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Show THEATRICAL TOPICS. k SOME SAYINQS AND DOINGS IN STACELAND. I'ewpl Who It Is From Their Seati Be for the Curtain Oc Down Depleted M IMnplcaMv tlui Opera V, Drama Note of the Mayhem... A Scathing Indictment. correspondent of the Boston Transcript, Tran-script, who writes over the signature "Not a Matinee Girl,' and who Is, therefore, presumptively presump-tively a woman, draws this Indictment Indict-ment of one of the most exasperating , ..... . ,. the many well intrenched theatrical plagues: "Thanks to the persistent and oft-repeated wail of the 'better-half 'better-half of the theater-going public, the well-directed efforts of the press, the ridicule of the 'rldiculist,' and the hearty support of the management, the 'theater hat' itself Is a thins of the past. But the end is not yet. The long suffering can at least nee the stage for a time -but the actor neither his side of the question nor the author's has been presented. No one unconnected with the theater knows how conscientiously and earn-nestly earn-nestly the actor works to please his public and to win just a modicum of recognition. Yet the public Is as thoughtless of him as the hat-ridden , woman was of the man behind her, utterly Ignoring the right of the au- tnor and the actor to proclaim the existence ex-istence of the last 200 or .100 words -" the former thought necessary to the complete elucidation of his plot. The very best efforts of the actor to render ren-der those words intelligently and intelligibly in-telligibly are destroyed by the noisy throwing up of seats, the diving under them for hats and wraps, the replacing of fans and glasses preparatory to a grand rush for the exit, thereby furnishing fur-nishing the struggling actor a more lifelike idea of a panic than with all his art and arduous rehearsals he can .' MARION ever reproduce for theatric purposes. If the management of the different theaters the-aters Is really serious and wants to help to complete the good work, and ithe public refuses to be persuaded to sit out six or eight minutes more of the entertainment furnished them, 1 suggest a mode generally in vogue abroadi. e., that the owner surrender ,hls or her hat at the door, for which a check Is given, and the hat returned sit the close of the performance. This Is due to those few who paid for and wish to see an entire performance, and courteously and quietly sit until the fall of the curtain, at which time (again Imitating their brothers 'across the pond') a slight demonstration of approval would be far more apropos than the spasmodic applause which greets the actor as he makes bis entrance, en-trance, causiug frequent interruptions of the dialogue and killing the Illusion Illu-sion aimed at by both actor and author," au-thor," , Opera V. Drawn. The proposed return of Maurice Grau to America with his magnificent opera company has raised again in New York the old issue; Does the Metropolitan season of opera injure the business 'of the regular theaters? On this point that careful observer, Hillary Bell, says: "Undoubtedly -,... Maurice Grau will claim part ol the moneys which the drama somewhat 11- logically regards as Its own. Last season the Metropolitan being closed until the arrival of Walter Damrosch, even the grand opera patrons were compelled to depend for their ocea-eional ocea-eional entertainment on the theater. Yet if is to be observed that the great proportion of the amount earned by grand opera would not in any case be "f expended upon the play, In a good f season Mr. Grau takes in about $700,-C0O $700,-C0O at the Metropolitan. When His company) was absent, as 1t was last winter, possibly jr.0,000 of that sum Is fpent in the theater. The remaining $050,000 is invested in diamonds or allowed al-lowed to lie in uanks. The drama Eokes a frequent protest that Its rlgnt- ful earnings go to the support of grand opera, but the claim is not to be approved. ap-proved. The Metropolitan patrons are rarely seen at the play. Sarah Bernhardt, Bern-hardt, Henry Irving and Eleonora Duse attract sorue of them to, the theater, the-ater, but In the great majority of instances in-stances they have received vivid impressions im-pressions of acting at the Metropolitan which are not maintained in the play. Our theater possesses no such come dienne or tragedienne as Mine. Calve, no romantic actor who can rival Jean de Reszke, no