The evening world. Newspaper, May 31, 1913, Page 9

THE EVENING WORLD, SATURDAY, MAY 31, New Prima Donna Fritzi Scheff Hard to Manage? Not at All, Says Manager Fritzi Scheff, Her Yelping ‘‘Mother’s-Darling”’ of a “Pom” —@ DESCRIBED BY MEG VILLARS. “THIS 19 Yoons te U SING WEDNESDAY MATINGR® “MY CAPITAL iS HERE” “THEY THINK, : T RUN aRRoUND The woust Hs way” Don’t Believe Those Silly Old Stories, Some of Which, Hurt, Especially the One That Had Her at Supper With David War- : feld When She Really Was Lying Unconscious. ” | By Charles Darnton. HERE fs the skulking villain who dares to say that a prima donna is hard to Manage? And what does he know about it anyway? ‘The mere idea was enough to quake Mme. Fritsi Scheff toss her doing my best to give a good perform- ance. That's what I've always done. 1 want to deny here and now that old Qretty bead, if not get on her equally! #tory about my having been sMcult pretty car. It was a tender aubject | j » with ber, yet she discussed it with aémiradle self-control. Manager Fritsi Seheff was getting along famously with Prima Donna Vritsi Scheff in that happy enter- prise, “Mile, Modiste,” at the Globe Theatre. In fact, Manager Fritsi @ehef spoke most amiably of Prima Donna Fritsi Scheff, who couldn't eve been more of an angel, I was quickly convinced, if she were al- ready singing in the heavenly choir. It eo happened that the singer was rehitectural would per- mit, and she came away from the plaso under a shower of high notes that led her to inquire: “Did you imagine I was giving a performance?” Like her former managers, I couldn't possibly im- agine her giving » mid-week mati- bad “That's part of an old story as/, @iliy as it's unfair,” she said. “It fmt because I dislike Wednesday matiness that I don’t give them, it’s eeapty that they're too much for me. Quee Mr. Dillingham came to me Obviously, | [oO manage. Nothing could be more un- ust.” Her eyes snapped and her pompadour fairly bristled. Under the circumstances there was nothing to do but put in a sympathetic word and aif tight. “Just atop and consider the facts,” she urged. ‘For seven years I had only two managers, so I must have got along fairly well with them, don’t you think? Then another manager put me in a ece that proved a failure. But that wasn't my fault, The plain truth is that I've worked as hard as any one could for the success of every produc- tlon in which I ppeared. Yet stories to the coptrary hi followed me every- where, Thi joat cruel thing was said about me in Cleveland when I was seized with an illness that lasted more than twenty weeks and brought me very near to death's door, Here's what hap- pened: David Warfield, who has been a very dear friend of mine ¢or yeare, was in at the time, and on the might was said I was hi The truth is I wi in my hotel, However, a sigh and Frits! Scheff are soon parted, and the next moment she was laughing off her old-time troubles. “The funny thing about it,” she chortled, “is that a large part of the ‘with @ thousand-dollar bill in his! pupiic seems to think that the life of hané ané said: ‘Sing on Wednesday afternoon and this {s yours.’ I was to tell him that he would keep his money if he ex- 9 to keep my voice, Wasn't in @ vase at my terned suddenly from pink to en’ woke like a fresh thousund- ‘Dit. Money talks, bur ft docun't ‘and great is the vill power of the speak of the prima donna; the woman of the stage?” “All of us have to earn , and that is the fire thing to jere’, Gome poople, of course, bird seod, ly that ie not the case, a the Plata or a bo the board bill has to be paid, the woman of the stag> r myself, I worked my managers in the ie au an actress is all play and no work, people that the actre hard-working woman. Becau see me in that short drumme: in ‘Mile, Modtete’ they probably think I run around the house thi never dream of t that must be p “qnd I must guard it carefully, Is that not so?” Other assets were apparent, ef course, but there wae no need to carry the argument beyond the throat. A woman who is both charming and prac- tical can met along very well without compliments. ( went on the sprightly , “whenever I was una a performance the public nev to thimk, perhaps, that my appear was due to @ sore throat and not to caprice, It's all very well to talk of the whims of @ singer, but