The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-12

band the great stage doors OF a Wild West
concession open, and out upon the esplanade
that rims the Luna Park lagoon rides BE-
dately The Girl In the Red Shirt. Crowding
at her bronco's heels there passes before
you, the little cavalcade OF ~cowpunchers
and train robbers, led by bad but handsome
Jim Dalton, and next comes tumbling
along in joyous ~irregularity a picturesque
troop of stageland ranch folk.
Bringing up the rear are the elephants,
Alice and Judy, who plod by ponderously
their gold and red howdahs and trap
lpings to the music OF the band. But II you
are a sulphite and artistic your eye Is follow
ing only The Girl in the Red Shirt.
Perhaps you have come to Coney Island
quite prepared, like thousands Of others,
to take the bizarre costumes and the I'M
usual as a matter Of course. Here Is the
Land of Surprise, you say, in which brains,
money and art-there Is art here, too
have combined to make the unexpected so
farspread that even the extraordinary
becomes the commonplace.
Still, as your eye follows Red Shirt
ctrcling the lagoon while she sits her bronco
as IL horse and rider were all one splendid
machine, you are compelled to admit
that you had not quite expected this. When
you have heard her little story, which will
be told in it's proper place, you will doubt
less realize that after all you do not know
your Coney, and that not until you start to
dig, IL only a little way, toward the heart
Of things down on the island do you begin to
uncover the real surprises hat even a press
agent cannot embellish.
This is a story Of the human side Of the
L. nlooe,ra Ground litfla 0lipfa m the
lives Of a few Of the men and women who
help to make Coney Island the greatest
show on earth. II you are one of the casual
visitors who leave there with only a blurred
recollection OF whirling machines, flags and
p~ennants whipping the night sky, crashing
bands, geishas, minarets, droning organs
and a glitter, blare and racket, you doubt
less share the general impression that the
show people are automatons who get out
Of bed at noon, start the wheels going for a
consideration, stop them at some unearthly
hour and go back to bed. During the
winter they-well, you don't know what
they do during the winter; but probably
they hibernate, like the bears Of the animal
shows.
4 Now consider, for instance, that boyish
looking young person standing over near
q frankfurter booth, who, to judge from
his turned up trousers and pancake hat,
might be a Yale undergraduate who has
just taken a run down from New Haven.
During the last four years he has accom-
pEshed more things in the show business
than even Parnum attempted in a long
lifetime, and to-day this young man Of
"a is still building so many castles in the
air that he would probably be locked in an
asylum II he had not proved his ability to
finish OF his air castles Of the past by
putting solid foundations under them.
Over in the END of the World show In
Dreamland another youth named Joe
Tracy entertains you all day in the amuse-
ment park, but at midnight hurries to his
room In a Surf avenue hotel to burn the
daybreak oil while laboring to perfect his
inventions.
Tracy's people sent him to Boston College
with the hope that he would become a
clergyman. The nearest he came to this
was when he ran away to be an actor and
succeeded Daniel Su)ly in the title part Of
sThe Parish PRIEST Now he plays the
Devil all day in the Dreamland show and
ut present Is devoting the greater part OF
the night to trying to perfect his latest
idea; a bottle that cannot be refilled.
Il thought / had it ONCE he says, with q
mournful smile It'll learned by experiment
that my bottle in its present shape can be
reflled In a vacuum. I'll hit 1t yet and
make a bunch of money
Nellie Wallace, a pretty English singer,
whose part in another Coney show is largely
.one Of thought, came to America a few
months ago to sing. Shortly after she reached
the west coast she lost her job and all her
belongings In the earthquake.
A few weeks later she managed to reach
New York and started to walk from Twenty
third street all the way down to the British
Consulate to eek assistance. Almost starry
ing she tainted at Fourteenth street.
A charitable worker named Mrs. Freeze
who happened by at the time made her
way through the crowd that surrounded
Miss Wallace and took her to the Freeze
home at 20 Horatio street and nursed her
back to health. Then, when Miss Wallace
was able to seek work, the only place offered
her by the theatrical men was the one she
now has at Coney Island, and, quite sensibly,
she took II.
One graduate OF the University OF Bonn
who suffers from periodical attacks OF the
vanderlust struck the resort this summer
financially warped. Now he Is doing odd
Jobs down there while not acting as inter-
prefer for the drove Of European performers
connected with the various shows.
At the top Of the Luna chutes q Brooklyn
lawyer keeps the crowd in line simply
,becanse his physician told him be, must
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