Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-13
CULLEN TELLS OF GOTHAM D0INGS


crossed most of their lives in their mu-
steal studies, of course. were not self
supporting However, they had several
brothers, young fellows of merely av-
erage ability, employed as clerks, and
three of their sisters were dressmakers
IN a falriy prosperous way of business.
Among them the brothers and sisters of
the two musical girls fixed it up to send
them to Germany for advanced musical
study; and they did send them
III meant hard pinching and scraping
for the brothers and sisters at home in
Washington, but the scraping and pinch
ing We're undergone willingly: for would
not the reward in the shape Of fame a..
wealth FOR the two girls when finally
they burgeoned upon a wondering Amer
lea at the conclusion of their studies,
more than compensate for all OF the
hardship enduring in sending them
through?
So the two girls spent seven years in
Munich and Dresden, completing, their
violin and piano studies, and when they
had finished they really were unusua,lv
competent players. Competent is about
the word. The Conservatives Of Eurone
and America are turning out ext,aor-
dinarily competent players ane singers
ny the thousands every year.
The girls came back to the ltuitad
states. and a lot of perfectly good and
well meant press agent work was done
for them, and they had their respective
appearances In New York, attended, as
Usual at such affairs, b., persons who re-
'eNe hahoIuls OF free tickets, and the
grim critics of the New York paners
Na'he out with their smothering little
notices. saying that the girls PLAYED well
other observations of which the New
iorh critics are such perfect masters
iet their critiaues were not fair The
Two girls were not wonderful They
simply were proficient. And this is not
an age for pi efficiency. 1t is only an
epoch for supreme excellence-or extin-
Suishment
me two girls had their little appear
di:ces in Washington, too. and their
friends naturally went wild over them
and predicted wonde .fuI things lor them
as friends will and must and always do.
Inen the two girls dropped out
somehow the wonderful things didn't
eNehtuate- Nothing big happened. They
SOLO work. They felt that they had their
living to make. They were enormously
IN dept to their brothers and sisters.
VINO mad scraped and saved To give them
'"N'' ABROAD. They
cast about for work. 1t was about seven
years ago when | lost track of them.
came upon them the other night
man Know, who lives In the far west
desired me to show him some of the late
at-hight rathskellers of New York, and
was engaged I'm showing him. We
came to one of those downstairs ratb-
SHELTERS that don't get real busy, much
less llveiy, till a bit after 3 in the MORN
ing a place where the handsome. wait
ers IN the intervals between serving
drinks lean one ''mitt' on the table and
sing slug-glug sentimental and ragtime
songs TO the accompaniment of the in
strumentalists.
Well, my two old friends the Wash
ington girls of the ONE time great ambi-
tons, were the Observation-Disclosures They
were a little platform at the end OF
the pace. and they were working away
for dear life. They were the same dear
sweet girls that they'd always been.
possessed of all the old refinement: spin
stery and faded. OF course: but not jot
or whit abated from their pristine fine
ness and sweetness.
But there they were, doing the best
they could as the phrase goes: making
a living by whackins out music of the
most intolerable junkish sort at a punk
erino all-night rathskeler far below the
level of the sidewalk.
They were playing Has Anybody Here
Seen kelly?" when l came away with
my friend, and about 200 highly -aichol-
lied males and females were la wiling the
song in unison.
] was sorry / went there.
CLARENCE L. CULLEN.