The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], June 16, 1913, Page 4, Image 4

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THE AGE-HERALD
E. W. BARKETT.Editor
Entered at the Birmingham, Ala.,
postoffice as second class matter under
act of Congress March 3, 1879.
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THE AGE-HERALD.
Birmingham. Ala.
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ing.
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TELEPHONE
Bell (private exchange connecting all
departments). No. 4000.
Both wind and tide ataya tor thla
gentleman. —Comedy of Errors.
Railroads and Rates
If public sentiment was indifferent
to the petition of the railroads in
1910 asking for the right to advance
rates 10 per cent there seems no
question about a change having taken
place in favor of the railroads since
that time. The eastern carriers, in
cluding the southern lines, are now
fesking for an advance of 5 per cent
and evidences are increasing that
shippers and the public generally are
in favor of the petition.
Ten or twelve years ago when
political agitation was in vogue
against the railroads many of the
companies merited censure. They did
not treat the public as well as they
should have done and the result was
anti-railroad legislation in nearly all
the states. Whether or not legisla
tion was too drastic it is plain to see
that uqless the railroads are allowed
to charge a living rate business con
ditions generally will be seriously
affected.
The railroads in every part of the
country will soon be overtaxed in
hauling the bumper crops. Only a few
of the groat transportation lines are
equipped for extraordinary traffic and
it is because of the fact that their
borrowing power has been seriously
diminished growing out of antagonis
tic sentiment of a few years ago and
antagonistic legislation resulting
therefrom.
If the petition now pending is
granted the situation will brighten
suddenly. Railroad officials and rail
road stockholders will be heartened
and a buying movement will set in
which will affect the iron and steel
trade in a most wholesome way. The
entire business world would become
buoyant the very day that the com
mission granted the 5 per cent ad
vance petition.
Emperor William The Second
The German Kaiser has reigned 25
jfears, and in all that time he has not
beard a hostile shot. Peace for Ger
many, says the Kaiser, means a na
tion in arms. Located in the heart of
Europe, surrounded by nations will
ing on occasion to be hostile, there
seems to be no other way to preserve
peace at home. “We should,” said the
Kaiser, “be ever ready to keep up
our armaments without a gap, in view
of the fact that the neighboring pow
ers have made such mighty progress.
For it is solely on our armaments
that our peace depends.”
The Kaiser has in the 25 years of
his reign stood consistently and faith
fully by this policy. The expense has
been enormous, but war would have
been still more expensive. In the
navy alone he has carried the yearly
expenditure from $12,500,000 to
something over $100,000,000.
Under this policy of protection
Germany has become an industrial
nation. It was once devoted to agri
culture. She is also seeking colonies,
and social reform is everywhere care
fully attended to. William the Second
will be ranked in history as a man of
peace and as a great ruler. Germany
has been remarkably developed al
ready in his reign, and he may reign
25 years longer.
Shakespearian Productions
It is reasonably well determined
H that Marlowe and Sothern will stick
Vto Shakespeare next season and will
f perhaps add two or three plays to
their repertory. Mr. Mantell will con
tinue to present next season Shake
spearian plays, and William Faver
sham will do likewise.
There is a genuine Shakespeare re
vival in America, and all of these
stars will be needed to meet the de
mands of the public. A famous recruit
is coming in October in the person
"• of Forbes-Robertson, who is consid
ered by many as the beBt “Hamlet”
/' on the English stage, ranking as high
as Mr. Mantell does as “King Lear.”
Mr. Robertson will make the most
Mmprehensive tour of America and
■ Canada that he has attempted. He is
jrettiiiK to be an old man and this may
in very truth be his farewell tour in
this country.
Margaret Anglin also proposes to
identify herself with the Shakespear
ian drama. All in all there will be no
dearth of jrreat Shakespearian play
ers, and the playgoers who can not
see one of them can see prehaps one
of the others. It is a fine lot of play
ers, and every one df them is a player
of hijrh rank who can faithfully in
terpret the works of the threat dram
atist. _ _
—
Koad Improvement in the States
New York, Massachusetts and New
Jersey are leading the states in road
improvement and road construction.
All three of these states now see that
the improvement of a road is soon
followed by improvements in the
value of real estate. Farming lands,
no matter how fertile will not com
mand a good price until a good road
is built through it. This is the story
that is told in New York, New Jersey
and Massachusetts. And the roads
must be free to the public in order to
boom the value of real estate.
The three states are fully committed
to road improvement, and not only
the states but the counties are ready
to co-operate. Massachusetts has ex
pended on her roads $12,500,000, and
she is now putting a million a year
in her roads. New York began with a
bond issue of $50,000,000 and New
Jersey is keeping up with the pro
cession.
