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end of the season includes J. 0. Ar
mour, Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.,
Congress Hotel Co., R. T. Crane, Jr.,
Chas. G. Dawes, Marshall Field &
Co., Chas. L. Hutchinson, Sam Insull,
L. Bj Kuppenheimer, C. H. 'McCor
mick, J. J. Mitchell, Ed Swift, Chas.
A. Stevens & Bros., Julius Rosenwald
and John G. Shed
But trouble Came off because the
mob of money barons are not going
to give 42 good, husky chorus men,
with families to support, $5 for work
ing on Sunday. The men struck
last week; they say they can't sup
port wiVes and children in the east
and live in Chicago during the opera
season if they don't get more than
$24 a week. They want $27.
Musical (millionaires who pay big
money to get their names in the so
ciety pages of the press and program
' of the opera association; but who
stay at home on their opera nights
because they hate noise, are in a
quandary.
Here is Chicago, just able to stand
up and swell out its chest because a,
reputation as a regular opera city is
wiping out the awful stories about
stockyards stinks, railroad soot and
the dirty Chicago river.
Then along come the opera singers
to strike because they are not get
ting a decent wage for the seven-day-a-week
work they do. It's bad
enough to have a strike bothering the
life out of you during business hours.
Many of our pet millionaires worry
almost continually.
But at night and- at opera, where
everything has been clothes, jewels,
music, sociability and prettiness. a
vulgar strike over a matter of $3 a
week is getting their plutocratic
goats.
Last night they saw "Aida." It was
a little less noisier than usual. In
fact, some of the big business men
.seemed relieved and slept better dur
ing the show. But others got sore.
No chorus; and they paid enough
dough to hire a dozen choruses; And
the ladies! v
Some of the ladies, you know, are
said to attend ppera for what they
can see, not hear. Second to the
clothes of millionaire neighbors are
the comely, brawny shapes of husky
chorus men. With these shy all
week, opera hasn't been opera to
some of tjie ladies, it seems.
Sig Cleofonte Campanini, boss of
Chicago opera at a reputed salary of
40,000 for a ten-week season, has
got a lot of kicks from the plutes
who want their money's worth.
Some of the millionaire gang who
paid for box seats to see "Aida" last
night were Harold McCormick, Rob't
Thorne, Max Pam, Mrs. P. D. Ar
mour, Henry Blair, Mrs. Jos. Fish,
Mrs. Augusta Lehmann, John Shedd
and Frank Stout
Sig. Campanini has sent a man to
New York in an attempt to hire an
other chorus. The strikers claim this
'can't be done, as all chorus men
available in the eastern city are mem
bers of the International Chorus Al
liance and won't scab on strikers.
o o
GOVERNMENT REPORT SHOWS
CROP SHORTAGE
Washington, Dec 15. Final re
port of the U. S. bureau of crop es
timates showed unusual shortage of
all major crops today. Wheat corn
and oats the great American sta
ples failed to come up to expecta
tions. o o
HOW'D JU LIKE TO BE IN
Duluth, Minn. Mercury here 15
degrees below zero; on iron range,
18 to 27 belowj in Saskatchewan, 40
below.
St Paul. 18 below zero. Wm. Brit
ton, 42, found frozen to death.
Des Moines.-r6 below.
Oshkosh, Wis. 8 below.
Green Bay, Wis. 6 below.'
CP o
London. Premier Lloyd-George)
was much better today, his illness
having subsided. His physicians in
dicated he would be able to speak in
commons Tuesday.
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