The Billboard 1901-09-14: Vol 13 Iss 37 (1901-09-14)

THE BILLBOARD THE BILLBOARD. Published Weekly at 420 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S A. Address all communications For the editorial or business departments to THE BILLBOARD PUBLISHING CO, Subscription, $4.00 a year ; 6 mos., $2.00; 3 mos., 1.00, in advance. ADVERTISING RATES: Advertisements will be published at the uniform rate of ten cents per agate line; no discount for time or space. Copy for advertisements must reach us before noon on S1turday previous to week ofissue. Our terms aie cash, The Billboard ts so'd in London at Low's Exthan ge, 57 (haring Cross, and at American Adverlising Newspaper Agency, Trafalgar Butldings, Northumberiand Ave., W.C. In Paris.at Brentano s,37 Ave. del’ Op.ra. The trade supplied by the American News (0.and tts branches. Remittance shouid be made by post-office or express money order,orregist ved lettrr addressed and made payable to the Billboard Pub Co. The editor can not undertake to return unsolictled manuscript; correspondents should keepcopy. When itis necessary to wire us the instructions and copy for advertisements, grevt saving inthe matter of telegraph tolls may be had by recourse to tne Donaidson Cipher Code. Entered as Second-Class Matter at Post Office at Cincinnati, Ohto. Saturday, Sept. 14. 1901. THE BILL BOARD “EVIL.” Here and there throughout “the land of the free and the home of the brave’ one finds every now and then an obscure publication which indulges in periodical spasmodie fits over ‘“‘the bill board evil.’’ All kinds of calamities and woe are charged up against the poster business and a few socalled editors have made themselves so ridiculous as to try to convince a twentieth century, intelligent people that bill boards are responsible for much of the diseases to which the eye and other organs of the human body are heir. Of course, no thinking person, much less physicians, will admit the possibility of such tommy-rot, but advertising revenue on some daily papers has to be obtained sowehow, and the ridiculous attacks on bill boards are not by any means the limit to which some publishers will go to secure the necessary reyenue to conduct their papers. Advertisers, the very men whom it is sought to hoodwink, very clearly see ‘‘the nigger in the woodpile.” It is not the health nor good eyesight of the community over which the amateur editors are so solicitous, bor are their nervous systems and optic nerves so delicately constructed as to be shocked by the ‘“‘sight-destroying daubs”’ on bill boards. It is the threatening manner in which bill boards are growing in favor with successful advertisers that worries the publishers of the daily papers, or rather, only a part of them, for the publisher of a live, up-to-date newspaper with an honest bona fide circulation, instead of fearing competition, courts it. The more opportunities afforded for advertisers to increase their advertising, the more the value of advertising becomes appreciated, and in consequence the more money is invested in printers’ ink. The newspaper publisher who has a recognized advertising medium of value does not fear all the bill boards in Christendom, because he knows the value of his paper as an advertising medium and experience has taught him that so long as advertisers secure returns from his publication just so long will they continue to advertise in it, bill boards or no bill boards. Time was when an advertiser who ran a double-column ad. in one daily paper was a curiosity. To-day that same man uses every daily paper whose circulation is worth a fig, and his space is measured by pages and half pages instead of by “‘squares” and inches. And he does not stop with the dailies, either. You will find his ad. staring you in the face from the program you reaa at the theater; from the envelope in which your coupons come; from the curtain and drops on the stage; from the menu card at the cafe where you go for i:uucu after the show; from the house tops in blazing 1etters while you wait on the corner for your car; from the inside of the car itself, ana finally from the bill boards you pass on your way home. . No, the advertiser of to-day does not confine himself to any one class of advertising. He is constantly on the lookout for new places and new ways to call your attention to his trade. He is not particular what price he pays for space, neither does he care whether that space be purchased in a daily newspaper, a magazine or on your barber's shaving paper, just so he obtains ‘‘returns.”’ All-business men of to-day are “from Missouri’’--you “have to show them,” and when the goods can be delivered they do not question the whys and wherefores. But space in a publication which has neither cireulation prestige nor standing is not wanted at any price. The successful advertiser knows this, and he is not to be deceived by the yelps of a few despairing publishers whose revenues from their papers are decreasing every day. Their papers being valueless as advertising mediums, space in them is not wanted at any price, but they can not or will not admit the truth even to themselves, and so, seeing their own business decreasing and advertising on bill boards increasing, they seek to remove all possible opposition, thinking that if there were no bill boards, advertisers would be forced to seek their columns. Such is the real objection of the owners of obscure papers to “the bill board ‘evil.’ ”’ Cincinnati harbors one of them, and thank Heaven, only one! The paper in question has been on the down grade for years, and it will require more “‘sand” than its present proprietor can throw on the slippery rails of total failure to stop it before it reaches the ditch of annihilation and oblivion. The agitation against bill board advertising in Cineinnati which has been started by the paper in question deceives no one—certainly not the advertisers, who do not and will not burn up their money by advertising in a newspaper without merit, circulation prestige or friends. Bill board and poster advertising is here to stay, and all the rantings of an unsuccessful and disgruntied newspaper publisher and politician will avail nothing. MISS ROSE CECELIA SHAY. (See First Page Illustration.) There is an old saying, trite and true, to the effect that “‘When you are in Rome do as Romans do,’ and evidently Miss Rose Cecelia Shay, whose likeness is presented on the first page of this issue of ‘‘The Billboard,” believes in following the precept. While Miss Shay was abroad studying her profession, she was not long in learning that in Italy people demanded opera sung in Italian: in France they demanded it in that tongue of Napoleon, while in Germany it reqires a special dispensation from the directors of the Royal Theaters to sing in any other langage than German. So when Miss Shay was called upon to head her own opera company sbe said: “Very well. I shall sing an American opera by an American composer; an American company shall support me; the opera shall be sung in English, and the opening shall be in the National Capitol of the United States.” Co). Billy Thompson, her manager, argued that such a thing would never do. “There must be an Italian tenor or two, because the public is used to it,” ete. But Miss Shay said: ‘‘All American or noth ing;’’ and as usual in such affairs the woman won out. So it was that one of a famous American poet’s beautiful poems was set to music, and an American opera was made. Miss Shay will therefore be heard this season he She | “Priscilla, the Maid of Plymouth.” will be spported by an all-American Company of artists, and the initial presentation of star and opera will be appropriately produced at Washington, D. C. That Miss Shay won her fight with her manager in the selection of an opera and a supporting company is no surprise to those who know that she is the daughter of Col. Thomas F. Shay, Cincinnati's famous criminal attorney. It is said of Colonel Shay that he never knows when he is “licked” in a legal fight, and his daughter is ‘ta chip off the old block.” Few young women ever began a starring engagement under more favorable circumstances than Miss Shay. Young, vigorous, fond of exercise, and blessed by nature, both mentally and physically, she is an American girl whom any one might be proud to class an as acquaintance. While a student at the Sacred Heart Convent, at Monroe, Mich., from which she graduated with first honors, her remarkable vocal powers were recognized and commented upon. After leaving the convent she matriculated at the Cincinnati College of Music, under Tecla Vigna, who at once predicted a fortune for her on the operatic stage. So well was Mme. Tecla Vigna versed in Miss Shay’s powers that in the second year of her studies at the College of Music (198), Miss Shay, out of a class of 982 scholars, some of whom were post-graduates, won the Springer gold medal, the highest honor with which any graduate of the Cincinnati College of Music may be endowed. At the earnest solicitation of Mme. Tecla Vigna Miss Shay, upon her graduation from the Cincinnati College of Music, went to Milan, Italy, to finish her musical education. Mme. Tecla Vigna, herself a teacher of international reputation, thought so well of her pupil that she secured leave of absence from the College of Music, and accompanied her pupil to Italy. Here she was given in charge of Mone. Tecla Vigna'’s maestro, the elder Sig. Leoni, who for 35 years has been at the head of the Milan Conservatory of Music. Hearing her sing. Sig. Leoni said to Miss Shay: “ child, you have one of the most promising voices | | Il have heard for years, and | predict’ for you a great future.” Miss Shay graduated with the highest honors from the Milan Conservatory of Music, and it is said of her that she has the greatest range of any singer on the American stage to-day. In Col. Wm. A. Thompson, who