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How the Town Looks'
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A PORTLANDER AFTER
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BY A. H. BALLARD.
KEW YORK, Oct. 1. (Special Corre
spondence of The Sunday Oregonian.)
New York. That's all.
Skyscrapers, humidity and trim an
kles. Cabs, cars and cash.
Restaurants, roysterers and revels.
Awkward autos. antedeluvian actors
and anemic blondes.
A million females in translucent
shirtwaists paired with a million males
In George-M-Cohan suits.
Triumvirates of alliterative tintin
nabulation descriptive of today's Lit
tle Old New York might be built with
out number. They would all express
the first and strongest impressions
that the town makes upon the person
who has returned home after many
days.
It Is, altogether, not counting cats.
upwards of four million souls money,
and the lack of it. actuating their
very fiber. Carlyle calculated that In
London the millions were mostly fools.
He would have said that in New York
now thy are all fools.
The biggest surprise that I have had
Is to realize that I am not the prize
fool of the place. Its immensity, its
wealth, its enormous and diversified
activities, I supposed had, during the
10 or 15 years of my absence from
Park Row. reached proportions that
would daze me. Its people and its gi
gantic structures I presumed would
paralyze my wandering senses.
But I fail to daze or become par
alyzed. I find this burg the same as
ever, only taller and larger, and moved
up town about ten blocks in the cen
ter. New Yorkers are a little harder
worked. somewhat more bloodless,
quicker in slang, keener in the ac
quisition of a dollar, outwardly more
gorgeous. Just as unmindful of dis
comforts In habitation, just as fun
loving, quite as bustling and burn-the-candle-at-both-ends-ish
as ever. They
seethe in the heat, work like the devil.
dress clean, swagger and strut on the
highways, pinch at home, and cry after
the lights are out. just as they used to
do in the '80s, and will ever continue
to do as long as life has cities to curse
It and bless it-
The very rich and the very poor are
the unhappiest, and the middle classes
are the happiest, just as they always
are in urban settlements.
It seems to me that New York
preaches a sermon that is intensely
worth while. It tells the philosophy of
America as no other place tells it. It
proclaims the virtues and the short
comings of the American In unmis
takable terms, in glowing language to
the sympathetic observer. If seems
to me the most interesting and in
structive city on earth. Heaven we'll
all know about, so that we can make
comparisons later rif we continue to
do what the Portland plutocrats de
sire. I remember that I once took es
pecial delight in England in feeling
and thinking and quietly declaring at
frequent and opportune moments that I
was an American. They have such a con
Btrained and provincial conception over
there of what an American is. It is
a fact that the majority of them hold
the opinion that nearly every Ameri
can says "I guess" in each sentence he
utters, and that the particularly dis
tinguishing characteristic of an Amer
ican is that he habitually scratches a
match on the seat of his trousers. It
always, at length, is up to every
American on Albion's shores to dem
JENCE
-re
onstrate that his accomplishments and
his attainments have passed beyond
the "guess" and the vesta-igniting
stage.
t . 1. 1 1 1. . .s . ... in aceart.
ing on the street, in clubs, on many I
occasions, that in Portland they buy
more New York newspapers each day
than did San Francisco before its fall.
That proves to me that Portland keeps
a sharp eye on the doings of this me
tropolis that its people come here
often, that they are eager to read
about what is going on generally here,
that in a way they recognize this city
as the representative of their Ameri
canism, and the center from which em
anates the original impulses that give
color and verve and vitality to the
fundamental currents of American IKe.
Of course in some respects New York
is narrow, conceited, dictatorial and
disdainful of outside merits. I met
Murray and Slack the other day on the
street, and I saw "John Lynch (a
schoolmate of mine, who is now the
president of the great Terminal Ware
house Company), and they both greet
ed me with about the same phraseol
ogy.i The popular pair of comedians
whom I know only as clever people of
the theatrical world, and the vastly
successful young man whom I have
known from boyhood, in an instant
after telling me that they were glad to
see me, repeated the chestnut so ever
lastingly dear to the hearts of the real
Manhattanese, "It's true, old man,
when you leave New. York you're camp
Ins out."
That is the view that every plodder who
has attained any appreciable progress
whatever will take. That is the opinion
you will And expressed by every one who
has succeeded in pushing his head the
least bit of a ways above the average
line between success and failure. The
tremendous hordes of struggling masses.
the terrible gluts of humanity in the
overcrowded districts, we must leave to
the delving sociologists.