What is going; on in the three states
is well started in many other states,
and it will not be many years before
this big country will have as good
roads as those of England.
No movement in this country is
more general or valuable, and surely
the legislature of January, 1915, will
take steps to start Alabama on the
way that many states are going. Geor
gia has a good start among southern
states. __ __
Completion of the Keokuk Dam
This $25,000,000 enterprise was be
gun in January, 1911, and on July 1,
1913, it will stand complete, and at
that time St. Louis will receive 60,
000-horse power out of the 310,408
horse power to be developed at the
plant. The transmission line from the
dam to St. Louis is 137 miles long and
St. Louis is confident it is a line
worth more than any gold mine ever
opened. Cheap power that can he
readily applied is indeed a great gift
to any city.
The country far and near will be
supplied with cheap power; the river
has been deepened for 65 miles and al
together the Keokuk dam is one of the
great victories of hydro-electricity in
an electric age. It may lead to other
dams of a like nature in the great
river. _
The board of estimate in New York
city has voted $750,000 to build two addi
tional wings to tlie Metropolitan Museum
of Art in Central park. The additional
space will tie used to exhibit the loan col
lection of the late J. P. Morgan, most of
which lias been loft in tho museum's store
rooms because of tho lack of room. The
voting of this money dispels all doubt as
to whether the city of New York will
profit by the offer of the present head
of the house of Morgan to loan it Ills
father's valuable collection. Early in the
year- it was reported that if the city did
not provide adequate facilities for show
ing the art treasures the collection might
go to Hartford.
Surgical rcsearcli has proved that oper
ations in tho thoracic cavity can bo per
formed as easily as in the abdomen, ac
cording to Dr. Alexis Carrel of the Rock
efeller Institute for Medical Research,
New York. In a lecture at the ISeauJon
hospital in Paris, the Nobel prize win
ner declared that experiments on ani
mals have demonstrated that the heart is
an organ of very great assistance and
that It does not suffer harm If the circu
lation Is interrupted for five or 10 minutes.
"The brain, however," said Dr. Carrel,
"is more delicate and may not be inter
rupted for more than three or four min
utes, which, nevertheless, gives time for
the accomplishment of much surgical
work."
More than 25,000 babies less than a year
old died in New York state during the
year 1912. These statistics, Governor Sul
zer declared. In addressing an infant wel
fare conference, "are an indictment
against our civilization," inasmuch as
"well known authorities estimate that
at least half of these deaths were pre
ventable by known practical methods."
For mayor of Chicago in 1915, Miss Jane
Addams of Hull House on the progres
sive ticket. The suggestion came from
the lips of a score of prominent woman
suffrage leaders in Chicago, rejoicing over
the passage of the bill that gave the fran
chise to the women of Illinois.
-
Tama Jim Wilson has gone to England
to study English farming, but when he
comes back he will speak as u private cit
izen only. He has no demonstrators now.
President Baer says “there are no more
contented people than those to be found
in a small town.” Mr. Baer lives, how
ever, in a town of 100,000 people.
The oldest money counter in the treas
ury department is a woman, and fine has
been counting money 50 years.
Wood blocks are the best paving ma
terial on earth, even if something else is
preferred in paradise.
The supreme court is in the railroad rate
tower at present.
The capitalists who put *1,000,000 In the
Friedmann serum begin to think they
bought mock turtle Instead of diamond
back.
The Abernathy boys are waiting pa
tiently until Teddy comes back. They
are fast growing up.
Many a pitching arm cannot get in trim
in such June weather as we have been
having.
The best way to enjoy a fishing party
is to lie in the hammock and read a best
seller.
The supremo court applied the rule of
reason to the railroads in the Minnesota
case.
Mr. Taft lias lost weight chiefly because
he had left the banuuet circuit.
Those who got diplomas this month
were not all diplomats.
A roaring furnace tire in June has been
by no means rare. .
in Mexico they execute lobbyists.
NICK NAMES OF GREAT MEN
Owen Hatteras in July Smart Set.
Some day, when at last I have ob
tained my divorce and ceased to toil, I
am going to devote my leisure to a
thesaurus of the stable names of the
great. You know what a stable name
j is, of course. You know that a racing
mare called Czarina Olga Fedorovna in
the dope sheets is not Czarina Olga
Fedorovna in the stable, nor even
| Czarina or Olga, but usually plain Lil
or Jinnie. And you know, too, that a
prize bulldog called Champion Zoroaster
II on the bench is often plain Jack or
Ponto in the kennel. So with the emi
nent of the genus homo. The official
style and appelation of the late King
Edward VII was Edward, by the Grace
of God, of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and of the Domin
ions Beyond the Seas, King, Emperor
of India—but his wife called him Ber-!
tie. And the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm
calls him Willie.