has taken the management of her tour, she has one of the most astute and successful operatic nunagers in the business. He has surrounded his star with the cream of American operatic stars, and his double quartet is said to rival anything that Americans have ever heard in grand opera. Sopranos, Miss Rose Shay, Miss Nellie Andrews and Miss Bertha Nollie; tenors, A. L. Pharamley and Tom Green; basse, W. H. Clarke; barytones, S. Chapman and J. Kk. Hinshaw. NOVEL RITUAL For a Marriage Ceremony Which May Become Popular With Professionals. A novel, if not impressive, ritual for a marriage ceremony, far removed from the set lines to which people both in and out of the church have long been accustomed, has been written by Charles S. Sparks, a well-known Cincinnati lawyer and disciple of Ingersoll. ‘The agnostic ritual was specially designed by Sparks for the celebration of the marriage of two young Cincinnati people, who are members of his Ag nostic Sunday School—the only one in the world. The ritual was read in the presence of the assembled sunday school, and the parents of both bride and groom, by a Cincinnati magistrate, and the novelty, if not something else in the ceremony, attracted the attention of one Reginald Rothwell Reynolds, of Chicago, who last week was married to Miss Mary Lippitt at Baraboo, Wis., by H. L. Halsted, a magistrate, the agnostic ritual being used in lieu of the regular civil or church ceremony. The ritual will appeal at once to profes sional people, and its use by them may be | expected as soon as it becomes generally known. The ritual in full reads as follows: “I, -——, having traveled along life’s pathway until, as I think, I have reached the age of discretion, and knowing something of man’s relations to life and his surroundings, and being desirous of promoting my own happiness by making some one else happy, and of preserving the perpetuity of the human race in an honorable manner, I have selected with great care and caution from among my friends and acquaintances, ———, to become my wife, for whom I have much admiration and love, and in whom I! have great confidence and faith, and believing that the marriage contract is the most sacred known to man and that the same is made without the intervention, |} sanction, let or hindrance of any god, but is wholly made and entered into on earth and that the only parties to this are myself anc . “TI now desire to make this contract and HUMAN GEESE Have Insulted Performers in Cincinnati for the Last Time, It Is Hoped. The human geese who for years have {jy fested the front row of the People's Theater in Cincinnati, to the discomfiture of performers and disgust of patrons of that theater, have been called down at last and it is hoped for once and all.. F For years a crowd of rowdies have occypied the front rows of the People’s Thea. ter every Sunday night, and their conduct to performers whose work did not come up to their expected standard was nothing short of outrageous. Performance after performance was interrupted, and patron after patron of the People’s Theater has left the house in disgust, but somehow or other nothing was ever done to protect the —— from insult or the audience from veing forced to leave the house. However, the worm has turned at last. On the opening night of the Broadway Burlesquers the human goose club was out in force as usual. During Miss Agnes Carlton's act the geese began to hiss, but this time the curtain was suddenly rung down. Manager ‘Fennessy, who was in the first entrance, waiting for the expected to happen, stopped the per formance, and when the curtain was low ered he stepped out on the stage and made his little talk. What Fennessy said to them was more forcible than elegant, but there was blood in his eye, and of all the brave human geese who have assailed and insulted defenseless performers from the front, there was not one game enough to reply to Fen nessy’s roast. When the manager had made it clear that the first person who dared insult a performer at the People’s Theater in the future would be thrown out without ceremony, there followed a silence like unto that of the house of death, and the human geese seemed to have suddenly forgotten how to hiss. formance evening. The perwas not interrupted again that “The Billboard’ admires Col. | Fennessy’s commendable act, and there Is not a performer or manager in the country | who has witnessed or heard of the Sunday do hereby solemnly promise that I will do} all in my power to make my wife happy, and that when I find that she is irritable |from_any cause I will not cross or quarrel with her, but will endeavor by tender and loving methods and kind words to soothe and restore her peace of mind; that within three months, if possible, I will have my life insured, making my wife the beneficiary; that I will live within my income and endeavor to save a part of the same to the end that we may own a home; that should I