I came here to see and describe the
scenes of my novitiate In journalism, and
to pay particular attention to the beauti
ful and entrancing spectacle provided by
the playhouses. Yet I must request your
indulgence a. bit, that you may allow me
to let loose some of the thoughts and de
ductions that this wonderful place puts
In my brain in consequence of simple
contact. I am somewhat in the position
of a newcomer who enters an artist's
6tudio. The artist has been painting a
picture, ' and even a less lettered man
than the artist may see something about
the picture that was not discernible to
the artist himself, who has been watching
and studying his work for so long a time
continuously. Thus New York, from
which I have been absent months un
countable, strikes me as an old friend
whose features are the same, and still
not the same, and I can note the trend
of the days, the ravages of time, the
creations of the hour, the flow of the
current, the evident goal toward which
the metropolitan life is tending, as per
haps one . who has uninterruptedly
mingled here cannot.
The theatrical world is so large now.
that I will have to give it to you in
bunches. The best way seems to be to
take the various enterprises, the various
featured people, the various stars of the
theatrical firmament, and deal with them
according as they are scheduled to be
handled and brought out and paraded
over the country by the several larger
producing managers.
Some new plays have been already put
forward, but nothing as yet that may be
chronicled as a decided or spectacular
hit. Two old successes are the strongest
factors in the public mind yet this year,
in so far as the New York public and
immense floating population (which in
eludes liberal samples from all the states
of the Union to the tune of about 300,000
per day) go. '
These two successes are "Mademoiselle
Modiste." that exquisitely refined and ar
tistic opera bouffe in which Fritzi Scheff
has starred for 300 nights at the Knicker-
bocker. and which now goes on the road
and will visit Portland at the Heilig. and
David Warneld in bis absolutely match-
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less character , Impersonation of "The 1
Music Master."
Such people in the dramatic producing
business as Klaw & Erlanger.' Charles
Frohman. Henry W. Savage. Liebler &
Co.. John Cort. Wagenhals & Kemper,
Charles Dillingham. Henry B. Harris.
David Belasco, Harrison Grey Fiske. the
Schubert Bros., etc.. although their un
dertakings vary in 'amount and quality,
certainly mark out the natural lines of
classification which I must follow in de
scribing the happenings and portraying
faithfully the theatrical picture that is
now being painted here, and which will
be exhibited as the year waxes to its
fullness, all over the United States, in
cluding that nestling spot of picturesque
beauty and refined appreciation Portland.
Oregon. The theatrical managers and
owners whom I have mentioned are. of
course, not by any means the only ones.
They represent, however, the hub of the
plays and the amusements that are to be
offered to the American public of the
better class this year. In other lines
there is a .vast amount of praiseworthy
activity in melodrama, in vaudeville, in
burlesque, in the multitude of conglom
erate aggregations that 811 the second
rate houses throughout the land. I should
say .that three-quarters of all the the
atrical stuff that is put forward is abso
lutely meretricious, even among the con
tines of the best and most pretentious
Even Charles Frohman does not put on a
good and lasting play once out of four
times trying. And. as Rose Stahl says
in "The Chorus Lady." "I am not a
member of the anvil chorus, and I am
mentioning no names; but there are peo
ple in this chorus who, if they were
where they should be. would be making
beds." This remark applies to 80 per cent
of the actor folk who infest Broadway,
some of whom obtain positions, but the
majority of whom either starve most of
the year, or do worse, i mean to say.
that we look to Frohman, to Dillingham,
to Belasco (and. let me whisper, to Cort
also now) for something that will catch
on and stay in our minds. They are
clever and brainy, and either have or can
command money. They have organiza
tions, business organizations, here that
must be seen to be appreciated. The ma
chinery of business works in a well-oiled
way. and they grind out stars and sue
cessful productions each year, not by
manic, bless you. but by the most pains
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taking drudgery and careful calculations.
backed up by an amount of finesse and
machiavellian diplomacy of managerial
intercommunication and allied interests
that would startle and astonish the lay
man unacquainted with the ways and
methods of the inner theatrical world.
To sum up. William Winter is the
ablest writer in the theatrical situation.