But what of even greater men? What
was Ibsen’s stable name? Did his wife
call him Henrik formally, harshly—or
did she tone it down to Hen, Henny,
Harry, Rik or Hank? And Bismarck?
Did the Furstin ever call him Ott
chen? or Otilly? Both ravorites at the
German hearth! And Tolstoi? By Rus
sian custom he was Leo Nikalajevitch
to his friends—but was he ever Lee or
Nicky to the Countess? what was Grant
to his wife? Certainly not Ulysses, an
inhuman, impossible name! And Na
poleon I? And Wolfgang Amadeus Mo
zart? And Honore Balzac? And Robert
Browning? Was he ever Bob? And John
Wesley? Was he ever Jack? And Em
manuel Swedenborg? Was he ever
Manny?
BACHELORS
Rene Laidlaw in July Smart Set.
A bachelor enjoys no meal so much
as that which he eats in a cosy home
dining room with a charming hostess
serving him. A married woman enjoys |
none so well as that whose dishes are
selected by another—especially if she
can trust his taste and isn’t sure just
what he will order. That is one reason
why bachelors make love to married
[ women, and why married women love
i bachelors.
Giving is often the condition of re
ceiving. But the most synioal single
man is, on the whole, preferable to the
married man who constantly reminds
his wife of what he has given her.
One of the most delightful states of
mind to which the average man is sub
ject is uncertainty as to the exact sen
| tlment entertained for him by a woman
whom he admires, and whom he knows
to like him, but whom he is not dead
set upon winning for himself. One of
the most unpleasant states is certainty
that a woman deeply loves him when ft
is inconvenient or impossible for him
to reciprocate. Yet often only a hair's
breadth separates these two states—or
only a few minutes In time.
A dilettante told me yesterday: *‘I
prefer black and white sketches by a
clever artist to his flnfbhed paintings.
They leave more to my imagination—
which is a better traveler than any
painter’s brush.” For the same reason,
the bachelor interests matrons more
than married men do. He, too, is un
llnished; and every woman likes to im
agine what she might have made of
him—or what she may.
PURITANISM DOMINATES AMERICA
H. L. Mencken in July Smart Set.
Since the very dawn of his separate
history, the American has beeen ruled j
by what may be called a moral con- ]
ceptlon of life. He has thought of all I
things as either right or wrong, and of
the greater number of them, perhaps,
as wrong. He has ever tended, ap
parently Irresistibly, to reduce all
questions of politics, of Industrial or
ganization, or art, of education, and
even of fashion and social etiquette, to
questions of ethics. Every one of his
great political movements has been a
moral movement; in almost every line
of his literature there is what Nietzsche
used to call moralic acid; he never
thinks of great men and common men,
of valuable men and useless men, but
only of good men and bad men. And
to this moral way of thinking he adds
a moral way of acting. That is to say,
he feels that he is bound to make an
active war upon whatever is bad, that
his silence is equivalent to his con
sent, that he will be held personally
responsible, by a sharp-eyed, long
nosed God, for all the deviltry that
goes on around him. The result, on
the one hand, is a ceaseless buzzing
and slobbering over moral issues, many
of them wholly artificial and ridicu
lous, an don the other #hand, an in
cessant snouting into private conduct,
in the hope of bringing new issues to
light. In brief, thq result is Puri
tanism.
POINTED PARAGRAPHS
Prom the Chicago News. '
Trust not to luck if you would be
lucky.
No, Cordelia, dignity and the swell head
are not the same.
Things are not always what they seem—
especially complexions.
A man of words is a person, but a man
of deeds is a personage.
If a fellow could only utilize his castles
in the air for aeroplane garages!
If wishes were automobiles the supply
of gasoline would soon be exhausted.
People are always accusing an “oldest
inhabitant” of remembering things that
i never occurred.
A man has to have considerable of the
divine afflatus to find poetical inspira
tions in bis back yard.
Marrying a man with an impediment in
his speech is right. Jf there is no imped
iment to the hand that reaches for his
pocket book. <
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
BuMlneMM Activity
“There is a marked difference between
New York and Chicago so far as senti
ment and talk in business circles go,”
said L. T. Woodworth of Chicago.
“I was in New York three or four
weeks ago, and there I heard a great
deal of pessimistic talk. In Chicago one
rarely ever comes in contact with a pes
simist. In banking circles there is al
ways of note of optimism.
“The crop reports are certainly 'cheer
ing,’ and 1 believe we are going to have
a good, busy summer.”
Crops in Fine Condition
“I have just returned from a three
day’s trip to south Alabama,” said,
Frank Wade Saturday.