comedian equal in humor hu-mor to Edouard de Reszke, no tragedian traged-ian or character actor whose art approaches ap-proaches that of Vicor Maurel. Tlfe histrionic skill of certain of the great singers far surpasses that of our regular regu-lar actors that the grand opera people peo-ple are not attracted by John Drew, Maude Adams, Richard Mansfield or Viola Allen. Therefore it is evident that the extravagant amount of money spent in the Metropolitan wonld not in any case be given to the drama. Last winter, when the opera house was closed, the theater, instead of being more prosperous than usual, had less than its customary support. It is a curious commentary on the art of the actor that the arrival of a circus in town will deflect more money from theatric treasuries than is withheld from them by a season of grand opera. Our managers need not. fear Maurice Grau and Mme. Melba so much as Bar-num Bar-num and Huffalo Bill." Au A oiuplixhml ActrcKn. Marion Glroux was born in New York city. In 1872, and made her professional debut In E. K. Rice's "Adonis," during the third year of its run at the Bijou theater. She made her first pronounced hit as Dorothy Neville, in E. Hj Soth-ern's Soth-ern's production of "Sheridan, or the Bk. ...... Maid of Hath." She afterward took the place of Georgie C'Hyvan in "The Grey Mare." She this season appears as Mrs. Smith, In Geo. H. Broadhurst's new farce, "Why Smith Left Home," which is under the management of J. J. Rosenthal. Note, of the State- ,Lew Doekstader some years ago became be-came heavily involved pecuniarily and it looked as if his liabilities were ol such an amount that he. would nevei be able to pay his creditors; but hi G1ROUX. went to work on a salary and one bj one lie settled witn tnem, anu auei four or five years of incessant labor h was at last able to reach the end ol the long list of claimants. Today h is able to say, "I owe no man." Lew Dockstader's courage is to be commended. com-mended. Such men are a credit to the profession. The recent shake up in leading men is settled. Annie Russell gets Frank Worthing, recently with Paly. Worth ing's place with Viola Allen is taken by Edward J. Morgan, the extremely bright young man of late with the Lyceum, and Kyrle Bellew stays in London with Charles Wyndhara. Bel-lew Bel-lew and Mrs. Potter, by the way, can hardly be at violent odds as she has rented to him her house in St. John's Wood, London, while she lives next door with her father and mother. The only place where violin making may be said to constitute the industry is Marknetikirchen, in Saxony, with its surrounding villages. There are allo-gether, allo-gether, 15,000 people in this district engaged en-gaged exclusively in the manufacture of violins. The inhabitants, from the smalt boy to the gray-haired and wrinkled veteran and aged grandmother grandmoth-er nnd young girls, are all constantly employed in making some part or other of this instrument. i A melodrama by Theodore Burt, Sayre. "Sir Hllliary's Wager," was per formed at a London matinee by American Am-erican actors. There are two heroes, a father and his son, in the days of Charles II in England. The father becomes be-comes a highwayman, the son Is mistakenly mis-takenly arrested as the criminal, and the former delivers himself up to save the latter. James K. Hackott plays the dual role, and may do so again in this country. Richard Mansfield, who Is to produce pro-duce "Cyrano de Bergerac" In this country, has gone to London to witness wit-ness the performance of M. Coquelin, the eminent French actor, in that pLuy, which Is now running at the Lyceum theater there. BELLE A MAZEPPA. SENORITA MONICA LASHED TO STALLION. Atrocious Deed of Spanish (itierlllm (saved by liana of Patriots Uer Tormentor Captured anil Shot by the KevoIutlonlHt. -sg HERE is one wom an in this country who rejoiced exceedingly ex-ceedingly at the triumph tri-umph of our arms against the Spaniards. Span-iards. This is the beautiful Miss Va- xv leucia Monica, who ;tv ' is now living in V. San Antonio, Tex. She is an exile from the island of Porto Rico, and now that the American army has taken possession of the country this beautiful young lady is unable to exnress her joy over the prospect of returning to har lnrv HIT. ..... w uuuie. iMo oouDt, she says, "everything will be greatly changed, but there "is no other spot on earth so lovely as our island, and it will not