Many of the other writers are considered
grandmothers and neophytes given a dan
gerous amount of power, and a few of
the younger ones, barring their newness.
a rs -nnsirlerai nrnmisln Da vid Belasco
is held to be the wonder that he is both I
as a play stealer and a piece of pure magic
as a stage carpenter. Charles Fronman
is counted the standard for the exploita
tion of plays and players that will stand
the test of time. Dillingham is growing
fast into one of the biggest factors. (He
has signed Mrs. Leslie Carter for five
years. She got married and had to quit
her David Belasco, who trained her. you
know.) I hereby and herewith predict
that John Cort. now a novelty in New
York, butting into the Great White Way
pungently and incisively with Florence
Roberts and other stars, whom he Is con
ducting to undoubted triumph, has the
spunk, the courage, the popularity and
the skill, not to mention the utterly es
sential daredevil effrontery, to ride over
opposition and win by sheer force of his
own personality and grit. I predict that
in less than three years he will be one of
the heaviest guns here. Klaw & Er
langer, with their untold riches, and the
power of their huge list of theater book
ings, dominate by actual direction or in
duced and collateral interests, more than
half the monetary and' tactical maneuver
ings of American theatrical circles. Their
"Prince of India." which opens at the
Broadway Theater, is the largest and
most spectacularly Impressive melodrama
that America has yet seen. Music, spec
tacle, marvelous story, staged by Ben
Teal and his co-prestldigltators. financed
by Klaw & Erlanger after their fortunes
made by "Ben Hur." what may you ex
pect? I shall be there and tell you about
it. It won't blind me. The magazines
are going to explode, all of them, in their
descriptions of It. It . is so magnificenf.
Money has not been lavished upon it.
That is not the word. Aoney has been
spilled upon it just as you would upset
a pot of coffee. That's what's the matter
with the New Amsterdam Theater about
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which they have made so loud a noise
the ornamentation everywhere in evi
dence is so previous, so insistent, so over
whelming that it surfeits you- like the
ceaseless caresses of a maiden scorned
They might just as well have studded it
with gold pieces to show that they had
the money.
In the list of openings thus far. Lillian
Russell's new play, "Barbara's Millions,"
has not been well received in Chicago,
but when it comes here in a few weeks,
in case they do not withdraw it. New
York may like it better. The critics in
Chicago think that it is one of Paul Pot
ter's worst, but Miss Russell Is im
mensely liked here. She is a wonderful
singer, and the sweetest-looking thing
God ever made, and she keeps her youth.
If it gets out to Portland. Cathrine
Countiss. who is leading woman in the
cast, will help Lillian draw diseriminat
Ing theater-goers to the Heilig.
There have been a few sporadic indica
tions of permanence in ventures that
have already showed their heads. "His
House in Order," John Drew at the Em
pire, is Pinero's latest, and not his best.
"The Little Cherub." at the Criterion, is
the tuhefullest musical comedy that is
now ringing in people's ears. A couple of
swirlers have been received enthusiastic
ally at the Casino. Savage's "The Man
From Now." clever cast, beautiful pro
duction, Harry Bulger the star, musical
flip-flap, Forodora imitation, patch-quilt
musical comedy, now running at the New
Amsterdam, will go on the road and you
will see it. It is worth the price for Bul
ger's drollery and the costumes alone.
Even the broiling heat and the su
persaturated atmosphere that has made
the theaters veritable Turkish baths
do not deter the people from cram
ming the houses of amusement full,
nearly everywhere to capacity every
night. It is a glorious outlook for
the managers, in so far as willingness
to go and sample their goods is con
cerned. The New York public itself,
augmented by the prodigious transient
element, simply is amiable to an as
tounding degree. They will go and
look at almost anything. But the wise
owners who risk their money know
that it is only the good and .the really
meritorious that will "go over," as
they call real success, and earn the
big money both here and on the road.
The arbiters, the generals, who are
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running this campaign to entertain
the busy, the complaisant, the rich and
prosperous American public. those
keen-witted men who plan and scheme
here in New York, and risk millions
each year to provide amusement and
attractive "shows." bidding for the
pacronage of this great land of the
trusts and home of the wage-earners
these artistic business gamblers in the
most enticing game among the later
avocations that have attracted capi
tal, are all agreed on one point. Some
of the biggest of them have told me
in so many words: "We can stage
the play. We have an abundance of
actors and actresses. It is not the stars
you want now it is not the name of
the man or the woman you want. It
is the play. The play must be right
first and then we are fixed well to sup
ply the rest."
