The Washington herald., 1919-03-14

New York, March 1a-Thoughts at
the nrst night performance of q
Broadway musical show: Looks like a
big house. Suppose they all came In
on passes like. myself. There's Philip
Gibbs, the war correspondent, In the
upper box. Cosmo Hamilton. the nov
elist, is with him. He's Gibbs brother
and his name Is Cosmo Hamilton
Gibbs. Wonder why he changed his
name7
'Tisn't the same without Diamond
Jim Brady. That fat fellow from CHI
cago Is trying to take his place. but
he's pulling Diamond Jim's stun. He
ought to be original. Come in a bar
rel. That's good. I'll pull that on Ed
Smith. He'll try anything once He
even eats parsnips.
Wonder how much money that
drummer makes. Hello! There's w.
r. Hearst and his wife. Hearst's face
me has been eating garlic or some
thing. There, my wife has dropped
her opera glasses again. Lemne see,
where did put that coat check?
There goes the curtain now. Well,
by George! that little brunette on the
end in the first row used to be at the
newsstand in my hotel. Hope she sees
me and smiles. Dick Carle once yelled
to me in a box and. gee, but felt all
puffed up.
A rotten beginning. Glad came to-
night. It will probably close tomor-
row. Hope my wife doesn't want to
go any place to eat after It's over.
Can't go any place for less than IS.
Rennold Wolf, Of the Morning Tele-
graph. is getting up to go out. He
never stays through the last act of
any show. That's Claiming Pollock
with him.
Don't see Alan Dale. Oh, there he
is, standing UP in the back talking to
the producer. Bet he roasts this show.
He always does. II that guy gets up
to go out between the next two acts
I'm going to trip him There goes my
wife's opera cloak.
1t Is getting worse all the time.
That skinny dancer is the best thing
in 1t. Not a hand-not a hand. Feel
sorry for the "angeP' who backed this
bioomer. There's Burns Mantle. the
critic, waiting. Somebody called him
the critic with the welsbach name.
Good line. Thank heavens! There
the finale.
II is rare that an American achieves
q place in the cast at the Metropoll-
tan. Young Reinold werrenrath-
whose name, by the way, Is rarely
ever spelled correctly-has achieved
this distinction. He is thoroughly
American, so much so that he did not
employ the claque at his premiere.
The claque Is composed Of the horny
handed, who applaud those who pay
them, for 81 a night. They tried to dis
turb Werrenrath by talking during
his debut. Some have suggested jeal-
ousy of other artists prompted the dis
turbances The young American sang
at Caruso night. It was suggested
that it would have been a gracious
thing for Caruso to have led the young
singer to the footlights to take the
call. He didn't. believe that wer-
renrath's generosity under similar cir
'cumstances would be different. Nor
gan Kingston, the Metropolitan tenor,
is a Welshman. He does not believe
In the claque and he does not employ
them. Some day the claque must go
or opera will suffer.
Whlle Frightening his corner at Car
negie Hall, Monday night, Homer
Rodeheaver, right bower for Billy
Sunday. told this one:
Two negro soldiers on the front line
had taken refuge in a shallow shell
hole to escape a severe German artil-
lery fire. A shell screamed over thef
heads and they took to digging In with
might and main. Another shell, still
closer at hand, added energy to their
efforts. Finally when they had dug
as far down as was possible, one of
them sighed and said.
Sam, If we gifts out O. dis alive we
ought to jine de church"
Go on" was the reply: 'I jined
when dat first shell went over"