be long under the reign of peace before the fields will yield rich harvests and we will all be happy again." Miss Monica Is the heroine of a most remarkable escape from the hands of tho Spaniards. About a year ago she was in Cuba, and in company with a family of reconcentrados she attempted to make the Journey across th emm- try from the little interior plantation of Palma " ,UO 01 aiming some opportunity at the latter place to escape to the United States. An officer, with a spark of humanity in his boeom, touched by the miserable condition of the unfortunates, furnished fur-nished them with a pass and assured the young lady that no soldiers would harm them. They had an old cart, in which they had loaded a few articles of clothing and a scant supply of provisions. pro-visions. Miss Monica rode an old donkey, don-key, which had been given to her by one of the faithful negroes of her father's fath-er's Cuban plantation. They met several sev-eral columns of soldiers, who did not molest them, and they were beginning to congratulate themselves over their good fortune, when one evening, just FIRED as they were preparing to camp, a dozen or more Spanish guerrillas galloped gal-loped up to the cart and overturned it. The young lady showed her pass to the brute who appeared to be In command, and made a piteous appeal to him to leave them undisturbed. She might as well have talked to the stones in the hills. The man could not read and, to add to the terror he had already excited, ex-cited, Miss Monica discovered that the euerrillns were all very drunk. They helped themselves to the provisions found In the cart. The leader of the gang, after offering the young lady a drink from bis bottle, staggered against her and made an attempt to take her face in his hands. Now thoroughly thor-oughly alarmed and preferring death to dishonor, the little Cuban quickly drew a stiletto from her bosom and sprang at the monster's throat, barely grazing his beard with the keen blade. His comrades laughed and hurrahed and made all kinds of sport of their leader. The young lady's knowledge of the character and spirit of the Cuban Cu-ban guerilla led her to believe that she had aroused a spark of chivalry In the men, and she appealed to them for protection. They did force the monster mon-ster to let the "pretty little tigress," as they called her, alone, and, after some moments they went Into camp, or rather stretched themselves out under un-der the trees a short distance away from the cart "I cannot tell you what happened or at least repeat one-half of the horrors of that terrible night," said Miss Monica. Mon-ica. "I cannot recall it without a shud der. While drinking and carousing they butchered the man who waa with us with their machetes and laughed at his dying agonies. One threw a lariat over my neck, and after they had dis- armed me they bound my handa to a mm? .tree." ' A veryptght circumstance doubtlesa saved t&' young lady from a fate worse taa death, though it subjected her to o of the most frightful ordeals ever endred by mortal flesh. One o the guerrillas came into the camp lading a very wild-looking black stallion which he, in his drunken reck-lessnest reck-lessnest declared was the devil's own saddle horBe. it appeared that they had just stolen the fine animal and that he had thrown everyone who had mounted him. "Do you think you could ride him, my little tigress?" said one of the guerrillas, approaching Miss Monieft and making an attempt to become familiar. fa-miliar. He? .answer, which was, "I should like nothing better than to try," seemed to tickle the desperate characters charac-ters immensely. HiH Monica says that she hardly knows why she made such an answer. She realized that she had no chance of escaping from the drunken drunk-en set and would willingly have exchanged ex-changed her position fr the back of the wildest horBe in thcV world. "All right," shouted the guerria chief, "the little tiger came near cutting my throat and I will just send her id the devil on horseback." 