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Show I 11 The Oeher-Fields Disappointment. 1 "You have never been to see Weber & Fields?" B m If The feeling expressed in this question by my con-I con-I (Si H Bcientious New York friend cannot be described. I 3p jj Sorrow, wonderment, compassion, horror, a hun-I hun-I TO 'ji dred emotions drawn through those brief words. m k He seemed dazed for a moment, and looked I Mr ti ar n snnce tn'ing to comprehend how anyone I IP If- could be so neglectful of a young man's education. H I He sent for the seats immediately. B 5 ij Down Broadway we elbowed with the thou- II I sands going to the playhouses. 1 In a little while we stood in front of the little t I white and gold music hall. "Nothing tonight," lj we heard through the crowd, "except these two- A gallery-back row," and the look of despair through M the sea of satin was almost pitiful. Outside the M rf speculators were harvesting:, with seats at three jr ' and Ave. In we went. The little house was 2 jammed and a smile of anticipation was on every (j - well-fed face. Every dutiful New Yorker and kl every visitor to the big city goes to Weber & I Fields' at least once, and this all-star aggregation, M W tnIs world famous bunch of beauty and wit, was 3 1 r-f about to appear before my poor rural eyes. la Would people notice how I acted, would I be- i & tray the oppressive awe and wonderment about to J '' come to my inland brain? I would try oh, so i,i hard to appear blase. U ' In a moment the aggregation opened up on us. 3 The merry-merries butted In doing the usual nier- v ;jj, ry-merry stunts. I made no noticeable demon- l J f, stration. i ' Then glory of glories, one L. Russell was urged '' to enter. Poor, dear old lady, but phenominal : 3 & lady. Girlish and chic with her fat and fifty-some she entered, looking like a Tiffany window. But Lillian is wise on the make up I might say the wisest, and when she gets a new wrinkle it is short lived. So far, all right. But some naughty naughty suggested that she sing, and she did. Instantly the lines came to me: "A Grand Piano underneath the Bough, A Gramaphone, a Chinese Gong and Thou Trying to sing an anthem off the key, Oh, Paradise were Wilderness enow." And then Fay Templeton appeared, but for no particular reason. A few nights before I had seen Joe Jefferson, and in response to an encore he made a pathetic little speech stating that he had probably played before the grand parents of those present. Neither of these ladies made a speech. Willie Wil-lie Collier and Pete Dailey are great, and Collier's wife, Louise Allen, as Mary Mac Pain, is the hit of the piece, which is classically termed "Twirly-Whirly." "Twirly-Whirly." Then there's Lew Fields and Joe Webber, and they ought to. stop spoiling memories, and Charles Bigelow and John T. Kelly and Will Archie Ar-chie and Bonnie Maginn and Mabel Barrison, and such a many stars to crowd each other off the stage that they ruin one another and the show, and I think when we left the theater that my friend was disappointed in me. At any rate he showed it a little when I suggested sug-gested that we go to Shanleys' for a lobster and to discuss the ones we'd just seen. T. |
