The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-24
sons Attractions at Coney Island
BY FRANKLIN FYLEs.

New York. June 22-The name OF
Coney Island is a synonym for summer
amusement, and Coney Island itself is
open for the season-very wide open
so spread out and SO thick that 1t is
the worlds biggest theatrical show
place that is, or ever was 1t is there
that "San Francisco" is presented this
week as a drama that fills an hour
time and an acres space remarkably.
It employs not the advertised 500 men,
women and children, but fully half that
number, to people the scenes Of earth
quake and confiagration. There are
such preliminary allegories as an In
dian and a Spaniard in a combat sym
bolic Of the exploration Of California; q
caravan of pioneers defending them
selves against aborigines to show civil
lizatiOn's invasion; and a gold mining
camp of Forty-niners with lynchmg
to illustrate the elimination Of the bad
from the good among the fortune seek
ers.
For the tragic portion Of this spec
tacular drama the portion which un-
6ertakes to picture the destruction OF
San Francisco, a block in Market street
is reproduced so sizeabiy as to give an
illustration of reality. It is the after
noon Of a busy day, with San Francis
cans thronging the sidewalk, horses
drawn and rnotored, vehicles rafting
over the pavement and all the sem
blances of commercial traffic. Night
falls and there are some rapid incl
dents of a comic nature with much OF
distinct Characterization Henry Lee,
once a legitimately aspiring actor, but
Of late years a less ambitious, but
more money-making impersonatOr OF
celebrities in vaudeville, makes up for
half q dozen individuals. He is part
ner in the business and the stage d.
rector; so he takes that way OF being
in the midst Of the action for the break
ing-in week.
The light changes to the gray Of early
dawn md then comes the earthquake
Buildings shake and sway, some losing
sections of their walls and others tum-
bling down. The noises begin with
mysterious murmur, the cracking ana
crashing of houses follow, and the peo-
pie run into the streets with cries OF
terror. Next, flames break out here
and there, and there are brave rescues-
wagons are hastily loaded and driven
away A fire engine arrives, and hose
is laid. but the water gives out Rob-
bers get to work, and are shot by
squad of cavalry. The c0nfiagration
spreads, the tumult increases, a sur
| prising number Of episodes are SHOWN
rapidly. and the curtain falls on a
great show-which doubtless seems
small and insignificant TO persons who
saw the catastrophe.
The annual Pain pyrOtechnic show IS
| called this time The Eruption OF We
| suvh1s,' and as you may imagine, the
/ fireworks are made to boom and burst
/ from the volcano crater with tremen-
dous resplendence. The flow Of molten
/ lava down the mountain side, too, is a
/ fiery part of the spectacle. Florence is
/ in the foreground. Of course, and the
| festivities of an Italian holiday precede
/ the volcanic phenomena, which reach
a climax in colossal pinwheels and
/ ma gnificent skyrOekets. The ballet 1ea-
| ture of the entertainment, however, are
/ less pretentiOus than they used to be
/ Two winters of the hiDpOdrOme in
! town, with its populOus extravaganZas
/ big circuSes and elaborate spectacles
have discoura ged competition. and the
! hippOdrOne seems also to run Itself
! out of breath at the amazing pace
which it struck. AS you may have read
/ the originating firm Of Thompson &
/ Dundy have gone out of il to devote
! themselves to summer projects, leaving
the owning company in possession The
! inside facts are that the great receipts
/ nave been so nearly balanced by the
/ great expenses that the profits are tri-
/ fling by contrast with the capital a
risk. The future Of the hippCdromc
/ is uncertain. except that no more SD
| per-gorgeous productions will be made
in it.
Coney Island big shows cannot an(
need not be so fine as they are force
full. This week brings a wild West
/ Pawnee Bills. not OF Buffalo Bills size
I nd ffrI II
Indians cowboys and soldiers. Three
thousand spectators may, and when th'
weather - pleasant often do, pay {
quarter of a dollar to a dollar and Z
half for seats under a roof to look gu
On an open field where everything tina
was done in the original entertain
ment is dupliCated-three times day
Indians dance, brOnchOs buck, marks
men shoot. cowboys lasso, rough rider.
ride and stage coach robbers rob in tn,
familiar ways. The dramatic episodes
are the Mountain Meadow and the Gus
ter massacres-
Strange how habits in show goint
become fixed. It was nigh on to twent.
years ago that William T. Cody, wh'
, had tried in vain to cash up the fam
, which Ned Buntline had given him II
the Buffalo Bill dime novels, was pu
into success by Nate Salisbury, VIII
had got ahead of the theatrical gam
by inventing musical farce with Nelli
McHenry and Salisbury's, and it en-
abled him to die wealthy. Buffalo Bill
pockets had holes at their bottoms
} and the money slipped through, so tina
, the show bearing his name is nov
owned by the Barnum- Baiey-Fore
paugh-Ringling concern
The mayor has prohibited one Of tn
, Coney. Island protests and the projecto
, holds to the opinion that the official !
too narrow-minded and small-souled t
, be the chief magistrate of a cosmo
2 politan city.
II wish a permit to set up at Cone
Island" sail Snowman TO the may
or's license clerk, 1.-The famous ten
! that sara Bernhard used on her tOul
I propose to devote it to the populari
cation of French dramatic art. Ad
mission will be only a nickel and III
t performance win be in the lire OF par
I al