what mj about the cost to her when she dosen't When I @i4n't sing I lost three hun- dred dollara, and you may well deli that I never cared to indulge myself in #0 expensive @ luxury. On one of these cocasions a newspaper said I in the gallery because I taken that I would enjoy ing tt ance, The idea! I could have gone to rehearsal any time and seen another woman in my role without its costing me a cent. I used to fume over those “we'at SupPosen tories, but now they seem only funny. Aad I really have managed to get along @itth people somehow. For seven years T nad the same stage director, the same wardrobe woman, the same electrician and others who were loyal to me. I mention these things merely to dis- Drove the ridiculous yarne that have been told. What's more, I consented NEY 1913. New York’s Ridiculous Lap-Dog Woman and “Every Other Woman on Fifth Avenue Seems to Be Lugging a Petted, Whining Little Beast Along— Observe, Too, the Perfumed Darlings as Erect and Scornful They Limousine. Sit by ‘Mother’ in the «And Think of the Motherless Babies That Are Cut- ting Their Teeth on Old Cruste; Babies That Would Grow Fat on the Money Expended for the Pet Dog’s Menu!”’ rT? HESE society women don't ] want) children, They had rather ride the length of “mother” in the carriage. On the pave- ment, whining to be carried after they ha walked @ve yards, and then “mother” ‘has to risk accidents with to do things that were calculated to|Féfth avenue with spangied poodie| that overtight skirt as she wrigries ruia me. There was ‘The Mikado,’ for|doge than care for their own flesh| ‘town to lift the precious lamb. Tucked example, It was artistic auicide for me to appear in a Japanese role, knowing as I Gid that I could not be myself. I tried so hard to be Japanese that I found myself going through the motions of Yum Yum even in hotel dining reome, It was Itke that everywhere I went. The wonder le I didn't go orasy. “Tl am not Viennese, and to pretend to be Japanese was too ™uoh for me. In Vienna they abways called me ‘Our Fritzi,’ and I used to wonder what they would say if they could see their Fritzl in a Japanese makeup. They know I am in America, but they don't know just where ‘Amer- ica is, except that it is near the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, they don't know very much about any countey but their ‘They just live there, and love one other and have @ good time. Meanwhile T'm going to keep on living here. All I want is tobe myself, And really I'm not a manager—I'm just Frits! Scheff. Helen Rowland on Modern Dress (Reprinted by Request.) Gre no more, but Woman's folly endurcth forever. Bron my Daughter, pompadoure have passed away, and petticoats Lo, she goeth forth errayed as a show-girl, and clad ee the “Delight of the Harem.” As the freaks in the circus parade, as the goods in a cut-rate drug-store, 80 are her charme sect forth to catch the eye of the multitude. Bhe displayeth her ankles, and her hose of spun tik. Yet men scarce turn their Reade to gase after her. She attireth herscif in the blouse of “ehadow-lace,” and her skirt clingeth ae the twining ivy. Bhe pointeth her face ae with house-paint; she adorneth herself in glowing colore; she maketh the Owbists to blush, and putteth the Futurists to shame. Bhe weareth the jewelled anklet, and at night ehe acintillateth as an electric sign. As a red necktie at a funeral, ae a bridle in a slashed ekirt, as a fat woman dancing the turkey-trot, she emiteth the eyes and spoileth the scenery. Alas, she i BO obvious! And men emile upon her as she passcth, but in their SLEEVES can be heard the tinkling of mocking laughter, Yet, ehe thinketh in her heart: “Lo, 1 am making the ‘Bez-Appeal!’” But I say unto thee, the ‘sexoppeal’ is an appeal unto the IMAGINA- TION; and es a Woman casteth aside her MYSTERY, 60 doth she cast away her eternal CHARM. Then, come not unto me, saying: “Why do men no longer MARRY? Alas, they have become colder than @ Monday luncheon, more apathetic than a pet cat, and more critical than a New England conectence! Ang there te no sentiment, and no and no romance left in them!” @o to! I charge thee if thou wouldst make the “BEX-APPEAL," get thee to a nunnery, and cover thyself with vetla! Wind thy form in many folds, and conceal thy charms ‘neath a bushel of ruffles! For it te not that which te OBVIOUS which fasctnateth a man, but that which te ELUSIVE. Nay, s te not that which he BEETH that Interesteth him, but that which he CANNOT see, Verily, verily the keystone of Love te not knowledge, but CURIOSITY. 