Life — November 26, 1896 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

> LIFE: AN IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION CONCERNING THE OPERA. Tue Watporr, Monpay Mipnicut. My Own, Daruinc, Precious Besste:—1 am the happiest girl in all this whole, entire world. I have been to the first night of the opera at the Metropolitan and sat in a box. If it hadn't been for the names of the people printed in the programme no one could have told that I wasn’t an Astor, ora Boldt, or a Wormser, or something like that, instead of just plain Mayme Smith from Rochester, N. Y. The way it happened was this. You sce, papa’s broker down in Wall street had taken a box for the Pe-2> — scason—papa says he doesn’t know how he had oe the nerve to do it—and last week his wife's mother died, and as papa is a good customer of his, he sent us the tickets for the box. It was just simply too lovely for any- thing. We knew who all the people in the boxes were, because we could read their names on the programme. Papa said it made him think of the catalogue at a live-stock show, Of course we couldn't tell who the people were down- stairs, but the men in the next box cALVE, knew everybody, and as they talked about them all the time, it was just as good as the programme was for the box people. One of the men said, ‘Hello, there’s Reggie de Koven over there.” ‘+1 wonder how he got in!" said another. ‘+1 should think they'd be afraid he'd steal all the jewels out of the jewel song.” “He would,” said another, “only he doesn’t know the difference between paste and the real thing.” Wasnt that mean But the house itself looked perfectly lovely. I never saw so many diamonds in my life, even in Tiffany’s. Papa said if Bryan had been elected a good many of them would have been in hock, whatever that means, Then one of the men said, ‘‘Why, there's Nettie Van Santvoord. Thought she was out in Sioux Falls.” “So she was, but she got her decree Friday. Don’t you see she's in half- mourning? That's the swagger thing now —wear half-mourning for six month’ after a divorce, and then go into colors Papa sa‘d they were only joking, because, if that were the style, there would be more violet in the house. The opera people had asked ladies in the orchestra chairs not to wear hats, but one or two women did, and you can't imagine how funny they looked, and how people stared at them. Almost all the ladies wore low-necked gowns—not very low, you know; but, across from us, there was a little fat woman in a box who made me think of the lady in the bath-tub in the Pears’ soap advertisement. Down below us, in the chairs, was a scrawny woman in a very low bodice. One of the men said she was a woman of many fine points, and she didn’t care who knew it, She had on a lot of diamonds, and one of the other men said she reminded him of one of those hat-racks for jewelry that stand on eaes dressing cases. AMES. But it’s all over, and I'm getting sleepy. When I get back to Rochester I'll tell you more about it. I wish you could have been with us, you'dear, old thing. With lots of love, Your loving MayMe. —The two de Reszkes and Melba sang. I send you * . * T'S only a small matter, but if man- agers would print the hour at which their performances begin, both in their advertisements and on their tickets, they* would convenience” the public and save the Recording Angel a lot of bookkéeping. And why shouldn't there be some uniformity about the hour? The day has gone ‘by when people decide whether they are getting their money's worth from the length of time they stay in the theatre. Eight fifteen seems a happy compromise between eight o'clock and eight thirty. It gives fifteen minutes more at the dinner table, and yet doesn’t make the close of the performance too near to midnight. . . . N R. MAURICE BARRYMORE is a diffi- L cult actor to fit with a part, but, judging from its title, ‘Roaring Dick” ought to fill the bili. His personality contains such an inex- haustible fount of physical vigor that it bubbles over into his speech and ges- tures, and nothing short of most ener- getic work comes within his limits Barrymore's trouble is not lack of intel- ligence, but excess of vitality. * * . EDOUARD, HERE has recently been a sale of some of Mr. Richard Mansfield’s comicbooks.com a —7e eee ee