't ts The big guerrilla seized till young girl in his arms and running to the wild horse which five or six howllng devils were at that moment lashatng to a tree, he threw her across the animal's ani-mal's back and shouted to his corafkades to fetch ropes. "Let us have siionae fun," he roared. "Lash the little r rebel to the wild devil's back and turn loose, and we will chase her off of island and save somebody the trouble of slaying her." This remarkable language was received re-ceived with shouts and laughter, and the next moment a dozen or more of these fiends were hurrahing and binding bind-ing the terrified girl to the little less terrified horse. Before Miss Monica realized what her tormentors were doing do-ing one of the wretches cut tie rope that was about the horse's neck and fired a pistol. The frightened animal sprang into the air and struck the earth a-runnlng. Pistol balls rained about him. but, unharmed, he seemed to sail above the earth with the wind, and was soon beyond the reach of the guerrillas. For the first few moments Miss Monica says that she had little hope of escaping with her life, but when she had recovered breath and UPON. saw that the horse had a wide expanse of treeless territory In front of him she began to hope that some fortunate circumstance might interpose in her behalf. Her good angel had not deserted de-serted her. A company of Cuban soldiers, who had been following the guerrillas, were riding slowly over the open plain that the wild horse with ht3 burden of beauty was traversing. The Cubans heard the horse coming, and they halted, suspecting that one of their men was being pursued. A full moon was sailing in a cloudless sky, and long before the wild horse reached the Cuban column those in front were puzzled as to the burden on the flying animal's back. They were, however, not left tn doubt for many moments. The wild horse was very nearly exhausted, ex-hausted, and tho moment he saw other horses he ran among them and stopped He was completely frightened out of his senses and so weak that he made no attempt to move when a soldier threw a rope over his neck. The Cubans could hardly believe their own eyes when they found a young lady lashed to the back of the wild horse, and when Miss Monica had somewhat re covered and told her friends how It had all occurred there was no limit to the fury that prevailed in the camp. Many of the Cubans knew Miss Monica's father, and the officers were powerless power-less to control the frenzied soldiers in their desire to be avenged at once. They knew the location of the guerrilla camp, and they demanded to be led against the Inhuman wretches Immediately. Imme-diately. Never did a set of land pirates pay more dearly for their deviltry. Th Cubans fell upon their camp about sunrise, while they were yet paralyzed with liquor, and they shot everyone of them to death except the leader of the gang, who waa captured and hung later In the day. fVlm thV LN THE ODD CORNEB. AND CURIOUS THINGS AND EVENTS. 4UEER be Old Skipper's Crul.e Atf Kineteen Tear of Strang: Wonderful Won-derful Adventure Wat Derrick H Inland for the I.a.t Time. KreoiuE- out in l" "And Isaac went field to tieditate at eventide." Go forth at morning's birth. Mien the slad sun, exulting in his might, ;omes from the dusky-curtained tentu niRht, Shedding his gifts of beauty oer the earth; ... iVhen sounds of busy are am air, knd man awakes to labor and to w. Then hie thee forth; pro out amm tny kind, Tny daily tasks to do, thy Sheaves to bind. harvest Go forth at noontide hour, aneah the heat and burden of the day . Pursue the labors of thine onward w-ry Nor murmur if thou miss life mom- tug flower, Where'er the footsteps of mankind an found . , Thou may'st discern some ppot or lowed ground. Where dutv blossoms even as me Chough sharp and stinging thorns beauteous bud enclose. the (3o forth at eventide, When scrunds of loll no more the sou air When 'e'en the hum of Insect lire is stm. Anrt the hird's. aone on evenings breeze has died; 9a forth, as did the pain are n u. . L&d commune wun my lily syn II 3 in""1" ' :Uearn ... that inly mysteries ot inc. " trth at eventide, Go Hie 4 Vleld vhen the trees to l he passing iVentide of summer, r frail honors hi id, oodland paths with autumn And t dyed. mild sun ms pui's luster When h s draperies of gomeo au, In gorgerj rheh wai lder focth, mid beamy " oay, j to watch and niaditiJ' alone aione pray at eventide. Go forth iih thine own bosom, kmu u jommunp. t lid Impulses of waywara wu., ... .Ill Check tbe 4 the nothingriess oi " And learn line to act. noon to enuu.r ion wouUlst keep thy spirit Morn Is the Y But, oh. if beaten path by worldlings rum from thFT trod, ntide, in heart to wain u tut lii ei i r ner'i At Crulae. Old Skip il nunatch: Ad- From the , .shwt-. crew and an ferse winds, a V. 1 ter wlth jagged rocks nfriejUjlneauJ3 oic0 the ft . :' ruuricu . aTrfer" ricks. The old tar tnv o atinrt time the!; was In Pittsburg wandered about Unionth(f and disconsolate manner. ,!' 