“Crops seem to be in fine condition
and planters are giving more attention to
diversified farming than formerly. Much
corn has been planted, and though it is,
of course, small there is a bright outlook
for a good harvest.
“The cotton acreage is about the same
as last year and the growing plants are
apparently in a healthy condition. The
people of Coosa county are not worry
ing to any great extent about the boll
weevil. I believe that the cotton har
vest in Alabama this year will be as
large if not larger than that of last
year.
“The peach crop looks very slim. There
are quite a few small peaches, but they
are dropping off the trees and the June
peaches were little, scrawny, tasteless
things.”
The Stock Market
Henry Clews in his Saturday review’,
says in part:
“It has been an eventful week upon
the stock axchange. First came the Min
nesota rate decision from the supreme
court, which was momentarily a disap
pointment to railroad interests, although
not without its favorable features. This
decision has happily settled the ques
tion of state rights as to the power of
rate making.
The next important event was the an
nouncement of Secretary of the Treasury
McAdoo that he was willing to authorize
additional bank note circulation to the
amount of $500,000,000 under the Aldrich
Vreeland act when the emergencies de
manded. There was nothing new in this
announcement, for bankers and others
in the financial district were quite well
aware that the Secretary had this power.
'But the announcement of the readiness
of the new administration to adopt this
method when desirable exerted a most
reassuring effect, and the better feeling
thus induced caused a sharp rally in
the entire market and justly so. The
short interest had been considerably ex
panded by prevjous developments, and
the rush to cover shorts materially aided
the upward movement. Mr. McAdoo’s
action deserves high commendation as a
master stroke.
“The home business situation is gen
erally sound. Merchants and manufac
turers are running upon a hand to mouth
basis and there is consequently no gen
eral oversupply of merchandise.”
The Hum of Industry
“It is most grateful to listen to the
hum of industry in and around Ensley,
Fairfield and the new wire mill,” said a
well known upbullder.
“Birmingham has been moving ahead
steadily for many years past, but not
recently has anything happened of such
cheering import as the resumption of
work on the wire mill. Fairfield, where
most of the skilled employes of the wire
mill will reside, is now a scene of buoy
ancy and wholesome stir. When it was
called Corey, it was a beautiful town
two years ago-but it is becoming more
beautiful every day.”
City und Comity
“I understand that there has been some
discussion of making Birmingham a coun
ty to itself or. In other words, separat
ing it from the county that surrounds
It, just as is the case in St. Louis and
in some other cities,” said T. L. Brattle
of St. Louis. “Up to 1876 St. Louis was
a part of St. Louis county, but since
then it has been separate and its courts
and other governmental machinery have
been entirely independent of any county.
“Another large city that is separate
from the county is Baltimore, j am tokl
that in Virginia all the cities are sep
arate from the counties. It seems to me
a pretty good way, especially from a
revenue point of view.”
The Price of Iron
“The iron market has been quiet for
several weeks past but there is how a
confident feeling that it will become very
active again this summer,” said a well
known broker.
"When the iron market does start up
It usually climbs fast. As soon as it
gets back to $12 on a No. 2 basis it
will not be long before It reaches the $13
level. We may not see $14 iron this
summer, but I really believe the mar
ket will become firm at $13 to $13.50.”
A BORN CRUSADER
From the Smart Set.
A hot yearning to rowel and punish
someone—preferably a sinner, but failing
that, anyone handy— Is one of the dis
tinguishing remarks of the American, says
H. L.. Mencken in an essay In the July
Smart Set on the moral standards pre
vailing in America. The energies which
the Germans put Into bacchanalian and
military enterprise, and the English Into
Idle sport and vapid charity, are chiefly
devoted, In this fair land, to moral en
deavor, and particularly to punitive moral
endeavor. The nation is forever In the
throes of loud, barbaric campaigns gainst
this sin or that. It Is difficult to think of
a human act that has not been denounced
and combated at some time or other.
Thousands of self consecrated archangels
go roaring from one end of the country
to the other, raising the posse comitatus
against the rum demon, or cocaine, or tue
hobble skirt, or Mormonlsm, or the ci
garette, or horse racing, or bucketshops,
or vivisection, or divorce, or the army
canteen, or profanity, or race suicide, or
moving picture shows, or graft, or the
negro, or the trusts, or Sunday recrea
tions, or dance halls, or child labor. The
management of such crusades Is a well
organized and highly remunerative busi
ness; it enlists a great multitude of snide
preachers and unsuccessful lawyers, and
converts them Into public characters of
the first eminence. Candidates for public
office are forced to join In the bellowing;
objectors are crushed with accusations
of personal guilt; inquisitorial and uncon
stitutional laws are put upon the statute
books; the courts, always so flabby under
a democracy, are bullied Into complais
ance. In the large cities, of course, there
Is considerable opposition to these Puri
tanical frenzies, if only on the ground
that they hurt trade, but the laws of
most American cities, It must be remem
bered, arc not made by their citizens,
but by peasant legislators from the coun
try districts, and no protest can ever pre
vail against the rural madness for chem
ical purity.
