Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-20

the reason and learn that 1t is being con-
verted into an extension of the Army and
Navy club. whose main building is on
Forty-third street.
Around the -HippodrOme.
Crossing Sixth avenue, one comes to
the block of ~Forty-fourth street which,
until a few years ago., was a block almost
entirely of stables, beginning with the
big stables of the Sixth avenue horse car
line, where the great Hippodrome now
stands-and that is a part of the Acre dis
trict now, as is the rest of the wonderful
block, formerly stables, which one strolls
along to reach Fifth avenue.
On the north side of the street, opposite
the side entrance of the Hippodrome, is
Henri's, the most Partisan little restaurant
in town. beloved of ladies lunching alone.
Then. on the same side, follow the big
hotels-Alonquin, Iroquois. Seymour; the
New York Yacht club with It's granite
front, In reproduction of an ancient war
ship; the City club, large, sedate, but said
to contain one of the best cellars in town,
one may be very fussy about municipal
reform and also about the age and charac-
ter Of ones wines at the same time; and
the Harvard club, severe almost in its
simplicity of architecture, yet they do say
NAANNA WAANh NV SNOAp "a 80 hNNNNN @S1N
ball game was posted there-but this is
not the reason for our stroll. Further
east on the same side Is the Berkeley
theater of various art attempts-and 9TH
ers, not all art-and, strangely located, a
very fashionable girls school.
On the other side of that wonderful
block, chief feeder of the Acre, the south
side, is the Hotel Royalton. with it's quite
amazing variety of private dining rooms,
the sombrely vast library and club of the
Bar association, the Yale club, the Rae
quet club extension and the home Of the
General Society of Mechanics and Trades
men, founded in 1775, but newly housed;
and at the corner of the avenue, Sherry's.
Across the avenue as ono reaches the
eastward of the Acre district is belmont
cos and the Day and Night bank, and, Of
course, the Acre of all places in the world
would be the first to need a bank which
never closes its doors.
Where the HiRhbOrn Lunch.
Returning to the Acre by Forty-third
street one passes the Century club-tho
deans of all the learned professional lunch
we'll there-the Racquet and the Army
and Navy clubs, the Royalton again, the
Bar association and tie Hippodrome, and
of these all but the Century extend
through the block to Forty-fourth street.
Finally the Hotel Woodstock, on the edge
of the Acre, and then a stroll across-you
don't stroll. but hop, skip and jump to
escape the g~asolene cGrs-and a start on
al other short trip along Theater Row;
that is west on Forty-second street for
one block only, but in that one block you
pass Hammerstein's, Belasco's. the Lyric,
the News Amsterdam. the Liberty, Hack
ett's and the American. seven theaters in
49,. b1,,r NTH HgrVayte ragtalran MT "a
take the hungriest of the IS 90 theater-
goers who turn out from playhouses in
that one block every night.
on the southernly spur of the Acre, along
Broadway itself, are other theaters, the
Broadway, Metropolitan, Empire, Casino
Knickerbocker. and just off the main street
Maxine Eniotts new playhouse; and, by
the way. there is to be an Annie Russell
playhouse in West Forty-fourth street, JUS
off the Acre.
In the Acre Itself are the New York
; the Criterion, the Aston and a little way u
? the east the Lyceum theater. They MAJ
5 not all have been mentioned here, but In
D GLIDING the Annie Russell, there soon will
be twenty-five tteaters nightly pouring
5 their crowds into the acre.
- Center of N show world.
= what this means as 10 the daytime in tn
Acre only those who have closely observes
c The rlcnarrcron realize; tie Acre Is IN
i business center Of the theatrical W'or-
in America. Referring now TO those VIII
h have to do with the business OF IN
theatsr. ''the front Of the house" thei
number is surprising, and they may a
3 be seen in the Acre during some part Q
e the day, at lunch time particularly.
E A business 30 varied. employing 80 man