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Show PLAYS AND PLAYERS. Nance O'Nell completed a week ago the twelfth week of her stay In Boston, and started then on a tour of the principal princi-pal towns in the New England circuit. cir-cuit. The Hub has found her an actress exactly to lis liking, and crowded houses have been the rule ever since she went thero after her unprofitable and unsatisfactory engagement In Chicago. Chi-cago. o Amy Ricard. who plays the role of Contrary Mary in "Babes in Toyland." will stay in New York when that organization orga-nization goe3 on the road "to cultlvato her voice. Her place will be taken by Marguerite Clark. 6 m ti "Piff, Paff, Pouf." which was given Its premier In the Casino on last Saturday Satur-day evening, is a musical cocktail that seems destined to prove a palatable tipple for Jaded cosmopolites and New Yorkers generally. Stanislaus Stange has written a book that contains much of merit and novelty, and, as was to have been expected, the work of William Wil-liam Jerome and Jean Schwartz, foremost fore-most of present day song writers, who contributed the lyrics and music for the production, shows some of the best results re-sults of their careers. "Plff, Paff, Pouf" Is a dramatic concoction' that Is not too light for the spring season, nor too heavy for the good old summer timo, for it is as refreshing an entertainment enter-tainment as Its alcoholic counterpart is an afjpetlzer. New York Press. O X. L Harry B. Smith and Ludwlg Eng-lander Eng-lander have practically completed the opera In which Lulu Glasor will appear next season. Tho opera Is as yet unnamed. un-named. a a Henry W. Savage is out with a curious curi-ous advertisement. He wants a young woman not over five feet in stature to go witli "The Prince of Pilsen" to London. Lon-don. . The tiny show girl is the favorite thing with your Briton. a o The 175th performance Jn New York of George Ade's comedy, "The County Chairmun." occurs at Wallack's theater thea-ter April 13lh. e Mrs, Fiske's engagement at San Francisco in proving highly successful. Her production of "Mary of Magdala," which filled the first week, created a profound Impression, both as a medium for Mrs. Fiske and as illustrating the highest and richest art of the theater. With "H?dda Gabler." "A Doll's House," "Dlvorcons" and "A Bit of Old Chelsea" following, thej series of representations repre-sentations will stand out as one of the most varied and Interesting ever seen on the coast. ova The Joint tour of Julia Marlowe and E. H. Sothern next season will begin in September in the West'. It Is announced that the plays In which the two stars will appear the oftenest will be "Much Ado About Nothing." "Romeo and "Juliet" and "Hamlet." It la likely, however, that before the season Is ended "King Lear" and "As You LIko It" will be produced. For season after next a visit to London Is planned. It Is said that Richard Mansfield's greatest antipathy is to appearing on the first night In a new role. It nmounts with him to a positive nervous weakness. weak-ness. Often as he has faced crowds, applause, erFonnl praise and all the publicity of his professional eminence, he cannot get over the horror of a first night. Antipathy, like fear, is something some-thing unreasonable; it Is an instinct, and thereforo absolutely unconquerable. Many great men have suffered from strange antipathies. King Henry III. could not remain alone In a room with a cat. The Duke of Eperon fainted at the sight of a leveret. Tycho Brahe was all in a tremor at the 9lght of a leveret or a fox. The Marshal of Al-bret Al-bret was made 111 If a young wild boar or a sucking pig wan rerved at the table where he sat. The great scholar, Scaliger, shook all over at the sight of watercress. Lord Bacon swooned away at an eclipsa of the rnoon. Bayle went into convulsions at the sound of water running out of u faucet. Lamoths lo Vayer had nervous convulsions at hearing hear-ing any musical Instrument. But the most extraordinary of all was King Ladlslaw of Poland, who fled precipitately precipi-tately at the sight of an apple. Had he only been In tho place of Adam the temptation of Eve would have been of no avail. a Raymond Hitchcock, the star of "The Yankee Consul," has attracted considerable con-siderable attention from "the 400" In Noav York. Thus early in his engagement engage-ment at the Broadway theater he has been entertained by Col. John Jacob Astor, Henry Lehr, Mrs. Stuyvcsant Fish and several others in the higher v alks of society. The greatest artistic event at Florence, Flor-ence, Italy, for a long time past has been the production of Slgnor Gabriel d'Annunzlo's play, "La Flgalia di Jorio,"'In the Hall of the Pergola. The play is unanimously considered n fine tragedy. Every character is beautifully beauti-fully drawn and acted. The heroine, notwithstanding her past fallings, moves every one to a great pitch. Slgnor d'Annunzio was called before the curtain twenty times. Irma Drama-tica, Drama-tica, as the heroine, is quite remarkable. remark-able. The Count of Turin was present In the royal box and followed the