Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-20

ever tells about the stage door crowds.
But on matinee days when the crowd
has many little people in Il she has been
known to gather up a bundle OF the for
lornest looking and packing them into her
motor or carriage. TO deliver them at their
homes. On at least one occasion she was
barely able to get back in time for the
evening performance, having unwittingly
contracted TO take one child home that
lived in 165th street.
Unlike many women, and especially
women with what Is called the artistic tenn
permanent, she Is very scrupulous about any
obligation that she has undertaken. She
has never missed an advertised perform
ance since she has been on the stage. She
has never kept an audience waiting but
once in her entire career, and that was on
last Thanksgiving day. when her automo-
bile was blocked on the Williamsburg
brASe, and she continued her way to
Br0ettlyn partly on foot, partly in q bridge
car and partly In a commandered pTi-
vate motor. On this occasion the curtain
at the Montauk theater was held one min
ute. That one minute is all the time she
owes the public.
AS In her relations with the public, she
holds herself to the strlctest account, so
she holds others. OFF the stage she is 30
responsive TO every appeal, so ready to
make excuses for shortcomings that she
is often thought to be easy. But no actor
who shlrks has ever found hor 80.
play the part, sick or well" is the rule
Of her company, and play Il so that not
even the other actors will notice faults. OF
else notify the stage manager and have the
understudy play. No excuses are accepted
for a breach OF this rule. II an actor
is worried or in trouble she will help lin.
II he is sick she will pay his bills in the
hospital and take care of him, but if he
comes 70 the theattr he m play his
part. 1t IL his obligation to the public and
she is responsible that he fuIfils it.
Once in "netcr Pan" one of the Lost
Boys ran off the stage unexpectedly in the
middle OF a scene.
I'm sorry ne said afterward. Il didn't
feel well and l thought 1 was going to
faint. / couldn't help It,"
yes you could" she said gently but
with u~nmistakable firmness. IF you had
stayed in your place and tainted you
couldn't. have helped it. But you could
help running Off"
There is another story that illustrates
her short treatment Of strikers. At her
place in the country she had a hired man
who was temperamentally a son Of rest
He would rather explain why the. water
tank was empty than fill it. One day he
expounded a particularly ingenious theory
to account for the water famine. and ne
added: Il don't see what l can do about
it,"
Il do" said Miss Adams. You can &c
and pump
Miss Adams holds to her rule of never
talking for publication. Why she has made
this rule no one really knows. Once she
was asked point blank what the reason wa
for refusing to talk for the press. The
comedy look flashed in her eyes.
That" she said. rs the secret Of my
life And she went out.
.
In writing about people of the stage
there is usually a natural dividing line be-
tween their professional and domestic lives,
1t is hard to draw such a line In the case
of Maude Adams. Her work is always with
her, whether in the theater or at Onteora,
where she has her summer home. On the
other hand, she brings into the theater a
curious atmosphere of domesticity. A maid
whom she once had said:
Miss Adams is every inch an actress
when she's talking to the cook, and she
keeps house in the theater."
This is not a great exaggeration. She
manages her company directly and exer'