c 7 THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: DECEMBER 20, 190A 8 Kearney Military Academy I combines a home school, for hoys, with a semi-military disci pline. A training, such as he wii receive, crentes habits of obedience, promptness, punctu ality, iicntuess and a sense of responsibility. It is a school where they build manly hoys This la accomplished by thorough in struction and healthful training of both body and mind. Our discipline and training tend to build character. At the same time, the course of in struction la thorough and complete. Knter for Winter Term January SOtli. Boys entering at this time receive personal and special attention. Write me for our book about The Kearney Military Academy, which will give you an Idea of the school, through the pic tures of the school and school life and a complete account of the school and what it offers. 1IAKKY N. Kl'HKKLL. Head Master, Kearney, Seb. and Is the choicest to be had. 20 OFF On Traveling Bags, Ladles' Handbags, Ladies' Neckwear Folders, Muttlc Rolls Attorneys' Document Rolls, Tullet Sjets Picnic Sets, Writing Sets, Shaving Sets Automobile Lunch Sets for parlies 01 two, four and six; Folding Drinking Cups, Flasks, BUI Books, Pocket Books, Collar and Cuff Cases, Man's Hat Cases. Cigar Cases, Money Belts and Military Brushes. 20 discount will be allowed on all the above mentioned goods untl Jan. 1, 109. The line comprises many Imported articles, as well aa domestic. Oood floods at very low prices. oral iTsniKBS. OMAHA TRUNK FACTORY ktHiXi at in old ritica 1209 FARNAM STREET , -,- BAILEY . MACH DENTISTS Bast equipped Dental oLtlca In th mlddla was. Hlfbeat grada Dentistry at Reasonable Prion, Porcelain tllUasa. Just Ilk Ua toott. tUlRO FLOOB PAXTON BLOCB Oonwr lfltb and Farnam Streets. CENTER OF OUR CONTINENT Lonjacre Square, Which Everyone Visits Some Time. GREATEST SIGHTS IN OLD GOTHAM Little) Patch of Manhattan Where There Are Scores of Theaters, CI aba, Fimou Restaarants, Bla Hotels and Crowds. NEW YORK, Dec. 19.-Tn a little book called "A Summer In Now York," written six or seven years ago, the author has n young lady from the west write home of an adventure wnn nor city cousin, mus: "Will took me to a pluco called Long Acre square. it is a part or uroaaway which looks as If It had been struck by en earthquake, a landslide and a billiard all at once. We climbed a pllo of rocks so high that the automobiles which tried to run us down hud. to give It up, and then Cousin Will began, like the man who ex plained the views In the panorama: 'Here you see what the span of a few brief moons Is destined to be to the knowu world what the Flaoe de la Con corde, Pa rig, now Is to Europe Its centor. Aye, the center of gayety, of art, of litera ture, drama; occidental civilisation in all Us moods. In the near future here we shall find transportation unequalled, views unsurpassed, climate glorious, so ciety various, fresh eggs and milk in abundance, theaters, hotels, policy shops, cab stands, wrextras! In red and yellow, fresh every hour. Here stately caravan saries to house an army, tomples of Thes pls to seat a city full, repositories of painters' Inspirations, of sculptors' dreams, mill wall the c-llfflikR aides f the broaden. ing lane we love as Broadway.' " The author should bo In fact he Is proud to see with what a prophetic un derstanding he wrote of Long Acre so few years ago wlu n It was the most hope lessly torn up clutter of a place In . New Strk and lined, for the must part, with . . I. Ln I. . , M . I . . . .. If n..t .twin nnW tainly a few years before it was the dreariest place at nignt to do louna on tho Island of Manhattan. . Prophesy Came True. The whimsically worded forecast of the Acre lias more than come true. Thrre are more theaters, lintels, restaurants and ' .lubs In the neighborhood than even were seen by tho author's prophetic eye, and if the old Acre Is not yet the center of the world, by the gcrerul consent of the I world It certainly Is to America, Including - ": ":" The Midwest Life There appeared a -few days ago In the i'More or Irss Personal" column of the State ' tournal a short srtkio, the first sentence of which read: "It Is the proper th.ng In Lincoln now to ask for Lincoln- made flour." Of course It Is. Why not? If It Is the proper thing in Lincoln to buy Lincoln-made flour, and In Omaha to buy Omaha-made flour, why la It not the proper thing for all Kebraskana to buy life In surance In a Nebraska company? Hera Is a business which above all others can b; successfully developed In this state. The Midwest Life offers rife Insurance to the men end wouien of Nebraska at as low a premium rate ns any other old-line com pany, east or west. Why send premiums to eastern companies, some of which now have assets wMc'.i amount to more than the assessed valuation if ti e w'rnjo srste of Nebraska? If It la necesssry for them to get bigger, let the poople of the stale J . where they are organised do the swelling ef their assets. The premiums paid to The Hldwest Life remain right here la Ne- brass, llama Of floe. 1W7 O BL; Omaha Aetaucy, rvKMU iU) Board of Trad Building, Canada and Mexico and most of South America, what the Place de la Concorda Is to Europe, the center of a continent. Ixng Acre square Is not very long; It Is more than an acre and It Is not square, yet that is Its name, beloved, by its habi tues, and no laws of the state or ordi nances' of aldermen can change it. The space to which the nanus applies Is that Irregular widening of