8tat'on .B . t nnio ,v,0JlHe was on his way to di. i..iuis, ; tea hid enn HtrAO and where he proposes S f tn end hla dai-R with nothing to remt iUnd him nf the broad Atlantic except jthe muddy wat- To the DIs-j DIs-j related a few ry. Leaving his Is of New Hamp- grs of the Mississippi Dateh man he briefly bits of personal histo home in the White Hil. Bhire, Wat steered ft VSd- Boston, where he fell in with the cap uf f nni mute on a wh;n, s" ""'i'1 sail for Arctic waters. H ller about to two vears. making enough e wa sone the voyage to buy a half intet mon?y Lonzo, a bark of the "traml in the Two years later he was maste.' "db, boat "and engaged in trade aloft oi Atlantic coast, continuing In tli," uo until the war with Spain occurri'at llne that time the skipper was off h At Ida coast, bound for New York Vj Hor-a,n Hor-a,n assorted cargo. Herricks saidt w'h a revenue v,ULlv-i ..v.y. bark was two days under way, te him that he had better keep his "we. er eye open," that war had been dec ed against Spain, nnd that his bJ might be taken by the bpanisii as nlze. Instead of putting in at tn! . nr.ff ttio T rn?n ennllnilnd heme HCttlC&l PJ1 L HIV. w....v. ......v. ..v lourney northward with all canvas On the night of April 27 she encoun tered a gale which threw her agains tho rocks at Cape Hatteras, batterin;. the bark to pieces. The crew am! Skipper Herricks were saved by the coast service corps. but the cargo, valued at $ir,000, was last. This tale of the old salt, told in his own peculiar style, punctuating the narration here and there with a deep sigh, and finishing the story with a jerk at his trousers and a sort of "What-is-to-be-w ill-be" expression on his countenance. This he continued to wear as he boarded the southwest-bound southwest-bound train, remarking, instead of the customary adieu, "I hope this 'ere iron ooss'll land me In St. Louis all right." Nature's Tunny Screak. Some pleasant day this fall, when eome of you are out hazel-nutting or strolling In the woods looking for moss nd ferns, you may come across a curious insect. Perhaps you may pick up what you think is a small twig and will be surprised to feel it move in your hand. Upon looking closely at it you will see that you are holding a litt ls creature, whose struggles to escape and B'.Wenlng pinheads o! eyss show that It 13 nuite as interested in lif and the pursuit of happiness as you are. Helen Johnson recently nan such in experience experi-ence while walking in the woods near East Aurora, and sent to the home of-flc8 of-flc8 s Cite living specimen, which attracted at-tracted much attention. The walklng-Btick, walklng-Btick, ta it is commonly called, Is known to science by the ponderous name of diapheromera femorata, and belongs to the order of insects in-sects called orthoptera. which ta-ltfuds ta-ltfuds so many of nature's 1ml- n-ilHthom !s I burn s A the I 5 I... V hr?" IT 1 1 doing business along tnl"." l l his first employer be ren?' as AMth years, leaving his service i('aine1 ht , t has many STbc rfety fouud in Europe. Zv England, the middle and souttera states of this country is wingless, and a tree that it can hardly be dfartta-euished dfartta-euished from it. Our tiny friend feed on the leaves of trees and bushes, and when disturbed walks awkwardly aw&y as though it had never walked before. Aa it rarelv moves except when mo-kited, mo-kited, and its legs are long and of few joints it is easy to see that it does no! t much practice in walking. The similarity to a twig with little branches extending from it 1b made still mor perfect by its coloring. In the summer sum-mer tbe body is pale green, which turns to a reddish tint and then to a dui; brown as autumn advances. It usual' ly dies when the first frost comes. Th mother stick is very careless with hef which are quite large, leavtna them anywhere under the trees, trust ing to nature to develop tnem. tnt sticks are about four inches Ion in this climate, but have been found in the tropics over a foot in length and, an inch in diameter. They used to be considered poisonous, but are quit harmless. Dame Nature must bavi been in a humorous mood when sh made this family of curios, but undoubtedly un-doubtedly has wisely adapted them t the purpose for which they were tn tended. The scientist would probablj gay that only those that more an3 more successfully eopied the twigs wf not destroyed by enemies, until at taaj sue has been able to surprise and amuse us with the present species.