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Show The X&estern "Purse and the liroadbuay theatres. Won't some of the western men who have ma e plenty of money in mining ana other things please come to New York and spend some of it? Tlity may feel assured that they will not be treated with the disrespect that haa marked some ot their other visits. New York has come to like the westerner as much as Continental Europe Hias the American, tor he spends his money freely and when he is absent he is sadly missed. Fact in there are several industries that are pining now for want of western money particular1 particu-lar1 the theatrical industry. Conditions among the player folk are not half so good as they were last season. Then everybody maae money. John W. Gates came east with his millions to show Wall street a few things, and in his train came the "western crowd," who made money in ' the street," kept the corridors of the "Waldorf-Astoria "Waldorf-Astoria buzzing with their plans, poured their wealth in to the restaurants, the theatres and the opera house and made everything hum. It is different this year. Failure after failure nas been recorded in the Broadway play houses, the opera is in for a long season with a lack of I support that is alarming the directors, and player folk and musicians are telling one another on the Rialto that this is cne worst season in ten years. Some of the wiser ones have guessed one reason tor this condition, and that is that the 'western crowd' 'has gone back. Many went back a great deal wiser and a great deal sadder and suspicious bulgings in tne pocketbooks of John D. RocKeieller and J. Pierpont Morgan will explain ex-plain the state of their feelings. $(5 i2s O It is sad to see the wrecks that the season has strewn along the dramatic way. Little Minnie Dupree esayed to make a star of herself in "A Rose O' Plymouth Town," and ended her engagement en-gagement abruptly and went back 10 leading lady again. Mrs. LeMoyne came in to make a success that should place her permanently among the stars in "Among Those Present," and almost starved to death. Alice Fischer twinkled for a month or so in "Mrs. Jack," but took it off somewhere some-where up in the woods. Eleanor xtobson was to have been made a star in "Audrey, " but one night settled that plan and her attempt was reserved for another year. Now Elizabeth Tyree has come in and fates have not been much kinder to her with her "Gretna Green." As for the foreigners who have come over there have been few good memories to take back Mrs. Campbell made a brave attempt to repeat her succes, but played week after week to heart-breaking houses in her series of productions, losir g a goodly fortune. Martin Harvey, eulogized as cue of the best of the younger English actors, went from failure to failure. Weedon Grossmith did xairly well, but has been compelled to aban- Jon t is tour. Mrs. Langtry, even with the glamour of h r friendship with the king of England, has been unable to draw enough to show on the profit side of the ledger. Signor Mascagni went to i Pitia le failure. Signora Duse was perhaps the only jne of the visitors who made a success, and Jt is ot certain that her managers feel too well re- IBpaid or all the money they spent and the trouble Rey had. c lldren's plays are the very latest things In Jhe t eatrical line. It looked for a time as though yerf was to be a rage over Japanese productions, peea .e 0f the success of David Belasco with t darling of the Gods," but somehow plans for Rt tions of I18 k11 have not been carried out Qe f rst of the childrens' plays came to an un-3. un-3. KmeI enl. Klaw & Erlanger expected a great at Br11 out of ihe dramatization of "Huckleberry ginn but it had to close its season abruptly be-pe be-pe it came to New York. The funny thing abaut that production was that the captivating story told by Mark Twain was turned into musical comedy. They tell the story along the Rlolto that while Mark Twain was blazoned as one of the dramatists the only line he really wrote was cut out in order to make way for a song. However, the second of the children's plays has been a success. It is Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett's "Little Princes." This has been playing play-ing at the Criterion theatres in the afternoon during dur-ing the engagement of Julia Marlowe. "Women and children have crowded the house as they did in the days when "Little Lord Fauntieroy" was the fad, and there are a lot of grown-up persons who have begun to attend these performances to renew their memories of better days. David Belasco, who was the first to suggest the idea, will be the last to get in the field. He is preparing a production of "The Ifive Little Pilgrims." Pil-grims." He is keeping his plans secret, so nobody can tell exactly what he intends to do. This western manager just now, however, is regarded as the greatest producer in New York, and there is not much doubt that he will serve a palatable dish in this new venture. E. J. Y. |