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Show PLAYS AND PLAYERS. Thomas W. Ross, formerly of Salt Lake, since his great success in "Checkers," "Check-ers," has rqcelvcd numerous offers from different managers and playwrights to star In other plays. But he sagely remarks: re-marks: "It Isn't difficult to star, but it Is seemingly Impossible to find another 'Checkers.' . A good actor may be a big factor, but without the play well, look at Collier with his three attempts during dur-ing the first half of the season, nnd others. Besides, I am bound to Mr. La Shelle for ten years, and judging from the business which 'Checkers' Is doing, do-ing, I am likely to spend all the time in that play." a Ethel Harte, a daughter of Bret Harte, made her debut as a concert singer with the D'Oyley Carte Opera comDajy In London recently. "He had ' a play produced by an amateur company the other night, I believe. Who was the hero of it, do you -know?" "I was one. I sat through It." Philadelphia Phil-adelphia Ledger. "D'Annunzlo's new play, "Jarlo's Daughter," has not been received In Rome with unqualified approval. The author Is pralped for the music of his poetry, the beauty of his rhetoric and his ability to dazzle the auditors for a time, but the weak structural quality of the drama Is said to be clearly defined. "Ivan the Terrible" has In the original orig-inal play no reference to horses, but In the bread riots In the square on the banks of the river Moskva, In act three, Mansfield has again mnde an equine opening. In all other plays he uses five thoroughbred horses. But In "Ivan the Terrible," the scene represents the people, peo-ple, starving, in winter, the ground is covered with snow, the carts and sledges crowd the market place and the touch of reality is given by the poor old lean horses In the droshkye. By the way, Mr. Mansfield has an old habit for which no one about him Is able to give any explanation. No matter what the horse Is or how many there are, he always al-ways calls tITem by all the same name, Rex. It Is a kind of John Doe equine appellation, the origin of which Is a secret se-cret with the actor, it Indeed, there Is any. The religious, supernatural, mediaeval mediae-val and romantic surroundings of "The Proud Prince" have given Mr. Sothern unusual opportunity for brilliant pictorial pic-torial effects. His largo company presents pre-sents a gorgeous series of stage pictures. pic-tures. Mrs. Langtry has concluded a long American tour of thirty-two weeks and sailed toe E-Dgla,nd, Sh.Q expressed great pleasure at the success of tho tour, which she said was tho best she had had for three years. She talked with great good humor over some of her experiences on the road. "I have hud a most delightful trip," she said, "somewhat out of the beaten bath, and with successions of onc-nlght and three-night stands, varied by an occasional occa-sional three weeks' stop 11 has been most remarkably free from accidents Only once . did our-englnc get off the tracks, and I think I have been one of the most fortunate of women." Mrs. Langtry will sail for Australia In June for an extended tour. Lawrence D'Oi'JViy was asked the other day what he thought of the growing grow-ing custom of wearing a soft hat with evening dress. ' Quite correct, deah boy." he replied, cheerfully. "Strictly In keeping, don't you know." "What do you mean?" asked Thomas W. Ross, the star of "Checkers." who happened to be present. "Why Is it In keeping?" "Aw, because, deah boy, only a man with a soft head would do such a thing, and aw that Is the sort of a hat ho should wear, bun Juwvc'.' "Urn! Matter of opinion," commented Ross, who hates the conventional opera hat as he does a bad orchestra. O D 9 J. I-J. Stoddard has been asked to dc-Iher dc-Iher an address on 'Scottish Manners and Customs" before a Caledonian society so-ciety in a town he will visit "next week, lie writes Kirko La Shclle, his manager, man-ager, that he will not say what town It Is, because ho does not know how he Is going to tell his audience anything about the matter which they have chosen for his s'ubjecl. He. 19 playing the Dominie in "The Bonnie Brier Bush." and ho does it so naturally that he cannot persuade people he is not deeply versed In Scottish lore. He knows a great deal about It, of course, us a well educated man, but he Is not a Scot, as many people think he 13 after seeing him in this charming play. o Henry W. Savage has .secured a five years' lease on the Shaftesbury theater. London. Under his direction several American successes will be put on there, among them "The Prince of Pilsen." Pil-sen." "The Sultan of Sulu," "Peggy from Paris" and "The Yankee Consul." Con-sul." William Gillette was seeking a young flfl Villi!-! o Vmillii... r.n..- I "Esmeralda," which he had dramatized drama-tized with tho author of tho story. Mrs. Francos Hodgson Burnett. Annie Russell Rus-sell answered an advertisement. She was In short dresses, with her hair down her back, and 16 years old. "Now, my little girl, run back to your good mother and your Sunday-fichool Sunday-fichool lesson," said the dramatist kindly. kind-ly. "Tho stage Is not for such as you. Run along, my dear." The little girl obeyed dutifully, but with no Intent of accepting the dismissal dismis-sal as final. At the place where she was boarding was an actress who starred In the small towns In "East Lynne," and from her Annie Russell borrowed an elaborate stage gown, with a long train which she plastered with jewelry, also borrowed; she put on hlgh-hceled shoes and piled her hair on the top of her head. Thus arrayed she again applied to Mr. Gillette for the position. He talked with'her without a suspicion that he had seen her before, and later he said to the manager: "Well, I think that girl might do. Of course we can easily make her look younger, and some good fairy will have to teach her how to drees. But she is certainly the most Intelligent looking applicant wo have had." And that is how Annie Russell secured se-cured tho engagement that made her fame. Everybody's Magazine. i "Ever since the Iroquois theater fire all the playhouses In the United States have been given extraordinary protection," protec-tion," said Warren J. Ferguson, a well-known well-known theatrical man. "As the danger is the greatest from conflagration of the scenery, most of the