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Show Sri-iiitlll - Sto Aniii.ale. V ih1 H.p.'f-r in N vx V rk Jouri 'il. Sl.iX-i iiiiinial-s ill". : ' j!is.ed tbroiigli a n vat trai.-fiinuation in t!.o la-4 few se.-iM.tl-i. The change Iris laiiil.'d ill. : j i i t ! i . front i ;iiik as ;lni wine at i l'.-iel ions, , and, in f :.:, t'-cir popi.lariiy Inn be-! eni'ie n. mar! -'-d liial many cono'ilia-is j nr.- now iVi'jIiH-ned ;,t the )io-il,;iiy of .'ei-ingthe fool IhrhN ;noiioioii:ed inllicj near till II re by regular Noah's Ark eoi- I led ions. Tin' irau.-d' iniia' ion ineiitii iieil if, this. In former years, and iu fuel up t.) quite rceenlly, I lie stage animal was ' a docile cow, a Sun.hiy-sehool kind of a Imrse, of pi'ishaps a lion with no teeth in his mom h. These, were, ami .-He. all well cnoutrh for country plays like The Old Home- j -,ii ;nl," whore tin y are merely iueii'eiits I iiiel not 1'ea'nres. The auo'e-uies are, jdeased with I hem. I.m they never ex-j cite pi.iminent inlere-l or iiiiliee, j Until' the sla:;e anilila! is treated in; the proper seieiil ilie way he can be made a leading feat lire. I'ieyhail (he riixht idea. Iml in a crude form, when he hroiejihl out the great "daiiring heifer' iu "K angeline" many year.s ilg". T his is the seeret of the siiei-e-.l'id stage, animai. It miisl be eieaied by man's handiwork, and the nearer it comes to the liiiug original the funnier il is. Ldiieaied animals are loo eom-mnii eom-mnii nowadays to aitraol attenlioii, and t hev have beeome back numbers. The possibilities of the seieniilie Mage, iiuimal are tiiilimited. Take this great elephant ill "Wang." for instance. 1 don't know yet w liciher I am the star or weather it is. The few personal friends whom I have had the courage to ask for an opinion of the piece have few-rally answered. "Oil. the play's all right! and so are you; but, (hat elephant ele-phant is n. .lim dandy! " That elephant looks so life like from the front of the house thai nine out of every leu people go aw ay beHe in 1 hat-it hat-it is the real geiiuineyai'd w ide all-wool lll'tiele. That shows h:it science does in the stage animal. Last week I r--' ceiied a letter from a Newark brewer w ho said t hat lie would give me all the beer the elephant could drink if i would mention the brand on the programme. I auswered that amd her conl raet had unfortunately been made. Skilfully applied mechanism is what i tells in the stage animal, ll is better I iitul safer than the genuine l.eaf(, no matter how well and thoroughly it may have been trained and educated. The latter sooneror laiermakes some dreadful dread-ful blunder in view off he luuise. and then the show becomes so badly rattled that everything goes w long I have' a deep and loving respect f.-r the mechanical animal nu the Ma b r it was my little "dunk" and m lug elephant ele-phant that. I made my best hits. |