play with deep Interest. a a It was Just fifty years ago April 1st that Vlctorlen Sardou's first play, "La Taverne des Trebancs," was produced, and It was an awful failure. Sardou celebrated the day as his "golden wedding wed-ding to the Goddess Thcspls." Since the failure of his play Sardou has written writ-ten seventy successes, and his latest, "La Socierc," in which Bernhardt jh now appearing, is considered as wonderful won-derful as any which have been written writ-ten by Uie veteran playwright. ft O 6 In the Theater Magazine Miss Virginia Vir-ginia Harned describes her first meeting meet-ing with Edward H. Sothern. whom later she married. "T had been playing play-ing In 'A Long Lar.e' at the Fourteenth Street theater." says Miss Harned. "The play was not a success It only ran for rive weeks, but It helped me. I had a good part, that of a comedy actress, ac-tress, and the last week of the engagement engage-ment I was asked to go to Mr. Daniel Frohman's office. I was there ahead of time, as happens with aspiring young woman, but early as I was. Mr. Solhem was there before me. There had been an accident at New Rochellc, and he was Injured, so it happened that the lllrst time I met Mr. Sothern he was on crutches. Mr. Frohman Introduced us. and, turning to Mr. Fothern. said. 'Do you think she's too tall?' 'Stand up.' said Mr. Sothern. I obeyed, but I 'scrooched' down as much as I could without attracting attention. 'What Is your height?' Mr. Frohman a'pked. There and then I told an awful fib. My height is about o feet 6 Inches, and I told them I don't remember what, but ever so much leas. 'Do you think she is too tall?" Mr. Frohman asked again. 'No. I think I can hold up my head as high as that" And for that answer I blessed Mr. Sothern. But my mind was taken with art and an engagement. en-gagement. He seemed to me embodied art. I did not think of him as a man until afterward. I was engaged as his leading woman. But it was odd wasn't it and most unpoetlc, that the first time I saw E. H.' he should be on crutches, and that the first time he saw me I should tell him a dreadful fib about my height?" v o A member of Mr. Ben Greet's dramatic dra-matic company tells this story about a fellow actor: It seems that during a tour which the company made through tho British provinces a performance was given one night In the nathe town of this actor. In a discussion of the fact, not long after, it was asked if the audience had given their fellow townsman a proper reception. "Yes," was the answer; "he was greeted with round after round of silence." si-lence." Harper's Weekly. O t Vaudeville lias lured Edna Wallace Hopper from the legitimate stage. She has signed a contract by which she Is to appear in a sketch by Cosmo Gordon Gor-don Lennox, beginning in Brooklyn on April 11th. It is stated by Robert Grau, who booked Mrs. Hopper's engagement, that her salary for ten weeks is to be $21,500. which, It is said, would be the highest price ever paid a vaudeville performer In America for more than on week's engagement. After being given In the large cities In tho East tho sketch will be taken to the Pacific coast, O l Mmc. Bernhardt has signed a contract for a tour of the United States next winter. Sardou's "The Sorceress" will be made the striking play In her repertory. rep-ertory. o a o Nellie Beaumont, an actress recently playing in Now York, was discovered by "the rich aunt from whom she ran away to follow a stage career eleven years ago. The aunt. Miss McDcrmott, emigrated from England to San Francisco Fran-cisco many years ago. On a visit to New York she thought that she saw the face of her niece on a poster, and at the Fourteenth Street theater that night she found her guess had been correct. A touching reunion behind the scenes followed, and the old lady asked the actress to return to California with her to live. Miss Beaumont's real name is Nellie Stubbs. Since she left her aunt's home In London sho has been a circus rldtir, a vaudeville performer and an actress. Kyrle Bellew will return to America In July and will then go to the Pacific coast, playing Denver and a few other Colorado cities and Salt Lake City en route. o o ft In the second act of "Plff, Paff. Pouf." the much announced "radium ballet" was given. The stage auditorium ivas made perfectly dark, then appeared sixteen girls of a pony ballet in a skipping skip-ping rope dance. Their white costumes had been painted with some preparation prepara-tion which made them glow In the dark like gigantic fireflies. "Eddie" Foy io given the leading part of Poter Pouf-fle, Pouf-fle, Foy appeared with the same clown make-up and red wig he always affects. af-fects. Next season Mrs. Flake expects to appear In Maeterlinck's "Monna Vanna" and a new play by C. M. S. MoLellan (Hugh Morton), which will develop, It is said, an original and powerful pow-erful character study. It is said James 1C Hackett is forming form-ing plans whereby he and his wife, Mary Mannerlng, will make a joint tour to tho Pacific coast. It Is understood that helr repertoire will include "Romeo "Ro-meo and Juliet,'' "The Lady of Lyons," "Don