Evening star., 1924-03-23


or amusement in London It's upper
parts are glitteringly outlined in
green and yellow electricity: it's high
tower can be glimpsed from all man
her OF streets, and the rich glow OF
tho whole affair illuminates a cloudy
sky for the whole of central London
TO see.
though entirely respectable, it has
an altar of its own in the hearts of
the young and the old bloods of pro-
Vlnclal cities who come to town
strictly on business. 1t is the mecca
or suburban inhabitants with 4 dull
afternoon in front of them and 10
Shllllngs in their pockets to squan-
der. To have his or her name printed
IN fire on the facade of the Rotunda
is the ambition of every music hall
artist in the world. and of many am
other artist besides. In brief. the
Rotunda is n very important, grandi-
oSe and Impressive orGanism-an or
Sanlsm which emphatically functions
And it is household word. Even
judges of the high court have heard
or the Rotunda. No daily paper in
London ever appears without men.
ton of it somewhere.
Now. daily and nightly, behind a
counter on your left as you enter by
The main entrance into the grand
foyer, stood until lately a girl named
Elaine Edar. She was 4 blonde, with
bright hair, an attractive, pretty and
benevolent face and Il good figure,
because these attributes were essen
tlal to her position. Her simple
smart dress was OF black. but il had
touches of fantasy and of color, be-
cause Mr.. Walter King (managing
director, risen from call boy, as he
openly stated about ten times every
day) had said that he did not care
to- his girls to look like hotel clerks.
Elaine's face and hair were known
to tens of thousands of people. Often
in the street such people would start
at the sight of her and murmur
something to a companion, and Elaine
knew that they were saying:
That's the box-office girl at the
Eotunda.'
So that she had a certain impor-
tance on earth, and assuredly at the
Rotunda. For she gathered in money,
and to Mr.. Walter King the Rotunda
was in the end nothing but a machine
for gathering in more money than il
paid out
Not that Elaine was the sole in
strument for gathering in money.
Far from it: Above her counter were
displayed the words: Box office for
this performance only. Boxes. Royal
fauteuils. Royal stalls Stalls. Grand
balcony. All advance booking was
done in a special office up the street,
and each of the unreserved parts of
the house had its own entrance, with
turnstile and money taker. Still,
Elaine took goodish bit of money
twice a day, and she was easily the
most prominent of all the human
machines that received silver coins
and notes in exchange for bits of COL
"rcd paper or base metal disks.
Twelve performances a week, and
Elaine had to be on duty ten minutes
before the doors opened and~to re-
main on duty until one hour before
The end of each performance. Then
she had to check her money and
prove to the cashiers department
that the total was correct. An anx-
ious job, especially during the rush"
quarter of an hour, when she had to
read with the glance of an eagle the
numbers on the sheet of the per-
fofmance, treat every patron as a
benefactor, return good for evil, give
change like a flash OF lightning, de-
tect spurious coins in the tenth of a
second and render sweet smiles to
louts, curmudgeons and cats.
Happily, she was by nature pro-
foundly and generally benevolent,
and in this respect indeed 4 wonder
10 her assistant, who did the tele-
phoning and lent a general hand. 1t
was her benevolent air that had rec
commended her to Mr.. Walter King,
who had sacked her predecessor for
being hoity-toity to patrons when
ever business was abnormally good.
She was devoted to the theater. No.
body thought of her apart from the
theater. and in fact she had little
private life. Mr.. Walter King was
himself passionately devoted to the
theater, and he expected all the staff
10 be passionately devoted to the the
ater; but whereas his own devotion
brought in large share of the prof
it's, Elaine's devotion brought in only
a small fixed salary, which Mr.. King
did not dream of passionately in
creasing when business grew fabu-
lous. Elaine saw nothing odd in this
arrangement.
x :: x :;
TT was a. quarter to 10. The days
work was nearly over. Elaine's
assistant had gone. The entrance
hall and foyer blaZed deserted with
their superlavish electricity. When
an idle program girl swung open n
door at the end of n vast corridor
and peeped forth, Elaine could family
catch the sound OF clappinE. She
rarely got more Of a performance
than these brief distant rumors of
applause. For her the Rotunda was
not an auditorium, but a foyer with
box Office, and the artists were mere
names on bills. She estimated the
quality of the applause, and glanced
at the clock and the time table to
know who was being applauded, for
she had to be in a position TO inform
patrons what artist was "on" at any
given moment. Then she proceeded
with the secret counting of notes on
q shelf beneath the counter.
In view of the absence of a grille
to protect the counter and of the
prevalence of gangs of robbers in
London, her situation with all that
money for Mr.. Walter King might
seem perilous. But it was not so in
reality. Elaine and her treasure were
well guarded by formidable giants
ty, cIxa 80
gorgeous doormen and pages. Though
he disapproved of grilles, Mr.. Walter
king took no chances with the nights