The Washington herald., 1917-11-08

New York, Nov. THE impromptu
play has come to Broadway. 1t is
something rev in the acting line and
is an art which has not been prac-
ticed since the time OF the strolling
players Of the Renaissance.
Miss Sydney Thompson. n sister OF
Vance Thompson. the writer. intro
duced the idea After the audience
was seated. some patron was asked
to suggest an idea.
This theme was taken by Miss
Thompson and dramatized She took
the leading role herself and developed
the amazing plot as she went along.
There was some comedy and some
tragedy, and it worked out so anaiz-
ingly well that she was offered a
good sized sum for the impromptu
play by a theatrical manager who sat
up in one of the boxes.
Miss Thompson is one OF many New
York women who likes to strip the
veneer of the polished conventions.
Only recently she declared that save
for George Meredith there are
scarcely any novelists whose char
actcrs bear out in their conversation
the briT1iance ascribed to them in the
authors descriptive passages.
BY way of illustration. she picked up
n serial running in a popular maga-
zine and took this excerpt as an ex-
ample II read:
Then she remembered a bright re-
mark which she had made to her sis
ter when speeding up Park avenue. all
agleam with its cold blue lights. they
had turned into n darker street and
their taxi had drawn up With a Jerk
in front Of a building rs massive and
smooth as all others in sight. She
had said to Amy then:
If YOU remember your number you
can tell exactly which one is your
home"
If that Is a bright remark, the CEN
sus report IS a sprightly document.
Nearly every branch OF the huge
war machine has been praised in song
except the kind-hearted nurses. But
the oversight has been remedied. They
are singing n song on Broadway now
that comes from the trenches, and it
pays high tribute to the nurses. The
title is, II Don't Want to Get Well"
Dan McGinnity is back on Broadway.
His saloon in Newark is closed. His
place was where Bob F'itzsimmons
loafed for twenty years. He was my
friend and pal. was for him and he
was for me. What more can 1 say
than that?" he said as he closed the
doors And what more could he say
or do? What better tribute could he
pay friend?
A New York millionaire recently was
interviewed by a leading New York
paper. The interview was syndicated,
and, among other things. revealed this
fact that he was a bachelor. The
millionaire did not realize the number
of women who are eager to be mar
ried. He has received up to date some
5,COO letters proposing marriage.
Here is a sample of one from a lit
tie town in Kansas: Dear Sir: l
have been reading about you in the
paper and l thought I would like to
marry If suitable to you and con-
venient. My husband has gone to
war. Been gone two years.
Il am going to get a divorce. as l
haven't any money to keep a-going
am very pretty. full of fun and
handsome as a speckled pup. Please
do not announce our intended mar
riase in any of the New York papers
for it may get back here, and 1 want
to announce it myself Answer soon
If at all. Your respectful sweetheart.
Lillian Russell hase come out In an
interview insisting that she really does
write all her signed newspaper arti-
cles. But the chief point of interest is,
does she read them?