Life — May 27, 1886 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

To do always as / do, to wit: “cc AY wit to woo,” this queer little owl, ; I really consider an elegant fowl. Let it be a reminder, my darling, to you, to woo. | AT THE ART SCHOOL, RS. NOUVEAU: “ And is that large picture some of your work?” Pupil: “Mine? Oh, no, madam. That is one of the old masters.” Mrs. Nouveau (in undertone to her com- panion) : “I don't like to hear a young man speak so disrespectfully of his teachers.” EFORE marriage a man thinks his girl prettier than his friend's; after mar- triage he thinks his friend's wife prettier than | his own, HLS. IN A GOOD CAUSE, HE Kermess in aid of the Skin and Cancer Hospital, to take place the 27th and 28th of this month at the Thirty-fourth Street Park, promises to be a most brilliant affair. They always are brilliant, and the noble charity in whose aid they are organized renders them occasions in which money “ thrown away” is money well spent. It could not be “thrown away” to a better purpose. This institu- tion, by the way, has treated more than three thousand | patients during the three short years of its existence. Whatever else you fail to do, buy some tickets to the Kermess. You will experience an unusual series of delights and sleep better for many nights. Fe the last dozen centuries or so there has been a popular impression that the orthodox grandmother should be a nice, gray-haired old woman, with gold rimmed spectacles, a snow white cap, stores of antique anecdotes and an inexhaustible fund of advice. She is generally represented as sitting in a wide- armed chair, downily cushioned, surrounded by grandchildren of all ages. Such a grandmother will soon be behind the times. The age has dubbed her senile inactivity laziness and lack of enterprise. There is a field for our grandmothers—wide, far-reaching as the great Sahara—where shekels can be gleaned and fair reputations won. All the aged aspirant has to do is to embrace the little ones around the fireside, bid them farewell, and set out for the nearest theatre where comic opeta is played. Arrived at the house she will cast aside her flounceless gown and its accessories, array herself in tights, don a wig and war paint, forget that her joints are old and unused to exertion, and announce her willingness to lead the ballet. Lessons in this art can be obtained by metropolitan grand- mothers of the present time at the Fourteenth Street Theatre, where Miss Lydia Thompson nightly pirouettes in all her six- tiness, She winks at the baldbeads in the front rows, and re- members that she and they were boys together; she smiles at the children in high collars and silver-headed canes, who are too young to appreciate her. ‘Old age gives good advice when it is no longer able to set a bad example,” says Rochefoucauld, But the cynic knew nothing of the boundless possibilities of the day, and he wotted not of Lydia Thompson. Miss Thompson appears as Prince Fritz in gray silk tights, and a tunic at least six inches long, in a piece called ‘* Oxygen,” which has been “adjusted to anew metre” by William Gill. There is nothing at all in the thing but a foundation for ‘* gags.” How Mr. Gill manages to concoct his burlesques is an interesting matter of surmise. Are they sold at so much per pound of paper, or does he charge for the inkused? ** Oxygen” would be exorbitantly expensive on efther terms. It is exuberantly stated on the programme that the costumes were ‘devised by Lydia Thompson, Mesdames Stokes, Hudson, and assistants.” What these females—there must have been five at least—devised, I am at a loss to know. The attire of all the females on the stage, sewn together, would not have made one decently long dress, Miss Thompson's make-up is certainly admirable, Not a day over five and thirty does she look. In fact it seems hard to believe that the actress playing with Mary Anderson at the Star Theatre, under the name of Miss Tilbidey, is the daughter of the nimble, golden wigged little dancer who basks the Fourteenth Street Theatre audiences in the radiance of her fascinating smile, The company supporting Miss Thompson is good. Louis de Lange as The Burgomaster, and Richard F. Carroll asa lout, are extremely amusing in their way, which, unfortunately, also happens to be Mr. Gill's way. Miss Addie Cora Reed and Miss Lillie Alliston also contribute to the general good, The scenery used in “Oxygen” is exceedingly harrowing, and gives a bad flavor to the production. SHE OF THE STRONG MIND. HE sings of the good that will come to the world When all women have their say; But she won't dress up in a low-neck waist, Because she ’s not built that way. a5 comicbooks.com THE HE de stage for gloom ov atic art. The giori remains, advertisi accompli talent. AN O1 Cur F ing. A DR street. VERY A PE. one, UPSID ur = ARC sct Says “ Bright a None “ First dea: Then Then, ‘. WHE! went ma eighty-nir pseech, | fact that Cxralinx, of the Ar