find, after exhausting every effort to make it otherwise, that we are uncongenial or mismated I hereby pledge my sacred word of honor that [ will not oppose divorce proceedings, and should a divorce be granted to either of us and there be off spring I hereby pledge my sacred word of honor to provide for the same as far as I may be able so to do without the intervention of any court. That should our marriage prove to be happy and we are blessed with children I hereby pledge myself to give thém all the educational advantages within my power, to the end that they may become honorable and useful citizens. “To all of which I most solemnly promise 7“ avow.”’ f believing that every woman's ambition should be to make some man a good wife, and that I am capable of making a proper selection, and that no woman can be happy unless she is bestowing and re ceiving affections, I have with great care and caution agreed that may become my husband, and having great respect and admiration for him, and believing, bestowed the same, and believing in the sacredness of the marriage contract, and that the same is made without the intervention, sanction, let or hindrance of any god, but is wholly made and entered into on earth, and that the only parties to this are myself and . | now desire to make said contract }and do solemniy promise to do all in my power to make my husband happy; that when he Is irritated from any cause, I will not cross or quarrel with him, but will by tender and loving words strive to restore his peace of mind; that I will live within the means of my husband and will do all in my power to save part of the same; that should I find that we are uncongenial and mismated, I hereby pledge my sacred word of honor that [ will not bring children into the world not born of affection, and hereby further promise that should I find after I have exhausted every effort to make it otherwise, that we are uncongenial and mismated, I will not insist upon living together; that should our marriage prove to be happy and we are blessed with children, I hereby bind myself to treat them with the utmost kindness and consideration, and pledge myself to give them all the educational advantages in my power to the end that they may become honorable and useful citizens. “To all of which I most solemnly promise and avow.” | Bechett. H. B. night outrages at the People’s Theater, who will not thank the management of the Peo ples "Theater for the just, but courageous stand it has taken. Judicious advertisers will bear in mind that New Haven, Conn., is to have one of the largest conventions ever held—the Yale Bi-Centennial, October, 1901. The New Haven Bill Posting Company is prepared to, and would be glad to give particulars, for the asking. 2? EdEXEdEdESERESE3.E3.63 Letter Box Our readers and subscribers in all lines are inwited to avail themselves of “ The Billbeard s new mail scheme. We have an experienced clerk in charge of this department. He keeps track of people and forwards their mail wherever possible, the moment it is received, thus avoiding delay. Letters ave only advertised when we do not hnow the whereabouts of the persons to whom they are addressed. Letters advertised for four weeks and uncalled for will be returned to the post-office. Circulars, postal cards and newspapers excluded. Letters are forwarded without expense. GENTLEMEN'S LIST. Aimee Dramatic Co, Lynch, the Great. Automobile. -lles, as. Mozealous, Wm. J. McVeun, Sherman, m Miller, Edward D. Mardos, The. Manning & DuCrow. Manager Diving Elks. Martin, Eddie. Moriarty, David. Murry, Jobn J. Myers, R. 1. Neel, Carl. Norris & Rowe Show. Nicholson, T. 8. Batty, Pfming Bears. Berger Car, Co., J. 8. Barnes, W. H. Reach & Bowers. Reck, L. . Burke, E. M. Burne, A. H. Coons, Taylor. Cronin, 8. Davenport, W. G. Davis, C. T. Dale, Harry P. Dawson, Sam M. Nichols, Lew. Donnelly, Wm. J. Nicholson, Frank 8. Douglas, Prof. John L.O’ Brien, David. Elder & Olson's Cir's. Palmer, John Fay. Exemplar Sign WorksPatrick, Warren A. Emmerson, Harry. Rice, M. BE. Fagan, J. P. Rolland, W. C. Esq. Gillette Shows. Ritchie, Edward. Greene, James F. Reed, W. HH. Gautier, the Great. Ihodes, Prof. Harry. Great & Eastern Shov Sanger, Harry. Hutchins, G. H., Sparks, John H. Hennessy, J. R. W. stemens, Prof. Husted, H. R. Seott, Guy. Handley, W. W. Stuart, O. K. Heckman, L. H. Snake Exhibit Co. Harding, Round. Hendler, A. H. Hines, Ralph. W. A. Junker, Jahn, A. Jubilee Carnival, Johns, Chas. R Jones, Frank F. King, CC. C, Teets Bros, Show. Van Normans, The. Villiers, Louis de. Wallace, Capt. Hi. Waller, Phil. G. Walters, Jule. Kelly. Patrick B. Watts, Geo. A. Kelley, L. €, Wescott, M. B. Esq. Kitehie, Si. White, T. M. Lowery Students. Young Bros. Laird, KE. C. Yaki, Boone. Lemon Bros,’ Circus. Zimmerman, Christ. LADIES’ LIST. Adgie, ‘‘Lion Queen.”’ Stuart, Mrs. Amelia. Brandon, Mabel. Royal, Mrs. Delia BP. Proapetto, Madame. Zardna, Madame. Pianka, ‘‘Lion Queen.’