later equipment is on the order of tanks placed above the stage, which would let down upon It a volume of water wa-ter in cast; of fire. In this connection I saw an amusing thing happen some time since in Rochester, while Alice Nielsen was performing' In 'The Fortune For-tune Teller.' "It appears that this tank contrivance contriv-ance could be put In operation merely by pressing a button, and one of the stage hands ignorantly or unconsciously unconscious-ly gave the pressure at the time the lady was doing her best to entertain her audience. All of a sudden there fell upon her a drenching volume of water, which lor the time put an end to further fur-ther dramatic action. Very luckily she had the stage all to herself, or else the whole chorus would have been baptized. She wus undaunted, however, by the mishap, and finished her act in "street costume." Washington Post. w "Man Proposes" has been described as "a 'Cousin Kate' sort of a play, with a beautiful love story." The fact that the hero role gives Henry' Miller a chance to display to the fullest advantage advan-tage the grace, skill and versatility of his art, and to demonstrate he has not lost any of the elegance and delicacy of touch which made his light comedy so popular during his previous visits, should be an additional recommendation. recommenda-tion. a "The Other Girl," which holds the highest record for success of any of Augustus Thomas's plays ever presented present-ed in New York, now is moving along triumphantly in the new Empire theater thea-ter toward the 150th performance. It is drawing capacity audiences and probably proba-bly will reach the end of Its season In this house with the same record of big business. Its fun iy of a sort which the theater-goers of the metropolis readily appreciate and thoroughly understand. The acting Is of a high standard, as Charles Frohman has put into it a ro-markable ro-markable cast, which includes the great comedy sextette, Lionel Barrymore, Joseph Jo-seph Wheelock, Jr., Richard Bennett, Frank Worthing and Elsie and Drlna Do Wolfe. Mr. Thompson, who was the associate of Ada Rohan in the old stock company days, and who is one of the best character char-acter actors In tlie country, Is a delight de-light as M. Juvenal. He Is probably the only player in the United States who rather resents being a star. "If I can go down with the reputation reputa-tion of being a first-class stock actor, it Is all that I can ask for." he said to me. "In tho old days it was a great honor to be a star, but now It is no great distinction. There arc no parts I ever played that I would give 5 cent3 to play again, except thoso hi which I was extremely bad." And this from a man who began his stage career as a call-boy In the old Broadway theater; who made his first appeai'anco as a page In "Romeo and Juliet"; who has played more than 1200 parts, and "created" upward of 170 Important Im-portant characters. Everybody's Magazine. Mag-azine. 0 Fran Clara Sudermann, wife of the celebrated German dramatist, has Just made her debut In Berlin as a playwright play-wright and her Initial efTort has been crowned, with success jrhe critics are j unanimous in the verdict that sho has a great future in this line of work, and are unstinted In their praise of her first play. The piece is called "Lazy Mary." and the chief character Is the duuzhter of a reformed demi-monde. Frau Sudernian's delineation of this character, the critics agree, Is quite equal to her distinguished husband's best work and follows him closely In analytical style. When Henry M. Blossom wrote the "Yankee Consul" he laid the tvene In Puerto Pita, on the Island of San Domingo, Do-mingo, because he thought that thre would be littlo likelihood of the real American Consul In that town, If there Is one, ever turning up to object. But he reckoned without his host, for last night an elderly man with a long, brownish red beard came to the box office of the Broadway theater and bought two seats In the gallery, with the casual remark that he was the real American Consul at Puerto Plata. The press agent rushed after him into the gallery, and there learned from his card that he was Thomas Simpson, and had been the Yankee Consul at Puerto Plata for twenty years. He Is now In this city on a sick leave, he said. Mr. Hitchcock's Yankee Consul In the play Is a young man, lazy, Inordinately fond of strong drink and not adverse to pretty faces. The real consul, whoso personal appearance suggested an antipodal an-tipodal character, watched the first act with much Interest. When it was over lie said: "Well. It's not half so funny as real life In Puerto Plata. Why, I once saw In a revolution there a band of rebels try to capture a gunboat, armed with rifles in plenty, but possessing pos-sessing only thirty cartridges among them." Ho was taken back on the stago between acts and introduced to Mr. Hitchcock and the rest of the company, com-pany, Including the chorus. He said he had never been behind the scenes In a theater before. New York Tribune. William Gillette in exceeding finicky so far as his own stage costume Is concerned, con-cerned, although his garb is unobtrusive unobtru-sive as possible off the stage. While he was playing "Sherlock Holmes'" he had his nails highly polished each night, and his hands made pink by rubbing rouge between the fingers before be-fore powder was applied to them. Another An-other difference between the stage Gillette Gil-lette and the man in private Is in the matter of tobacco. It is said of him that he never appears In a play without with-out smoking. Even in "The Admirable Crlchton," In which ho' has been so successful suc-cessful In New York, where the comedy com-edy ran for months, he smokes a pipe. In "Sherlock Holmes," "Secret Service," Serv-ice," "Held by the Enemy," "Too Much Johnson," and others of his plays he made omoklng a conspicuous feature of his characterization. Off the stage Mr. Gillette scarcely ever smokes. Everybody's Magazine. Wilton Lackaye the other day was called upon to address a few remarks to a woman's club, and he took for his theme the ever-popular one, "How to Be Happy." Lackaye's definition of happiness is interesting. According to his view Its very essence consists of "a curtained warm room, a little light, one chair, two lovers, night and a disabled dis-abled clock." '1JBJ !T |