4nd whet man Rath any curiosity left concerning @ modern damsel? ! 1 anu blood.”—Justice Aspinwall, ce T'S high time American T women who affect that sort of thing were changing their lap dogs for babies and venting the maternal inatinct which prompts them to caress a fussy dog on the od- Ject that nature intended them to.” “There are thousands of homele: dadies to-day and thousands of baby leas wives, cach needing the other. T feet sorry for the misguided women who elect to take a dog witha pink nose and silky hair instead of an infant. Where a mother carries a lap dog I certainty feet sorry for the children."—Dr. Hatvey W. Wiley. By Meg Villars. HEN you come to think of it, {t docs seem queer that there hould be dogs who wear rub- ders when the ground ia damp, while there are hundrede of poor little kiddt soing barefooted, doesn't T happened to think about ft to-day when I saw the grotesque spectacle of ® fashlonad'e dog taking a “constitur tional” in Central Park. He was a perfect "dog" of a dog! ‘He was wearing all his best Sunday- go-to-meeting raiment; an automobile dust oat of ecru t r, boasting of & Uttfe pocket from which an embrold- erefhanky pecked, little boots to keep his ‘Ickle toes off the damp gravel, and I dare say there were automobile the car that was fole © was “some swell,” as @ sneer ing youth remarked, Nobody else sneered, though; that Uttle beast'e progress was one long tri- ump! after all, not @o very | his owner, toddiing adoringly att: other end of the lead, “How perfectly devey’ an English contribution) wei (that was the re- greeted tho ridiculous tyke. The children staved zed and silent disgust, remember- ups had spanked them for dressing Fido up In the baby's clothes, I sympathiaed with the kiddies, for I detest. thoae nasty Uttle yelpy dogs that the fashionable woman raves over. The dressed-up, ridiculous mite that was towing the fat dame along In Con- shat always have half an tongue hanging out of the their mouth, the kind that sneaks about your feet, doesn't move w coming and then ralaes iades when youl walk on It. In short, the kind that is about as unpopular With men as are those oo- long, embroidered cushions that soine women clutter up thei floor with and that over during your first visit pear to be a sort of ineh cori of tral Park was one of the slonuery kind | of | ¢ Every other woman ad, under “mother arm in the shops. Inside ‘mother’ really seema that the only place the toy dog has not been taken to ie—chure! Maybe the question of dreas hae some- thing to do with the crase for small dogs. I don't see how any one wearing &@ fashionable could keep up with the long slouch of @ St. Bernard, the bounding astride of a le or even the hop and skip and dash of a fox terrier. More's the pity, for those are real @oga that you can trust. If you treat that kind of dog properly it ie only fair think of him—unlees you find his neighbors chicke—as a good pal and perfect while, no mi how w & prhe toy dog, it rarely thing but sulk when it {fe not enarling or licking your face. around the attenual m to wish thel: pal or @ perfect af 1 don't know what they want exactly, but {t rather seems that the great point {s to have @ canine incubus that needs & Uttle more attention and a little more care than anybody else's, thereby prov: ing its superior breed and delicacy. Have you ever watched a woman meas over her lapdos's sauvertul of food? And doesn't it make you angry when you think of the motherless babies that are cutting theig teeth on 014 crusts, baties that would grow fat and healthy on the money expended for the pet dog's menu? Although not many are decked out quite as foolishly as my dog-friend of Central Park, doegn't it make you sneer that @ goki curb collar by the toy- dog, ts an every day an occurrence as the celluloid one is for the underpaid store assistant? It seems so silly to spend s small fortune on toy dows, for after all, to Quote the Apectacied Poet: “When the fourteen years that Notare Are ending im blindness and tumors and fits.” What have you got to show for it