A BACHELOR’S REASON
In the July Woman's Home Companion
appears a letter written by a bachelor
of SO to a newly encased (firl who aban
doned a promising literary career. Home
efficient wives will resent the writer's
attitude; many will admit the truth of
what he says. A part of the letter fol
lows:
“You have probably chosen as difficult
a career as the one you made a start in,
only the world doesn’t put it that way.
For in the wife's job the standards of
success are low, while in the literary job
they are high.
“Wifehood is a profession and a science.
This is an age of efficiency. We Amer
icans are sacrificing our lives on the altar
of efficiency. My work makes me an ef
ficient engineer, and when I am asked
why I don’t marry, I never like to give
the true reason. The girls for whom you
■have the right feeling do not come up to
your standard of efficiency as wives,
homemakers, stimulators, companions,
advisers. How can I be wrapped up in
the efficiency craze all day, and come
home to find less practical efficiency tnan
in any plant or mine I am connected
with?
“And the women themselves are to
blame for this, for they have not looked
on wifehood as a profession ever progress
ing, but have looked upon it as a priv
ilege. A man’s work today is harder than
it was in the past. A woman’s work has
been made easier. She has not progressed
with the times. Fifty per cent of her
energy is misdirected.
“Your advice that I ‘go and do like
wise* is characteristic of newly engaged
folks. Seriously, no man is more keenly
alive to the possibilities of the right wife
than I am. Nobody wants one or needs
one more than 1 do, for being along much
of the time and having a tendency to out
out social nonsense, I can readily see
what a wife would do for me. But I
am afraid I have reached the stage of the
game where the conventional sweet little
thing that al! my friends introduce me
to interests me about as much as a doll
or a toy. A fellow who is traveling all
the time and mingles with all classes of
people must inevitably devolop a tendency
to discriminate, and if he doesn't happen
to lilt the right combination, it is only
natural that he should become the variety
of outlaw known as a bachelor. Men are
not bachelors through choree, and they
really should be given sympathy.’’
SAUCES
From the Kansas City Star.
Even the eye of mere man may he fas
cinated with the newspaper headline an
nouncing the recipes lor some of
“Oscar’s sauces.” The French cook’s
sauce, as everybody knows, is no per
functory thing. It is a work of art.
The discovery of a new one is an event.
There is discussion as to whether
French culinary supremacy is in the
realm of soups or of sauces. Dumas
took the side of the bouillon. Other ex
perts have come out for the decorative
element in cookery. Mr. Henry T.
Finck, in his recent volume of “Foods
and Flavors,” quotes a Frenchman to
the effect that “poultry is for cookery
what canvas is to the painter.’’ The
fowl is merely the background on which
the sauces paint the picture.
With sauce robert, is a French say
ing, a man might be pardoned for eat
ing his own grandfather.
Of such pleasures of the palate it Is
delightful to read in a land where the
opportunities are so badly neglected
that sugar is often eaten on lettuce, and
the art of mixing a French dressing for
salad is still In its infancy,
THE! IJKED MIU UNDERWOOD
From the Washington Post.
“North Carolina democrats were for the
nomination of Oscar Underwood for pres
ident, because they believed that lie rep
resented better than any other candidate
for the nomination the views of their
party on the tariff, but President Wilson
hus made a hit with us, because ho has
followed in Mr. Underwood's tracks.”
sahl Mayor T. J. Murphy of Greensboro,
N. C., at the Haleigh. "Mr. Underwood
would have made a great President, we
believe, but we are entirely satisfied with
the way Mr. Wilson has done since he has
been the head of the nation. He has start
ed out right, and I believe ho is going to
keep on the right path. This will mean
continued democratic supremacy. If the
democratic Congress and the President re
deem the promises made in Baltimore
they will satisfy the people, and to sat
isfy the people will mean continuance in
power. That is the view we take of the
political situation dov.n in North Car
olina.’’
HEHAVIOK AT WE3DD1NOS
From the Womun’s Home Companion.
"There has been a good deal of discus
sion lately about the misbehavior of young
people at weddings and the rude jokes
perpetrated on the bride and groom. Isn't
it just possible that the reported condi
tions have been exaggerated or taken
overseriously? The editor of the Com
panion has been to weddings of various
kinds in both city and country, most of
them among folks in modest circum
stances, a fewf of them among people of
wealth, and on none of these occasions
has there been anything but wholesome
fun—a shower of rice, a few fluttering
ribbons, and an old shoe or slipper,
thrown after the departing pair for good
luck.
