Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-26
IMPROVED MANNERS

II think it win have been generally r.
marked" said the manager Of q local thea
ter, what vast Improvement has taken
classes Of theatergoers during the past few
years-during the past ten years. say.
Most Of the old-time nuisances have been
abated. or have abated themselves. think
that credit for this change should unques-
tionably go to the newspapers. The para
graph writers and the jokists were even
tually the death of the man who went out
between the acts for Glove or to see q
man. as the Quips on this subject generally
expressed It. There are stin left plenty Of
men who go out between the acts, and some
of them probably have the same purpose In
view as the nuisances of the gone period.
but they seldom disturb anybody In making
their exits or entrances. They guard
against this by obtaining aisle seats. The
chap Of the former day who went out be-
tween the acts didn't care whether he had
an aisle seat or not. He wasn't in the least
bothered II, in getting out of middle seat
and getting back again. he had to climb
over eight or ten helpless people. tram
and inconveniencing and distressing them
generally. The newspaper got at this In
conSiderate chap a good many years ago.
and 1t took them long time to extirpate
him by the method of ridicule, but they
finally accomplished their purpose. The
men who go out between the acts now take
aisle seats, SO they won't have to bother
anybody in getting in or out. When they
can't get aisle seats they either stay away
from the show. or they take the seat they
can get, and stick in their places through
out the performance. They have too much
consideration for their neighbors in their
row of seats. and perhaps too much fear
OF making themselves disagreeable, to. care
to make the attempt to crawl over folks. If
they do from necessity leave their seats in
the middle Of q bunch at the close of the
that seat for the remainder of the perform
ance and sit down anywhere else, rather
than again disturb the people in the row
in which their seats are located. As q SIM
pie matter Of fact, there are far fewer men in
need of an alcoholic bolus between the acts
OF performances nowadays than in former
years. I have noticed that. Plenty Of men
like to have smoke between curtains, but
the procession Of men to the oar at curtain
fall becomes smaller and smaller as the
years flow on.
Everybody knows, Of course that the
deliberate campaign to force the ladies' to
remove their hats in the theater was In
augurated by the newspapers. and kept up
for good many years before 1t finally sue
ceeded. The younger generation Of theater-
suffered on account Of this hat nuisance
They have become SO accustomed to seeing
the women remove their headgear az soon
rs Lney Jake their SodCS, or, at any rate,
before the first curtain goes up, that they
take the thing wholly as a matter Of
course. and they would be stupefied with
wrath and establishment II they saw all Of
the women in an audience keeping their
hats on their heads. They would not toler-
ate such an imposition in these days for an
instant. doubt If a performance could go
on atthis time IL. by some preconcerted Sc
their hats on at theater and did So There
would be such an uproar that the women
would be compelled to yield before the cur
tain could go up. And yet, only very few
years ago. before the systematic campaign
of ridicule began. no woman In a theater
ever thought Of removing her hat, no mat
ter how gigantic that ornament might have
been, and the people who sat behind the
school children taking calisthenics from the
beginning Of q performance to its end in
order to catch fleeing glimpses Of what
| was transpiring on the stage.
progress of the performance have been al
most obliterated. Presumably. they have
obliterated themselves for they, too, were
held up to ridieule for a long while by the
opera in New York, a chattering box
party, arriving at the entertainment after
merry dinner. starts In to be vivacious
and ehatty at the expense of the folks in
the audience who are trying to extract
their moneys worth of enjoyment from the
performance, but even in little old New
1Ork tnlS IS not tolerated. Inc ChattererS
are promptly Kissed into silence. Such
thing as disturbing box party In a WASH
ington theater is seldom seen nowadays.
"The people who, having seen the per-
insist upon telling everybody in their
neighborhood all about the progress OF the
plot, have also gone into voluntary efface-
ment so to speak. They, too, were ridden
out Of existence on the rail of the news
paper testers. There was time. as folks
by no means middle-aged well remember,
when they were q positive afdiction to
flesh and spirit. They told all hands within
a sweeping radius Of their seats all about
what was going to transpire as the per-
formance progressed. and they told It In
hoarse. raucous, marrow -curdling whisper
that set the nerves Of their involuntary
auditors to tingiing. Only once In q great
while does one Of these old-timers break
out nowadays, and when he-or she-does
politely upon the shoulder by an usher and
requested to subside The same sort Of dis
cipline IL necessarily melted out to the rare
left-overs-of whom there once was vast
ance, in humming all OF the airs in uni
son with the orchestra and the stage
voices. for the obvious purpose Of letting
are perfectly familiar with the score None
of these sporadic hummers last very long
nowadays. They receive the shoulder tap
at q very early stage In their vocal efforts.
"The crying baby nuisance has been alto
gether done away with. It was q genuine
afiiction only matter Of ten years ago or
less, but no chances are taken on out
bursts Of that sort at the modern theater.
The baby is simply barred.
these and other nulsances, then. have
been abolished. largely, II not entirely,
through the efforts Of the newspapers.
'But one nuisance still abides with US,
and it is about time that this one received
the goad. I refer to the chap who starts
to get busy with his getaway long before
the conclusion Of the performance. He is
a positive ache and burden to a great many
theatergoers, and he needs to be held up
to the derision, II not the infamy, that he
deserves.
'"This chap, you see. Is, or thinks he il, a
sort Of prophet He Is also sooner Along
toward the middle of the l.nal act, he sees,
or imagines that he sees, just how the
whole business on the stage fs going to
terminate. As soon as the tangled skein
of the plot begins to unwind he sees the
beginning Of the end and he wants to go
anyway from there. He begins to fidget.
He wants to be among the early ones to
reach the exit. He doesn't want to be tied
up with the departing crowd. He isn't
pressed for time, there isn't thing on
earth that Is calling for his attention else
where, but all the same he wants to get
out, and he Is going to get busy toward
that end just as Internally soon as ever
he can. Some of the finest lines of a drama,