all? Wouldn't it have been better, if you have no children of your own, to have devoted the price of that pedigreed Flufty-Fluffume to giving a motherless babe a clean, fair start in life? It seems to me there ix more real pride to be got out of a child’e first *jschool prize than there ts out of a medal won at a dog #how. Hut it isn't only childless women and old mall# who make the fortune: of dog dealers, Sometimes you see Master Baby take second place on the front seat of the limousine, while the snarling, yelpicg Mttle “inother's-dar- snapping at aif that young din the little but Master You have th mother the eyes of her loving friends are upon hope that Master Baby loving Master Baby better than any- thing in the whole wide world? Probably if we could glimpse deep down into the heart of the wom. nurses a lap-<dog one would see that she {s profoundly envious of Master mother, And yet, because she te deepl; ‘outward demonstrations of affection re vulgai eeps up the mask and you see &® woman—who rayes over the etupid impersonal little dog that licas her face—become coldiy aloof as sne greets her husband and presenta a chilly cheek to his ‘“home-from-the- office-kisa’! if it would be pretty hard to know wh the error lies for, w methers used to blush, ern woman eniggers. if you asked the lap-dog-wo- she would not prefer to real live baby she you crazy, or else unpleasai promptly put in alxty-three giggles to the minute. And so, though yoy may hear the truth from an angry woman, who storms and rages, eal it from her eyes when ehe is silent, you will never, never get when she gigxles. ver Of course, it's not only here that Pve seen women make fools of dogs, incidentally, of themselves, and Parle it's pretty bad, too. ever, in Paris it's more especially the “actricettes" and members of the world who go crasy over ridieweug specimens of dogginess, ee In the Bolg of an afternoon yeu nothing but shrill yelps as the promenade along the “Acacias” ecented, Veribboned! They are with “mother's” own expensive from Gerlain or Houbigant, thetr bons match “mother's” frock, and, te. deed, one fond “mother” openly that she dyes bor own halt eo thea matches Toutou's coat end that never wears any shade that might sult them both, ' In London you sew women of every clase gaping in front of the wine dows of smart dog dealers, the ., Uttle beasts ag they snore pincidélg, Im thelr bedecked compartments or smart at each other across the partitions oF through the bars, What do you think of the scapegeas |” dog? ’ + ea 1 know @ woman who owns @ vali- able toy terrier for whom she ® companion!—the peor companies {ng @ tiny mongrel, When the pains” dog 1s too outrageously unbearable deat the mongrel in front ef him ep un example! Can you beat it? I hope met! —_—_————————— ee Once More! Should a Man Remove His Hat In an Elevator When Women Are Present? HAT old familiar problem in de portiment, “Should # gentieman remove his hat In a publie el vator when there are women present? bobbed up again and received a new newer to-day in the Trinity Butldi Two men and a woman, one of ® lawyer with offices in the lower Broadway skyscraper, the others a client and his wife, entered the expres They were ged in animated raation, The lawyer promptly and of the one hat, you'll cate cold in} advised the husband, You wouldn't take off your hat in a ridor—why do it In a F would," rep would take o'f orridor, fn the street same thing go “But T woukln't take off my hat in any) elevator if there were women in it 1) didn't know," he comtinued, ‘I woud regi But whet rl am with a Ld know, I keep my hat off uatih quents me to resume it.” And <he wife of the cliemt rege manly to the situation, She asked the lawyer | to resume his And he did, . —_——_ ; How Paterson, N. J, Obays, VER in Paterson, N. Jw Where O they have many ether besides strikes and o"Z. " as the Italian striene ali: them, they have also an oM@cial whe ts @ firm believer in the old saw brevity being the soul of wit Be: demonstrated his theory dy @ pale @ signboards on the spacious lawge' the high achool building. Tee on the sign tw: “PLEASE” That's all—not another werd, Hees VO ta es But Paterson apparently heaw® 4 the least dimcuity in dise e meaning. The lawn ts smooth marked by pathways and no aad Passes upon the sward. E bel ® curt and