The sun., 1919-06-15

search OF the cool ana SAVIOR OF the sea
or the blossoms along country roads7
Still it is hard to think OF the fu- |
neral OF the great show constructor Of |
our time without pomp and color and |
numbers and in any other setting |
than the grandiose. Some such setting |
with thunder of Rachmaninoff's well
known prelude In our ears would bet
ter suit the popular conception Of such |
q mans departure from the scenes Of |
his life activities. Death. one sadly
sees, continues to be rich in surprises. |
A Picturesque Life.
1t was indeed picturesque life |
and one wholly of our day. that went
out SO untimely as Fred Thompson's
did in a hospital at the end of a two
years struggle with disease in his
forty-sixth year-the age at which
men really begin to ripen for their
great triumphs. He had triumphed ir
large creations in his early '30s; he
had failed in great show enterprises
later. but always the undertaking was
largely and finely and cleanly i'm
agined. and who is to say that the
failure was his? What are dollars ane
cents to man who offers his fellow
citizens a trip to the moon? II they
| accept his invitation he grows rich; Il
they stop going before he stops the
show 1t Is another story. and mean
| while he Is thinking up something bet
ter and bigger still.
Lean, wiry energetic. the young man
| was a true American type. Unlike
most men attracted to the show"
business. he brought the education OF
| an architect, trending to artistry to
| the aid of large imagination, an un-
daunted heart and a winning person
ality. It was not in his OUTFIT to have
a clear business head. as we measure
them. Fortune found a partner for
him who had. In Omaha he came up
against a rival who, It Is said, took
possession of one of his dreams and
carried 1t to Buffalo. So enterprising
a person, so fun Of business acumen
| did Thompson find Elmer Dundy. that
he elected him a partner, and to-
sether they made q great team until
twelve years ago, when Death came in
with one OF those surprises of his and
dissolved the partnership by carrying
of Dundy. It was. indeed. this loss
this death of Skip, as they called him
that made the ways Of big things so
perilous thereafter for the active brain
Of Thompson.
But the man who made the "Trip to
the Moon" at Buffalo In 1900 and
transplanted It to Coney Island: who
built ana started Luna Park at Coney
Island as a complete coordinated show
centre Of ready made beauty and va
ried amusement for the millions; who
built and organized the Hippodrome
and its colossal style OF entertainment.
which has been changed but in detail.
not in character. since he left It. and Is
still the type of the hugely popular;
such q man, though all his ready
money slipped from his hands, was not
the one to lose heart or confidence in
himself. His plunge into the theat-
, rical world was at time when money
was flowing In upon him and gains
did no more than encourage him to &c
on while losses were merely unpleasant
incidents not to be worried over. Blu,
those grim fellows, the keepers Of &C.
counts. pursue the builders on shoe
strings and reduce the apparent to the
real, and thus II came about that totali
looking like millions shrunk to mites
and vulgar bankruptcy tripped the
, heels OF the daring who had sailed the
sky.
II Teyiana Drown Up.
|. Few, indeed. OF these great engineers
Iof amusement amass real riches OF
keep them when amassed. Charles
. Frohmar's estate Was sraaM out OF al
| proportion 70 his eminence held 81