"The rowdy element, of course, indulge
in weddings, just as they indulge in other
pursuits less holy and sacred, in a rowdy
way. The point is this: People who are
rowdies are apt to be rowdies at wed
dings. Surely there is nothing inherent
in a wedding which makes people row
dies.”
FOUND ON THE MOOR
From the Christian Register.
Dear, quiet Aunt Mar£ had gone up
from London to visit a golfing family of
nephews and nieces. At tea the first
afternoon someone managed to stop talk
ing long enough to ask:
“Well, Aunt Mary, and how did you
spend the morning?”
“Oh, I went for a walk on the moor.1
A good many people seemed to be about,
and, some of them called out to me in a
most eccentric manner. But I didn't
take any notice of them. And, oh,
my dear, I found such a number of curi
ous little round things! I brought them
home to ask you what they are."
Hereupon Aunt Mary opened her
workbag and produced 24 golf balls.
SAFE
F. i r Woman’s Home Com
was on the veranda in
th - unshine when she saw a
fri amily approaching, and
wi i g to be addressed she
cal Mr. Mason, I’ve had a
bir
4 is that so? How old
are
“ Id,” she told him.
41 '■ w, what I’d better do
to Vo ” » • ifion pondered, and was
itnii'S" h" ‘reply that came very
posi’
•*Vvu ci f: * ! • i sitting oil it,"
I
MAN BEHIND PETTICOATS
Charles Darn top In the New York Even
ing World.
IF Denman Thompson were alive to
day he and George W. Monroe would
make a great pair sitting on the
weather porch of a country hotel. After
all, we have to go back a long way to
get actors with character bred in the
bone. You know that, don’t you? And
of course you know George Monroe vurry,
vurry well. But don’t be too sure about
that. For one thing, he Isn’t a bit noisy,
nor even gabby. In fact, he’s as quiet
a man as you’d meet this side of a light.
Try to picture a middle aged, corpulent
occupant of an arm chair who gets his
humor from Philadelphia, his cigars from
Brooklyn and his press notices from New
York, and then pull your chair up to a
back window that commands a line view
of fire escapes, neighbors that pass in tiie
night and a forsaken clothes line. Through
the smoke of his Brooklyn’s Pride, how
ever, Mr. Monroe was blind to everything
but the newspapers in his lap.
“I hope they liked me in ‘All Aboard,’ ”
he muttered, clearing away the news
papers and reaching for a box of cigars.
“Try one,” he offered. “These cigars are
made in Brooklyn, and I’ve been smok
ing ’em for six or eight years.”
This sounded encouraging, for he
seemed in robust health. While I still
had my strength I asked him how long
he had been playing an Irishwoman.
“Let’s see,” he calculated, squinting into
the past. "It’s 30 years or more. The fact
is, I’ve been playing a biddy so long that
I feel I’m a kind of Rip Van Wkikle. I
used to read of Joe Jefferson’s playing Rip
for 30 years and wonder how an actor
could live to tell the tale. I’ve worn a
red wig so long I can hardly remember
when I first put one on. It just hap
pened, that’s all. When I was a boy in
Philadelphia, Jim Murray, the brotner of
that clever girl, Elizabeth, you know
lived in the same neighborhood, and we
were so stage struck that we wouldn’t
see our way home at night until ail the
theatres were closed. And then, even,
we’d stop on the corner and do a few
fancy steps to keep our feet awake. A
little later we did a turn at a variety
theatre, but Jim broke his kneecap and
had to give up the business.’’
“And then what?"
“A boy’s dream come true,” he an
swered with a smile as true as a Mark
Twain story. "For months T’d been hang
ing around the theatres keeping my eye
on the actors and my ear on what they
said. Finally one of them was taken
sick—God bless him!—and after a hard
struggle with the stage manager I jumped
into the part. It was a small part in
•Jack llarkaway,’ but it seemed as big
as a mountain to me.”
It may occur to you, as it did to me,
that "Jack llarkaway" is a far distant
relative of "My Aunt Bridget,” in which
the exuberant Monroe, like a red haired
sister of Neil Burgess in "Widow Be
dott." iirst convulsed those of us who
thanked our lucky star for the 1*0 cents
that enabled us to climb Into the gallery.
"Right you are!” agreed the only and
original Aunt Bridget. "I’ll tell you how
it was. Pid l mention Johnnie. Quinn?
