The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-23
NEW YORK LETTER
FRANKLIN FYLES WRITES OF
 PLAYS IN METROPOLIs.
Annie Russel Failed To Appear as "Pcclo Because Of Inadequafe Equipment--An Actor Imi-
 tates Mir. Bryan,

New York, Sept 2o-- Special )--An nie Russell expected to be in New ] York's theatrical spotlight last Monda, I evening. and all other actresses on view
 to be dim In her shadow; for swee l Annie. gentle Annie. of the nun face 1 who had never so much as switched hel l skirts on the stage. was ready to throw l them off and play Puck in "A Midsum- mer Nights Dream"
 1 Nothing else competed for dramatic
 interest in Broadway. Other disclos. ures were put over till later in the
 week. Not seat Tn the new theatre named after the Astors had been buy
 able within a fortnight. The perform l ance had been timed for o'clock 1 promptly, but half an hour later a man I with the scared face of an apologist
 came before the curtain. Had Annie been unable, after all, to screw her courage to the stripping point? No. There was pump lacking in the outfit l of the stage, and the Fire Commissioner insisted that the audience be dismissed It was too late for the turned -out people to shift to any of the many full length plays that were under way in the vicinity. But the front of vaudeville theatre on the next block was placarded
 1'The Futurity Winner" which looked sporty to the rounders, and one or two
 hundred went in to see a horserace
 drama that was small in duration but
 big in realism.
 Why does nobody ever write turf
 play without crooked jockey imperil- ling a race and straight jockey sav-
 ing 1t? Perhaps it would be futile. What other plot would give interest to
 the action? Certainly, Edward fDay hadn't tried to put any other motive Into The Futurity Winner" But he had made an Ibsenish experiment which was a bold risk to take in vaudeville. Two jockeys are the important char acters. One has been ruled off the course for foul riding. but the stew ards have forgiven him, and he Is striving hard to get mount. The other has been fair, but now he yields to a rich bribe. and agrees that the horse able to win shall lose
 All of which is natural and human, but the audience is puzzled to pick the hero or the villain, and when the two jockeys have a desperate fight to de- eide which shall ride the horse. the applause and hissing defy harmoni- ous apportionment. The upshot Is, to the pretty Kentucky girl who owns the racer. and would be ruined in fort une if he were to be beaten.
 The great hurrah over "The Futurity Winner gained by paying Neil Bur gess $1o5 a week, not as an actor. but as an inventor. He is the same Nell Burgess who began as a negro min strel. changed to the humor of Yankee old maids, and patented the treadmill as a means of making a horse trot without moving out of the audiences sight. It was no more Abagall Prue than her mare Cold Molasses that brought a fortune to Burgess in '"The County Fair" Subsequently he lost all his money in The Year One" a play of ancient Rome with a chariot race for spectacular excitement. He p1ann ed an all alive copy of Gerome's famous painting, with two four-horse teams dashing madly head on towards the spectators. The horses had been trained to run on the treadmills. but when the curtain went up. and the beasts found themselves facing a row