The Washington herald., 1920-01-11

Like all sporting audiences, 1t con-
sists mostly of persons who mani
testify cannot afford the price of ad-
mission. My seat has cost me more
than ten times what have paid
to hear "Parsifal' at Baireuth, or
Beethoven's Ninth symphony" at a
very special performance at the
opera in Paris. Certainly there are
people here who can spare 10 guineas
or Is easily enough; honorables and
right honorables, explorers. sporting
stock brokers, eminent professional
men. plutocrats of all sorts; men
with an artistic interest in the dis
play-like Robert Lorraine. Granville
Barker, Maurice Barring. Arnold Ben
nett and myself.
But the prevalent impression is the
usual one of a majority of men who
have sacrificed months wages to
be present. and hope to retrieve it
by bets on the result. Here and
there is a lady. Not any particu-
lar sort of lady or no lady; just
an ordinary lady. The one who
happens to be sitting by me is one
next whom might find myself in
the stalls of any theater. or in
church.
Crowd Goes wild.
Then the cheering began. rather
localized. because from most OF the
seats little could be seen except the
platform. Even the Prince OF Wales
had had some dificulty in procuring
silence for his brief speech when he
entered. and several people believed
for some time that 1t had been made
by Carpenter. AS it happened, 1 was
near the gangway by which the cham
pions came in, and, therefore, saw at
once that the cheering was for Mr..
Joseph Beckett. who was approaching
in an unpretentious dressing gown.
Mr.. Beckett, though the descriptive
reporters insisted on making him play
Orson to his opponents Valentine. is
by no means Unlocking. His features
are not Grecian, but he can be de-
scribed exactly as a very sensible
looking man. and I may say at once
that he, behaved all through, and has
most men could in a very trying sit
uation. liked Mr.. Beckett very we'll
and did not change my opinion later
on, as some of his hackers did He
mounted the scaffold and went to his
corner.
A burst of louder cheering made me
look around again to the gangway.
and this time l was startled by a most
amazing apparition; nothing less than
Charles XII. "the madman of the
North" striding along the gangway
in a Japanese silk dressing gown as
calamity as IL he had not been killed
almost exactly 301 years before. l
have seldom received so vivid an i'm
preston. and I knew at once that as
this- could hardly be Charles. he mus st
be either Carpenter or the devil.
Genius could not be more unmistaka-
BILE. Being in that line myself 1 was
under no illusion as to genius being
invincible. 1 knew that Mr.. Beckett
might turn out to be Peter the Great,
and that Charles might be going to
his Poltava, but genius Is genius all
the same. in victory or defeat.
Carpenter Well Liked.
The effect of the audience on the
I"o men was very nOtlcea Die.
Beckett, too sensible to be nervous.
put UP with the crowd of people
staring at him as a discomfort that
was all in the days work. Carpen-
tier rose at the crowd, and would
have had 10000 instead of 1000 if
he could. He was at home with IT,;
he dominated 1t; he picked out his
friends and kissed hands to them in
his debonair way, quite naturally,
without swank or mock modesty, as
one born to move assemblies.
The descriptive reporters began to
scribble theirf tale of a fraiI French
STRIPPING and a massive British CO.
lossus. Utter nonsense. The physi-
cal omens were all against the
Briton. Beckett, who was trained, n
anything. a little too fine, has a
compact figure, boxlike chest,