The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-25

White way.
~HB old Metropole, at Broadway
(CD and Forty-second street, the last
of the famous places where con-
gregated much of the theatrical and the
sporting life of New York, will soon be
no more. With 1t will pass the nearest
approach which Manhattan has had to the
cafes that made Paris known the world
around. Late yesterday afternoon this
place was consigned by its owners to pro-
sale business. 1t has been leased to
commercial firm for a period of q years,
with rights of renewal. Six months from
yesterday the stirrup cup will be passed
about to patrons. who scarce will know
where to find another rendezvous SO gen.
eral and congenial.
For the Metropole was more than
either cafe or hotel. 1t was the recog-
nized exchange where wit met wit and
where prominence In some walk of life
was the only introduction needed. 1t was
open technically, through all the "a hours
of the day, but the lights did not burn
brightly until the humdrum world had
gone its drowsy way.
The Metropole was the third, and
some disconsolately believe the last,
ago, some 20 of them, the Rialto, then
about Fourteenth street, was the center
for actors. politicians and gamblers, but
business drove it out, and reluctantly
this world moved more than half mile
further north, where the racing men al
ready had made their habitat. Captain
BILLY" Corners then had the st. James,
and two short blocks away were the
rooms of the American Jockey club,
where, if stories that run are true, for
tunes greater than ever were risked on
the quarterstretch changed ownership
over the tables. Immediately across the
street from the st. James was then Del
monico's, where ''PhiP' Dwyer, James
r. Keene. John Hunter and Smiling
could nightly be found.
The actors, the baseball folk and the
pugilsts gathered in this neighborhood,
the more wealthy affecting "Dels" and
the st. James, and the others using. with
no less satisfaction, "Nick' Engel's, as
their general place of assemblage But
again business edged them outward and
onward and far up the White Way they
went, making their stand at the Metro
pole, which had been leased by George
and John Considne. And there they have
since remained
Ten years have the Considines managed
the place. There were other places that
could point to some we'll known persons
in the theatrical and the sporting world
as their guests, but none SO many.
Among the persons that could have
been seen nightly in the Metropole when
in New York were Nat Goodwin and
Eddie Foy, the comedians; Barney Pagan,
one of the greatest of all black-face
comedians; Maggie Cline, the Irish queen;
and Annie Hart, her ever friendly rival;
Mike Donlin, who never raced to club
house without touching every base; Mabel
Hite, Mikes wife; Sam Bernard and Ed
mund Breese, George Conan and De Wolf
Hopper.
In the racing room there could be
found James w. Wadsworth. chairman Of
the state racing commission; Andrew
Miller a steward of the Jockey club E.
E. Smathers and C. K. G. Billings, rivals
as amateur reinsmen; George Rose, big
gest of all bookmakers J. L. Holland. the
vice president of the Los Angeles Racing
association: William A. Pinkerton of Chi