Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-07
Trusty Clarence Gets Out His Little
Hammer Again.
ABOUT MUNICIPAL M0DESTY
Gotham ideas on What Is What In
Stage Apparel-The Subway
'.ssepiivelies," Etc.

stage Apparel-rhe Subway
'.ssspiivelies," Etc.
| -,
Special Correspondenee Of The Star.
NEW YORK. December 9. 1907
To begin with little query. Why in
New York (net that other. place, but
New York, are folks permitted to appear
undressed on sthe stage. when they are
not permitted ito undress on the stage?
The question demands elucidat ton.
Well. them. A. while back one Of the
subaqueous young female persons at the
Hippodrome: decided that she would
spring a new; ftoin' 1t was to be what
is known In vode-veel circles as knock
out. She was. going to make Aphrodite
look like a mammal of the mountains.
She was going to make all mermaids. an
Gent and modern. look like people that
hadn't learned how to swim. She was. in
Hippodrome etank in what appeared to be
her strest:reIothes. going to shed 'em
right .theresn the presence of the audi
j ence. just Ike that. 1t was to be a sort
of Charniion act underneath the water.
Divested Of her ostensible street toys, her
| exfOiiation complete. there She'd be, ship
| mates ingeniously and adorably disman-
| tied, denuded, not to say deSquamated, a
| submerged Lorelai wearing the skin-tight
| kind that reveal neither seams nor fast
enings: living picture haunting the
emerald grottoes of Neptune. while her
moulted street clothes f1oated all unre-
| garded on the surface of the tank water.
Was she not allowed to do it? Yes. she
was not allowed to do it. One A. Com
| -Yr
who dishes out the official morals over
here. heard about the young woman's
| contemplated deep-water deplation. and
he warned the Hippddrome people that
| they and their employees would have to
| be good or he'd become peevish with
| them. Whereupon. with the slapstick OF
| legal prudery waving in front of them,
/ the Hippodrome folks had to announce the
| tagging of their pulchrtudinous young
woman's subaqueous decortication.
VARY well. l have shown, haven't 1,
| that folks are not allowed to undress
/ on the stage? l call the HipIodrome
| tank stage because-weli, because i
can:.@To all intents and purposes. it is
a stage. It's thing for which You pay
| to have a look.
But oh! See "Thais."
But now for that other part of 1.-THE
antilogy of the authorities in allowing
folks to appear on the stage undressed
when they don't permit 'em to undress
on the stage. We shall take, for an ex-
ample, this opera "Thais," recently pro-
duced at the. Manhattan Opera House.
Fine, sensuously- melodous opera, too.
But. Well, the That's in this opera is
| certain lady, a Hebe of Scottish
nativity. Hebe? She makes any ancient
| or modern conception of Hebe seem like
that installmen mt house oil painting entitled
| I'm Grandmama Now" The lady gives
you a wholly new hunch as to the
meaning Of the word curves" The
of the gyroscope look like things
lateral, longitudinal, lank and lapidescent.
| Well, when even the womenfolk rave and
ramp about the lady's figger. you may
know. Indeed. you may. But you will
never know completely and satisfying I'M
| til you see That's.
For, you see, in that piece. the dis
liability, so to speak. Of the leading lady is
| just-er-just-well. when you see That's
you certainly will be surprised. vas m.
/ e1ingislf and how revealisf. as It were,
are the garments worn by Miss That's.
| Why, even the vitrified old FOUNDERS
gasped. Some elderly women led their
| reluctant, protesting husbands out; not
exactly by the ear. but ont, certainly out.
Plenty of sedate folks in the audience
| however, there is no need to go on. The
point. we take it, has been made: That
| II },
could easily explore equatorial Zambesi-
| land from one end to the other without
ever becoming bit warm. Shed be
draped for that climatic zone just per-
| fectly.
Again. and less engaging. There's a
large basso person here whose main
clutch as a deep-noter is his per-
Torrance of Boito's "Mefistofele." In one
of the acts of this grfsly opera it's the
| mercifulest dispensation Imaginable that
| ho &c
| the Russian basso. in that act. seems to
be most appropriately arrayed for the
| sort of climate which Mephistopheles Is
| required, In general. to endure. One saw
| modest persons hiding behind their pro-
! grams when that act was on. If any
| male person, basso or upper register
| squeaker, were to appear at a vaudeville
house in such Zuluesque rig Tor absence
of rig) ned be pinched. and, mayhap,
catapulted over yonder to the island.
It's diverting. If futile, to point out
these New Yorkish inconsistencies. There's
never any answer. They just do these
| things IN New York, that's all.
Press Agent Success.
Adversion above the That's lady's Scot
fish nativity reminds me that there's
| Scotsman playing in vaudeville over here.
He's the rave and the rage. He gets the
highest salary dished out in all the domain
| of vaudeville-some $500 per lunar week.
with no deduction. am authoritatvely
| informed, for milk tickets, tin-tags, rain
checks OF stage kale.
He, who oppsars in kills and things, Is
the unfunnfest human being on the face
| of the, civilized globe.
| And yet, because he's been plugged and
doomed as the shrek of the epoch. those
Moo Yawkers dig up as high as five the
seat at variety or vaudeville theater.
and when he comes on they just lean
back and laugh and laugh and laugh
His killed performance would cause one
of those Easter Island lava statues over
at the National Museum to wear burrows
and rivulets below its eyes from sheer
violent excess Of lachryrhose cascading.
And yet the Moo Yawkers just laugh
and laugh and laugh at the Scotsman's
dull, clownish antics.
That's all.
Sociological Note: study of the cur
rent New York modes in murders denotes
that it is no longer fashionable for wives
to kill their husbands. 1t is now onray-
gle and bokcop AWAIT for New York hus-
bands to slaughter their wives. Still, it is
not well to De too ultra and things as to
this. In some sets, even in New York to
kill your wife is still esteemed an inferior
form of wit.
The Passion Play has come to town in
the form of motion pictures of the some-