The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-03-24

which prevails among the little ones
| and their guardians. Just how strict
| this discipline is was illustrated that
/ afternoon at the beach. Master
| Johnnie Heintz was doing his best to
| look manly at a time when half a
dozen ladies were petting him and Of
! fering him candy under the arbor. He
W rs about thirty feet away from his
companions and a guardian swooped
down upon him. What do you mean
| by going so far away?" asked his
| mentor. Johnnie kept the hand that
| held the candy behind him and an
/ swered: Please Mr.. Pollard said
i could come over here" Just then he
| did not look like the youngster that
| keeps a crowded house roaring at his
every word.
Many of the Lilliputians of the
troupe are the children of the Lillipu-
tians of the first troupes from twenty
five to thirty years ago. Their parents
are in the other adult troupes man
aged by Mr.. Pollard. The children are
being trained in the profession and
are not picked up in any old way in
any old place. The Heintz twins, for
instance, are from a family that has
had comedians sprouting under Mr.. Pol
lard for fifteen years.
The school that the little ones are
learning in is hard one, but one in
which the graduates will make their
mark if there be any material talent
at all for the teachers to build up on.
Their acting to them is the same to
them as are the games played in the
kindergartens to those children or the
pieces spoken on Friday afternoon
by the pupils of the older classes. The
reheaTsals are the hard lessons. Their
geography is the world They see with
their own eyes what other children
have to learn from maps and textbooks.
Their history is learned while travel
ing from one historic place to another,
learned and in a way not to be forgot
ten. They study elementary astronomy
from the decks of ocean liners; hurri-
canes, typhoons, tides. mountains and
prairies, gulf and island they know of
from experience; grammar is taught
and the difference between dialect and
correct speech as they shift from char
acter to character in their varying
repertoire, while beyond all this they
learn the world by seeing it, people
by meeting them and acting by doing
it. Theirs is a good school, though
hard one
There is one question that Honolu-
lans, who one and all take a great in
terest in these little folks, are asking.
That is, why do they dress the chill
dren as they do? And certainly the
clothes worn by the Lilliputians, when
the tinsel of the stage is off, are not
pretty. Mr.. Pollard says that the girls /
are dressed alike so that one will not
be able to get jealous of another. Stars
and members of the chorus are served
alike with blue material for dresses
and Colonial straw hats. The boys,
among whom the dress rivalry is not
expected evidently, have nondescript
clothing of no particular style and not
particularly neat or becoming. The an
swer to the question is probably a F.,
double one. In the first place the Ltlli- I
putians are boys and girls of about that
age when they don't care and when
they would rather frolic at the ex-
pense of stocking knees and buttons
than keep themselves tidy. and second /
" because the troupe halls from the
Colonies, where, although they have
good theatrical troupes, they certainly
do not know good clothes when they
see them. /