This season, so far. the play has
not yet arrived. The managers are
looking for it. They snub the would
be neophytes. They do not admit on
Skillful Stagedriver With One Arm
Hood River-Mt. Hood Jehu Surprises Travelers by His Driving-
JOHN FREDENBURG. who drives the
stage from Hood River to the Mount
Hood Postoffice. a distance of about 15
miles, is said to be the most remarkable
stage-driver in the United States. He has
but one arm, his left, and can hardly lift
it on a level with his face, .lie right arm
was amputated some years ago. His right
leg also is disabled, being shortened about
eight inches. Yet with his crippled left
arm Fredenburg can drive either two or
four horses as skillfully as most men can
with two good arms. Travelers who taice
the stage at Hood River are amazed and
somewhat alarmed when they see the
man who is to drive' the team over the
narrow grades that follow the bluffs
above Hood River, but their fears are
quickly set at rest when Fredenburg
gathers the reins and starts out.
But their wonder increases. Innumera
ble packages have been crammed into the
stage, from a spool of thread for some
woman along the road to a roast of mut
ton all of which he delivers without a
mistake. After leaving 'the boundary of
the Hood River free delivery route, the
stage-driver becomes the mall carrier, and
deposits its mail in boxes along the road
The forests and fields are abundantly supplied xrita vegetation of vari
ous kinds, not alone to beautify the land, but to furnish the ingredients for
making a remedy for every ill and ailment of mankind. Medicines made
from the roots herbs and barks, which nature has placed at the disposal of
man, act better in every way than do strong mineral mixtures and concoc
tions the products of the chemist's shop. Mineral medicines work danger
ously on the delicate parts of the system, especially the stomach and bowels,
by eating out the lining membrane, producing chronic dyspepsia and often
entirely ruining the health. S. S. S. enjoys the distinction of being the
only purely vegetable remedy on the market. It is made entirely of gentle
acting, healing, purifying roots, herbs and barks, possessing properties that
build up and invigorate all parts of the system, ia addition to removing all
impurities and poisons from the blood. S. S. S. cures Rheumatism, Catarrh.
Scrofula, Sores and Ulcers, Skin Diseases, Contagious Blood Poison and all
disorders of the blood by cleansing the circulation of the cause, and it cures
safely as well as permanently. It is as safe for children and old people as
for those in the prime of life, and is the one blood medicine that may be used
without fear of bad after-effects. Book on the blood sent free to all who
write. THE SWFT SPECIFIC CO., ATLANTA. CA.
AS
LASTSmo
the housetops anything whatever of
their affairs or their needs. But they
are all looking for the play that the
public will cotton to. all the same.
They have found out that in the end
the piay's the thing. They say that
Z-iza." "Sappho." the flaunting of lust
and irregular relations on the stage,
is not whJt the public wants now.
Th:y are always busy in estimating
the public pulse. They want plays
that go back to nature, and let us see
again that truth and purity and sweet
ness and kindness may brush away the
bother of life and deliver us from the
woes that civilization thrusts upon us.
They want 'a play that makes one
laugh through the tears, and every
one is yearning for the ideal of a good
woman in whom the American gentle
man can find an excuse for the resusci
tation of his inborn chivalry. '
Vou. Mr. Greene, in Portland: you.
Mr. Sayre. and you. Mr. Blethen. in
Seattle, take a tumble and write that
play. A. H. BALLARD.
He drives his wagon close to the miny
mail boxes set in front of the farm
houses and there deposits the papers and
letters. He delivers The Oregonian in
upper Hood River Valley one day ahead
of the rural free delivery carriers out of
Hood River.
After delivering the Innumerable paes
ages and mail along the road. Fredenburg
arrives at the Mount Hood Postoffice
about 5 P. M. Up to this time he has
been stage driver, express agent and mail
carrier, but that is not all. He runs a
large ranch in the Upper Hood River Val
ley, where his parents live and which ae
is having cleared. .He has more energy
than two or three men notwithstanding
his crippled condition. He is cheerful and
accommodating to the public and is very
popular. He is said to be paying court to
a charming young widow.
Shah's Marked-Down Present.
Indianapolis News.
The Shah of Persia has an extraordinary
museum in Teheran, his capital. It is sup
posed to contain his presents from for
eign potentates, but the exhibits include
a hand glass marked "Price 3s," and
some fans ticketed "fid."
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