Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-17
Bores That Tease Weary Smiles and
Reluctant Quarters.
CAKE-WALK CHILD WONDER
Emaciated, Spoiled and Fresh-Also
the "Parsifal Man" and the
Sweet Elocutionist Thing.

Sweet Elocutionist Thing.
A motley lot. these summer resort enter
tainers." The quotation marks are wrapped
around the word for a reason that ought
to convince anybody Some of them-most
Of them-don't entertain at all. In truth
the get-the-n money entertaining" efforts of
q preponderating percentage of them are
calculated to make the flesh weary and the
spirit wabbly.
One evening at a seashore resort which
visited not long ago the guests. men and
women. of of the major hotels were
seated comfortably and conversationally
around the ample main exchange. when a
! huge male. in rather lumpy evening clothes.
with a tremendous beard Of inky hue to
| match his ralment. numbered in by the front
! way. He was followed by a short-skirted
young girl. who looked good deal like
him. and presumably was his daughter.
The young girl carried a roll of music.
None of the guests had ever seen the big,
black bearded man and his girl companion
hands gave those who had been at the
place for a week or so a pretty fair intima-
ton of what was to come of.
The pursy man with the piratical beard
moved heavily to the far end of the ex-
change. while the young girl took her place
at the piano next the wall and struck
chord or two. The man pushed one large
foot out in front of him and attained the
attitude that apparently pleased him.
by request" he said. in a high pitched
voice that had an oddly incongruous sound
proceeding from the throat of man of his
bulk and beardedness. Il will sing Tostis'
and he gave the title of the song.
The young girl at the piano played the
prelude chords and then the large male per-
son sang He wasn't such hopelessly bad
singer either. He had a fair idea of music,
and his high tenor voice had obviously re-
ceived some cultivation. But the song was
very saccharine and sentimental. and 1t
seemed queer to listen to a man weighing
$50 pounds and six feet high, and with
Capt. Kidd beard. doing that sort OF thing
Passes the Salver.
He sang two or three more songs, all Of
the sugary- mawkish variety. and then
walked over to the hotel desk. picked up
bellboy's salver. and passed it around. SHOW
ing 1t under the noses of the guests, men
and women.
There was tinkle OF quarters and occa-
sional half-dollars on the salVer, out every
! body who Clipped in looked sort of cha
gr!ned and i'll at ease, and even disguised.
Il say, how the deuce can he do it?'
growled a man in far corner OF the ex,
change when the black-bearded man and
the young girl had gone. Why I'd rather
chaperon a dray. for a dollar day, any
time, than do what that unabashed lout Is
doing"
And yet the man with the black beard was
simply type of the queer seashore enter
tainer. These so-called entertainers hang
around at the resort I am writing about
from the time Of the Easter crush TIL late
In the autumn, doing their stunts for the
silver backsheeSh that rattles on their
salvers.
They are of all sorts from the little spi-
der-legged and overturned girl of mar
velous freshness-speaking fguratively-
who does the frayed and frazZled cakewalk
with red silk hat and a beribboned cane
to the accompaniment of foolish ragtme
music, generally played by her mother TO
the ungainly, yellow-haired young woman
who in the supposedly Grecian cheesecloth
appareling, does the "Curfew Shall Not
&c and even the sleep-walking scene from
Macbeth." Some of them are just little
less painful than the others, but all of them
are endowed with phenomenal and unjust
able nerve.
The cakewalking little girl is thorn in
the flesh of any normal minded seaside no.
tel guest. But at the place of which l
write there were as many as two dozen Oh
her making the rounds OF the hotei ex-
changes. These dancing young ones all ap-
pear to have danced themselves into state
! of pitiable emaciation that makes them look
as If they had been drawn through knot
holes. and their voices have raucous, Ju-
venile huskiness that falls very disagree
ably upon the ear. hcS oiO rSAJ hahpN
dent too as might naturally be expected.
One evening one of them loudly tangled
the coins under the noses of pair or mid
dle-aged women who were enjoying con-
versation in off corner
Really. my dear child" said one of the
| middle-aged women to the cakewalking
young one. my purse is in my room.
am so sorry 80
the lovabie little creature. You're just
cheap that's all.'' and the matronly woman
who had spoken in a really kindly tone
flushed crimson the fresh Kid passed on,
ra ttling the coins on her salver.
The more or less young women who do
the recting thing In the hotel parlors are
hard enough upon nervous folks VINO, get
down to the beaches, but they are nothing
like so utterly insupportable as the male
persons who go in for this sort Of seaside
hotel elocution.
Doing" Poe's Raven"
One of these latter, tallow- hared young
thing with a quite remarkably curled tiaxen
mustache, was performing his famous I'M
personation" Of the man in Poe's Raven
If was a curious piece of theatrical tommy
rot.
He had the lights of the hotel exchange
darkened, and then he pumped himself into
a deep leathern chair beside taDie OH
which was a reading lamp.
Then. with the light Of the reading lamp
shining on his wholly characteriess, not 10
saw yacuOuS, face, he reclted lIle fNdNeH
with all sorts of wild gestures and i'm
plorations out of his rolling. mild blue eyes,
doing the utmost that he knew to throw
out the impression of a dissipated dvvle
of a fellow.
The effect of his performance was notice
able in one respect at least. Before the
"Nevermore" young chap had got half way
through with his lisping rawlings about
nights Plutonian shore and things, most of
the men in the darkened exchange sneaked
out of a side door and then on down to the
sea front to drink themselves into state
of calmness.
Then there was the mop-haired young
chap who gave the musical reading from
''Parsifar' in the exchanges of evenings.
He sat at the rather tinny piano and talked
raptly of Parsifal and Kundry and Am
fortas to the accompaniment of occasional
lett motif chords which he punched in ID
major.
He quoted long passages from the Par
sifal' book in a brand of German that
sounded suspiciously Hobokenese. Then he
translated the passages into stu more
mystifying, not to say incomprehehSipie,
kind of English whereupon he handed tle
keys another thump or so-"Just to give .ne
house a tone" q brutal Washington man
remarked disgustedly as he did thls-and
then plunged ahead and talked some illoIe
about the alluring temptauousItsa ~