No, I thought not. Well, Johnnie was a
line boy with bis feet, and, what's more,
•lie had a turn for imitations. We lived
in Stewart street, as It happened, and it
also happened that this was an Irish
neighborhood. As good luck would have
it, wo were next door, as you’d say, to
a man named Brady, whose one aim in
life, so far as I eould see, was to keep
bis vvifo from leading a dull and dreary
existence. ‘Mary,’ we would* hear him
say, ‘briry; me a tnateh; if you don't I’ll
raise hell.’ ‘There are not matches,
Jawn,* his wife would answer. ‘Then I’ll
raise hell, anyway,* he would shout back.
And he always did. Brady could be de
pended upon and Johnnie Quinn and I
were always on hand to see tho pro
gramme carried out. j
"Many's the pleasant evening we’ve
passed in front of Brady’s. This proved
a greut help to me, though Johnnie In
time took to drink. Here’s what 1 was
going to say: Both of us were members of
Father Mathew's Total Abstinence so
ciety, and when the society gave an enter
tainment Johnnie and I gave an imitation
of Brady and his wife, called ‘A Quiet
Evening at Home.’ By making an awful
racket we brought down the house. I owe
a great deal to Mrs. Brady.”
"She was your inspiration?” I suggested
with sympathetic regard for the feeling
lie displayed.
"Yes and no,” replied Mr. Monroe.
"George S. Knight really put me in the
part I’ve been playing so many years. 1
was with him in ‘Over the Garden Wall,’
when his wife made up her mind that the
role she was playing was too rough for
her. So Knight made it rougher still
and gave it to me, while his wife took a
pretty part. That settled me. From that
day to this I’ve played nothing but an
Irishwoman. I formed a partnership with
John C. Rice, and for nine years wre ap
peared in ‘My Aunt Bridget,’ written by
Scott Marble, who is now in the Actors’
Fund home. And I know I’m doomed
to play my old role, with variations, to
the end of my days.’’
The best of it all was to hear Mr. Mon
roe tell how he had "picked up” Aunt
Bridget and placed that long lived char
acter on tlie stage.
"My mother was Irish, and she had a
lot of relatives,"he explained. "They all
wanted to be American, and when they
came to the house on Sunday In their
best clothes they would try to he ‘so
nice’ sitting around the parlor that the
humor of it struck me. That's where I
I picked up ‘Gee whiz!’ and other sayings.
| It was in my mother’s parlor that I got
the idea of playing an Americanized Irish
woman. without a brogue.
“The less brogue the better Is the rule
I’ve followed. I’ve been criticised for
being boisterous, but to play tlie part
quietly would be to kill it. At the same
time I’ve tried to make it a character
more or less fHie to tife. You may have
noticed that I always repeat certain
phrases. This trick 1 caught from an
aunt who would remark, for evample, ‘I
made that pie myself—I say I made that
pie myself.’ Good old Aunt Ann—I’ve
never forgotten her! But of course i had
to be careful at tlie time. Irish people
don't like anyone to make fun of them,
though they’re always imitating other
people. 1 can say this, because I’m Irish
myself.. And Irish expressions arc full of
character. For Instance, if 1 ever did any
thing that my mother disliked she would
say, ‘You had very little to do.’ This
was so characteristic, of her that when
she heard a judge had sentenced Quaker
Murphy, as he was called—and a bad boy
•he was—to 12 years for shooting a police
man, she promptly passed sentence on tlie
iudge by saying: ‘He had very little to
do. Sun. Qu-wker Murphy meant no
harm. Hte’s a good I*d—I’ve known l.im
for years.’ That's tlie way it went in
my mother’s parlor. But it was no\. _bero
that I got the phrase ‘Be tliat as it may.’
I found that reading Dickens, who said it
seriously In ‘Old Curiosity Shop/ I think
it was. Would you believe it?”
"Who wouldn't believe an Irishman? I
PINERO IN EVOLUTION
From the New York Sun.
IT seems as If Paula Tanqueray might
take the place or the departed I.ady
of the t'amelias as the test o( the
emotional actress' ability. Certainly the
symbols by which her trails may he indi
cated are less at variance with the taste
of the day. Then tlie social study ot
high life in I'higluJid In tlie late 'sum will
always possess one advantage over Du
mas' translated play. Phierif will come
to every generation lo which ambitious
actresses past their first youth may seek
to Introduce him hi ids original package,
as it were. Dumas's play lias ever been
Known In translation. The translation Is,
moreover, appallingly bald til form and
untrue lo the spirit of tiic drumu. Mon
dial! one actress attracted by the oppor
tunities fur the mere display of technical
virtuosity In the leading role Iihh content
plated a revival of the old work only to
shudder at the task of speaking the anti-|
(luated jargon in which must of the char
acters express their emotions.