Caesar's Return." and a new play which Mr. Hackett Is holding In reserve. re-serve. Hackett and his wife have not acted together slrce the production of "The Princess and the Butterfly," in 189S. It was during the run of that play that Mr. Hackett and Miss Manning Man-ning were married. An Indian drama, "v'Nisowassa," was produced a few days ago in Milwaukee. Milwau-kee. The piece wus written by Jacob Kurtz of that city, and founded on a legend of the Winnebago and Menominee Menomi-nee tribes. Curiously enough, tho play was acted in German. It was well received. re-ceived. Clyde Fitch, within the next four months, expects to write two plays, one for Clara Bloodgood. Mr. Fitch will do most of his work in Sicily, where he wrote "Her Own Way." The comedy com-edy for Miss Bloodgood Is to be called "The Coronet of the Countess," and the other play, for Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, Gil-bert, will be called "Grandma." . r. -n As might be supposed, the playwrights play-wrights are not neglecting the chances afforded by the present Eastern war. "The White Tigress of Japan" is the latest drama based on the subject. c Nowadays those who follow the stage may have odd experiences, in which even long wilks may tate a part. Still, they possibly had It wors-f: In older days. A friend of Munden, the English comedian, saw an actress walking up and down both sides of the street of a little provincial town In England and knocking at every door to deliver playbills play-bills tor her benefit and her recitations. Sho was dressed in a red woolen cloak, such as used to be worn by servants. This was afterward Mrs. Slddons, the great Sarah Slddons, then a member of her father's strolling company. Vol In Syracuse recently Adelina Pattl told a reporter how she had been teaching music to a little American girl. "This Httl3 girl," she said, "Is a delight. Her questions and answers are as entertaining as a comedy. Tho other day I was explaining to her the meaning of the signs T and 'ff.' 'F ' I said, 'means forte. Now if f means forte, what does fr mean?" 'Eighty,' said the little girl." M Extenshe preparations are being made for the production of a spectacle, 'Loul3lana." in St. Ixnils during th exposition in Dclmar Gardens. Tho plere will hav; historical and musical features, with vaudeville interpolations. interpola-tions. The book and lyrics have be .mi written by H. W. Hayes, the music by Charles Kunkcl, Gustav Krrker and A. Baldwin Sloano. The company will number from 300 to 350 rorsohs. Among those who will appear in the cast are Maud Lambert, Eva Tanguay, Zlma Rawlston. Frances Merton, Matilda Prevllle, Will H. Sloan, Ed J. Connellv. Sylvian Langois, George E. Mack. W. T. Sisslns, Sol Solomon and A Furlong. Fur-long. One of the features of the play will be a canal, fifteen feet wide, whU-h will extend across the pavilion Immediately Imme-diately In front of the stage Upon thl 3 canal numerous of the characters will make their entrances in craft of various kinds. The action for libel brought by Ku-belik, Ku-belik, the violinist, against the Frankfurter Frank-furter Zeltung has been dismissed the court deciding that the pappr's description de-scription of Kuballk's playing as being a "specialty" and his expression being "stupid and brooding" did not pass tho limits permissible to criticism. x S During a performance of "Mrs. Wlggs of the Cabbage Patch" nt Ford's theater in Baltimore, a man in the audience au-dience put a lighted cigar In Ills pocket and the smoke arising from the burning burn-ing cloth scured several of the spectators. specta-tors. A naval officer explained tho cause of the smoke and restored quiet, u A woman who calls herself Grace B. Hughes has brought suit in the United States Circuit court to restrain David Belasco from continuing to give "Sweet Kitty Bellalra," on the ground that a year ago she wrote a play called "Swect Jasmine," which, she says, contained similar scenes to several In the Belasco play. These, she says, could have been taken only from her work. Mrs, Hughes points out 149 alleged other similarities. Her play Is of modern life In London. The Belasco play is confessedly founded upon Agnes Eger-ton Eger-ton Castle's "Bath Comedy," laid in 17D3. Mrs. Hughes doesn't say whero the foundation for her play came from, but she points out that the color scheme of both plays is green, and a lawn effect in green The complainant pays she has a friend who is a friend rTTthat' war Belasco- ; K of Belasco, and masterpiece. - , ,f may have got anotner. . , It is noticeable . that He , v 1 1 H iure ahvays , "o(fj,.a ch the effortstPfi IP quite amusing o Tja". rom W 'Ult Jm Charr&, ;iCS5SSctlo?,nCnnd ff M Four yXuiq M , singing in ''Tne dct Gir , succumbed to . the a ntm0rnent that she - Hent word at the last irl wno could not uPP' Jl Sio part vcku- WHJ H had never ndtc "if ner place. And H larly. erC qLh o Wynne, who W ; H that is how little BeSHie N t. m W H is now the Tom Tom in Shef' I 1 H Toyland," SSS; Tin "The . J fa H made her first Wff s"CCjJ vnyaa fori' f Wizard of OZMW 1M H months at the Majesuu. , Maraslrtf. jl |