New-York tribune., 1919-06-18
The Coming Tower
BALLADE OF ANCIENT ACTS
After Henley

A squirt from which Laird Herbert low?
Where's Charlie Cases comic woe
And George Cohan's nasal drawl?
The afterpece? The olio?
Into the night go one and all.
Where are the japeries, fresh or frayed,
That Fields and Lewis used to throw?
Where is tho horn that Shepherd played7
The slide trombone that Wood would blow?
Amelia Glover's l. f. toe?
The Rays and their domestic brawl?
Bert Williams with"Oh, Don't Know?"
Into the night go one and all.
Where's Little Raymond, poppy jade?
The braggart Lew, the simple Joe?
And where the Irish servant maid
That Jimmie Russell used to show?
Charles Sweet, who tore the paper snow?
Ben Harney's where? And Artie Hall?
Nash Walker, Darktowns grandest beau?
Into the night go one and ALL
Prince, though our children laugh "Hol
Ho!"
At US who gleefully would fall
For acts that played the Long Ago,
Into the night go one and all.
Mr.. Kenneth Macgowan, in the current
dramatic Mirrof," implies that we are
plugging the vaudeville days of the '90s."
he preferred Vesta Tilley in vaudeville"
he writes, ITO De Wolf Hopper in the
legitimate. He heard Tara Ra- -Boom-De-
Ay' when he might have listened to Della
Fox sing 4 am the Belle They Say, Of
Avenue A." This is far from the truth
We Droforrod
thing to De Wolf Hopper in anything; nor
could we ever have. We never cared par
ticularly for Miss Tilley's art, and always
worshipped De Wolf Hopper's.
With Mr.. Macgowans contention that
the memories of the '9Os concern them
selves with the performers rather than
with the composers and librettsts we
quarrel not at all. The purchasing public
to-day is equally unconcerned. Ask five
persons who saw "The Folles of 1919"
last night who wrote the show: at least
four will be unable to tell you. See how
many people who have seen Lew Fields's
"a Lonely Romeo" can tell you that Harry
B. Smith, the librettist of "Robin Hood"
"The Wizard of the Nile," and "The
Serenade," wrote it,
The reading and theatregoing publics
are glorously unconcerned with authors
"Did you read that story about that girl
in the Satevepost?" somebody will ask.
"Who wrote ?" we always inquire In
frequently is the reply anything but "I
didn't notice" 81 forget" Mr. Mac
gowan may doubt this. Well, the. Dra-
matte Mirror is one of the hebdomadals we
sometimes omit buying. friend tele-
phoned that there was an article in this
number that ~pertained to the vaudeville
of the 90s. "Who wrote it ?" we asked.
"I didn't notice." he said.
The Poetry Service Station
Sir: l. too have been tounched by the haunt
Ing cadence of the line; but like C. W.. I am
quite too busy to do it complete Justice If
you can use assembled poem however
am willing to supply few feet to help 1t
along. AS per VIZ
REFRAIN
He lost leg in action with the Irish Fusiers,
And though he's advertised for 1t. tits gone
for good he fears.
No doubt, some of your contribs will have
spare parts on hand enough to make the thing
r. y
The speed demons of the War Depart
ment and the Postofice Department. in
perfect collaboration, have succeeded in
getting to us $50 bonus. 1t was ac-
complished in three months, from tin to
tip; and gratitude to the government
is boundless.