The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-08-28
Glimbses Through Gotham
Goggles
By Glen Gruensey.

On the face of the statue of Horace
Greeley, in front of the Tribune
building, the observant passerby may
perceive an expression of pain.
Things are not as they used to be on
the old sheet, and Horace has right
to be peeved.
These observations. and other sup
pressed opinions more pertinent but
not fit for publication in a family
newspaper, are anent the recent resig-
nation of William Winter as dra-
matte critic OF The Tribune
There remains little doubt that the
dean of American theatrical review
ers who has been on the Tribune's
firing line since called to the duty by
Horace Greeley in 1865, was offered
up as a sacrifice to the theatrical
trust" !
If what is uttered UP and down
Broadway is true, Winte.. has long
been man marked for slaughter by
the benevolent assmlators of the
drama. The old man of the brave
heart, the alert brain ana the tren-
chant pen has ever refused to truckle
to those to whom Providence has en-
trusted the dramatic interests of the
country. He has entertained a notion
possibly erroneous, that dramatic ex-
preston is an art, and not q bust
ness, and that it should conform to
, artistic rather than commercial STAN
dards
Such heresy in this day and age
could have but one result MI Win
ter's copy was slashed numerically.
possibly at the behest of the counting
room. The great critics resignat ton
followed as a matter OF course
Whitelaw Reid who wears knee
panties at the court of St James and
spends many thousands of dollars in
maintaining democratic simplicity in
London, is the owner of the Tribune.
1t would be interesting to know if he
was a party to the humiliation of
Winter and whether he considers
that the money of the theatrical trust
is worth having at such a price. How
ever. Weekend parties for the king
and similar festivities come high, and
are of more worth, perhaps, than the
services of one of the very few able
and honest critics Of the drama in this
country.
Many friends of the American
drama look upon the retirement of
Winter as little short of national
catastrophe, but the newspapers of
New York with their usual spineless
subserviency and lickspittle attitude
whenever the business office is con-
cerned, have had little to say about
it, The New York Press, the only
newspaper of the metropolis to sup
port it's dramatic writer's when they
have incurred the displeasure of the
trust" is an honorable exception.
Poor Horace Greeley. He was a
brave and good man. Let us hope,
for his sake. that the dead do not see
beyond the veil that separates this
world from-wherever Horace is.
One inquiry remains. Who will read
the "Trib" now that William Winter
is no longer on it's staff?
Maybe the answer to that question
will also affect the counting room,
Mr. Reid. The shade of Horace Gree
ley's paper without the Winter of its
dramatic discomfort, is like a certain
celebrated Shakespearean play bereft
, if its principal character. A crown
of thorns ought to be supplied with
each COPY. The reader is entitled to
some material symbol of his martyr
dom. so that less hardy ones may
look on and marvel.
E;ftv Cent OPERA