So Pinero will always have the adrati
tage of appealing to the K n;i is h-speaking
world in the words he wrote. No other
play of the Knglish writers wears half
so well as this study of a fascinating
and dangerous figure In modern society.
He had then come sufficiently under the
Influence of tire realists—perhaps that is
the easiest name to call them by—but lie
had not lost tlic sense ot beauty, which
seems now to have deserted him alto
gether. Fine in Its technical and psycho
logical elements as ‘‘His House in Order
was, there was sordid commonplaceness
about the middle class characters of that
play which made the general effect rutlici
stuffy. "The Thunderbolt'' kept closely to
this same uninteresting milieu and in its
use in comedy Mr. Pinero has met with
Invariable disaster. It was that uninter
esting family that made "Preserving Mr.
Panmure" to commonplace for any In
terest—especially in view of the trivial
situation on which he had endeavored to
form his comedy: "Mid-Channel” is drab
enough, with scarcely a ilgure imaginative
or poetic In all its middle class set.
But Paula was a brilliant bird, some
what dimmed possibly in the splendors of
her plumage, but still a woman to con
quer the hearts of men. So was the
Princess Pannonia, a veritable princess
lointaine, coming from >Ser mysterious
eastern home to contrast with quaint lit
tle Fay Zului, the composite product of
the transient world whoso school had al
ways been the pension and the hotel draw
ing room. Then the beautiful Rose Tre
lawny was another charming incarnation
of young womanhood. Pinero’s imagi
nation bloomed in this play of "Trelawny
of the Wells,” built on his own recol
lections of youth. He viewed them in
tlie rosy haze of tile distant years and
something of the affection and sentiment
with which the memories still inspired
him, some of the idealism of those young
days has been imparted to every scene of
this play of theatrical life. Witli the
passing fashions it is scarcely to be ex
pected that the delightful comedy will
not date. There is in it none of the genius
that will preserve Its llavor for all time.
But very tine and fragrant that llavor re
mains today.
' From this beautiful gallery of Ilgures
one turns to such a faint caricature of
life as the colorless L4iy Parradell and
the crew about her. Again Pinero has
sought a milieu in which some of tlie
delicacy and quaintness of that same life
which inspired him to write “Trelawny
of tlm Wells" might reasonably have been
found. Yet lie transferred none of its
beauties in this sketch of stage life.
There had to he a drunken lover, there
had to be a phase of IJly's life which
was altogether sordid. Without that cle
ment preponderating the theatre of Pi
nero seems impossible today.
CANNY—VERY
From Answers.
There was no doubt about the fact
that Jock MacFuddy was a Scotchman.
Dust year, when journeying to tho
country on an Important errand, ho left
his purse, containg nearly £100, in gold
and silver, at the railway station from
which he started.
lie telegruplied the fact on Ills ar
rival, and the purse was kept till his
return a month luter.
It was a young clerk who handed
Jockie MacF. Ills wet> purse with the
“spondies" as ho set foot out of the
train,* ainl certain wild hopes were
making that young man’s heart beat u
trilie unevenly.
But our canny Scot counted his money
unheeding', and when h-e’d llnished he
looked up long and suspiciously at the
young man. •
"l-isn't it right, sir?" stammered the
latter, in bewilderment.
"Uicht-rieht! It’s rich! enough; but
where’s the Interest, mon?" was Mao*
Faddy’s stern retort.
BIG N1VEET TATKIt RED
From the Dixon Journal.
Cook Jones, of near Slaugliterville, N.
Y., has a sweet potato bed four feet wide
by 41 feet long, 17G square feet. This bed
recently furnished 1000 slips per day for
u week. Mr. Jones is one of Welstcr’s
best truck and fruit raisers. Jn one year
he furnished 1500 gallons of strawberries
to the markets.
'I'll 14 SUMMONS
Reginald Wright Kauffman in July Smart
Sot.
Oil, Summer’s in the land again, and
Summer’s on the sea;
Across the blue horipon rim the old gods
beckon me;
The little ships ride restless at their an
chors in the bay;
The birds are trooping northward, dear,
ami I must be away.
I see the Savoy mountains white; I hear
the sheep bells ring
Below me in the valley where the little
children sing;
And high above the timber line, along
the glacier track,
The ice Held and the summit snows, they
whisper me: “Come back.”
It’s well I know your tender heart and
kindliness ami grace,
And well 1 know the gentle light that
sanctifies your face;
Unworthily, yet truly, I love you.
Heaven-sent,
And nowhere, dear, save in your arms,
shall I secure content;
But sun and wind are cal. - . in*
throughout the livelong day
From distant lands I used to kn
all the Far-Away:
Oh, Summer's In the hills ag i
Summer's on the sea,
And summer’s in my heart, a • j -
well, you must sjt me free! I
i