung aside.
Even Van Bibber, Bobert billiards
splendid collie, comes bounding toward
you just as If he means to abandon his
stage makeup and be as other dogs on
a friendly footing with the little water
spaniel at your side, whose chief end
and aim is to fetch the sticks you fling
for him into, the surf.
You look up the beach. and you see
a large, wholesome looking woman,
rolled up high, the stra ggling short
hair tied back with a green ribbon.
She is laughing. laugh you Will re-
member, and she has a pair of sharp
blue eyes over beak of a nose looking
at you. She is "the woman with the
laugn. NO mlStaking her. She has a
way with her and an energy indomi-
table. With her are three others; one
is Grace Livingston Furniss, who is
writing a play for Alice Fisher (at
present she is pilng sand in small
heaps and sticking holes into it-per-
haps arranging her scenes). Another is
Isabel Irving. She's a dainty, dainty
blonde, who is getting a rich burn on
the end of her nose. A third Is Percy
who rides a wheel with her
daughter close behind. Her hair is
pasted down and she has freckles from
ear to ear. But really charming way
she has when she says:
"Oh. Alice, I'd hate to have you
angry with me-" at which that lady
looks what she might do under the CTR
GINS; ances-but for an instant-and
then laughs still more merrily.
Away up on the beach you are at
tracted by a green parasol. 1t is stick
ing in the sand it is stretched over the
head; a figure in white, a tall, graceful,
girlish figure. A pale blue ribbon is
tied about her hair and a blue ribbon is
in her sailor blouse She is lying with
her eyes shut and one foot clad in a