-Chicago species.-Chicago Record. I.oed Big I'orpo1- New London. Conn., Telegram: Fo several weeks Long Island Sound has been well populated with porpoises, ot puffing pigs" as the sailors call them, and the odd-looking fish whicn alway attract attention by their graceful an-, tics in the sea have been caught in numbers in various ways speared, with ewordflsh harpoons, entangled to fish pounds and overtaken when help lessly stranded on shelving saaol beaches. The oddest capture tn tftht line reported this season was the lassoing las-soing of a porpoise off Faulkner's island by the crew of the tug Castle, employed by the United States En gineer Corps and stationed at this city. The Castle was on her way from New Haven to New London when a shoal ol porpoises was encountered, and one of them, a big fellow weighing 258 pounds, began playing about the vessel ves-sel after the manner peculiar to these fish. So close did the porpoise shoo! alongside that a new stiff heaving Un was hastily made into a running bowline bow-line and then thrown as a lasso at th fish as it came out of the water with the rolling motion characteristic oi these creatures. The bowline prilled .-"-.' j hodv. and then slipped down to its tail. There tn rope held fast, and the porpoise wai then pulled aboard by the combined efforts of the crew. When the fleh wa finally landed on the Castle's deck 11 created such a distrnbance that an ax had to be used to quiet it. The porpoise por-poise was brought here and is being exhibited to admiring crowds at the Castle's wharf. It is fully nine feel long. Capt. Albert Earle, the jollj skipper of the Castle, who vouches foi the truth of the story of the lassoing of the fish, is one of the best known yacht captains and steam vessel handlers han-dlers in the sound. Insuranoe Against Hall In Iown. The farmers of Iowa are making successful suc-cessful a system of insurance againsf hail, a company organized for that purpose pur-pose at Des Moines five years ago hav ing now more than 30,000 policies and more than $10,000,000 In risks covering cover-ing over 2,000,000 acres of farmlnj lands. It has paid in losses ?7,000 U 1893, $35,000 in 1894. $81,000 In 18S5, $281,000 in 1896, and $204,000 in 1891 or a total of $000,000. The averag assessment has been seven cents pel acre per year. The concern is mutually mutual-ly co-operative. Members pay a fee oi $2 and two mills on the amount on which insurance is asked, and the association as-sociation insures its members, theii heirs or assigns, against loss or d'amagi by hail to the growing crops to an amount not to exceed $600 on 160 acres according to government survey. N loss is paid which occurs later tbaj the 20th of September. This form ol Insurance protection against a dan.;i which constantly menaces western farming has been found as satisfactory in practical test, it is said, as the tornado tor-nado associations of the same region A farmer whose crops are injured' and who does not receive pecuniary com- nensatirin i..,u. .. ... r uuoiiei or Uie Kino V)f grain destroyed for each 100 busheU Aaised by the other members nf th j-operative company. I'nlreraal Cipher Code. ll ( lpner code cabling, with its nnssi. ilitles of condensation and corre-oonding corre-oonding saving In tolls, has reached ich proportions that it has been found cJorth while to issue a universal cipher V(oo ot nearly 150.000 words. Tha Ca'iume is issued by the International str)le Directory Company at 30 Broad TetPt, and is called the Western Union Cabgraphic Code and International there." directory. Besides the coda dres.4 la a directory giving the cable ad-iudivifs ad-iudivifs of leading business firms and ada. duals in this country and Can-its Can-its klnThle is the first publication ol cipher 1? In the English language. The poses ofaature Is obviously not for par-Many par-Many ot secrecy, but for condensation, meuts wL the words stand for state-phrases state-phrases olch would otherwise require The volunf several words to express, ever print is th largest public code at $5. ! In English, and la sold Why Q' V a calic i1'1 the woman who wears appear Jn print? lit lorn j Deptl |