Broadway as that thoroughfare make its slow crossing pf Seventh avenue, where the two combine at Fortjr-third street, to their separation at Forty-seventh street, only four blocks In length, and at no point much wld?r than many broad village streets. But Long Acre district, as distinguished from the square. Is more extensive, begin nlng at Broadway and Thirty-eighth street and cpreadlng for about half a mile to Fifth avenue on the east and Blight h ave nue on the west. Within that compact little patch of Manhattan there are, to be exact, twenty-one first-class theaters, about the same number of clubs, among them some of the finest snd most exclusive In the city; America's most famous restau rants, including Delmonlco's, Sherry's, Shanlcy's, Rector's, Churchill's, Harvey's and the restaurants of the Hotel Astor and Knickerbocker. Hotels by (he Doies, There are not less than a dosen hotels. such as the Algonquin, Iroquois, Seymour, Royalton, Woodstock, any of which twenty years ago would be observed for Its great slse and elegance. There are literally hun dreda of apartment houses of every grade of excellence; there are artist studios where artlats paint and studios where people of no visible moans of support seem to exist In comfort and even luxury, and there are furnished room houses where people some times go hungry. It Is even said that there are gambling establishments and resorts of other kinds whereof nearly all who know the Acre are familiar except the police But one mentions such sorts for the value of contrast; the characteristic of the Acre Is gayety, light, laughter, good dressing, feeding, drinking and good fellowship, snd If people will crawl Into its corners and starve there they fall to diminish the gen eral tone of the Acre, which Is exceedingly lively not deadly at all. Before consideration Is given to tho ao- tivltlus of the Acre which have In so short a time made It the beet known spot In America, the moat written about, tho Mecca not only of the strsnger In New York, but of all New York as well, a bit of a stroll about the district will help to an understanding of the mighty forces. social, professional and business, which converge In the Acre ltse-lf. Take, first. tliu two short blocks running east from the center of the Acre, Forty-fourth street. fome Features of the Sqaare. At the corner of the Acre Is the Criterion theater and a few Bteps toward Fifth ave nue one conies to two little French restau rants as unlike anything on the Acre It self as may be, yet of the Acre, too. And then some little hotels, such as the Hotel Royal, home of notably prosperous show girls, and of some who have been, as, for Instance, Mrs. Harry Thaw. A little further Is that surprising Walters' club, In size and appointment equal to many of the old and arlatocratio clubs. AI most opposite Is the fine club house of the Alpha Delta Phi society, and a few steps further the Lambs, oldest of American players' clubs and sn offspring of a still older Lambs of London. Opposite that Is the Hudson theater and just beyond the Hotel Gerard, built when that Mock was almost out in the country and surprised to find itself now in such lively company Then, on the same side of the street, is fU-lasco's Btuyvcsant theater, where Re lasco's fellow San Franciscan, David War field, has made fame snd fortune. Beyond that, but sim west of Sixth avenue, la tho street entnnce c. Burns', W.th Its small paned windows, its cosy lace curtained win dow seats, looking like some old English Inn of the quietest and sedatest class. Oh, Burns! Opposite you see an empty brown-stone residence, and as an empty building in the Acre district Is a novelty, you inquire 'BiiliBf si fli Mendelssohn, Rich- mond, Huntington, and The Bennett Co. D e now on display, rianos, nu to ue Chickering (SL Sons, Everett, Ivors (Si Pond, Packard, Starr, Kurtzmann, Henry (Si S. G. Lindeemann, Koh- lor (EL Campbell, Harvard, Sterling, i in M.2 We have made special preparations for the large number of visitors to the CORN SHOW, whose intention it might be to select their Pianos for Christmas delivery. New Pianos lSO op Second-Hand Pianos Upriolist S7S up square stiu up SBE1 i ORGANS New $50 up Second-Hand $5 up Cabinet Players !?& -op Interior Player Plonos New $500 up Second-Dand $323 up Tire Latest Designs ol 65 and 88 Note Player Pianos 3ldl On Esiy' IPaiyinm2in! Pianos Selected Now May be Held for Christmas Delivery, if Desired. U EENNE1 Free This Week-- .'ITHrJiLT"- COMPANY Largest Distributers of High-Grade Pianos In the West. Lsslaasaw tftst.ji the reason and learn that It Is being con verted Into an extension of the Army and Navy club, whose main building la on Forty-third street. Around the Hippodrome. Crossing Sixth avenue, one comes to tho block of Forty-fourth street which. until a few years ago, was a block almost entirely of stables, beginning with the big stables of the Sixth avenue horse car Hne, where the great Hippodrome now stands and that Is a part of the Acre dis trict now, as is ths rest of the wonderful block, formerly stables, which one strolls along to reach Fifth avenue. On the north side of tho street, opposite the side entrance of the Hippodrome, Is Henri's, the most Parisian little restaurant In town, beloved of ladlos lunching alnno. Then, on the same side, follow tho big hotels Alonquln, Iroquois, Seymour; the New York Yacht club with Its granite front, In reproduction of an ancient war ship; tho City club, large, sedate, but said to contain one of the best cellars In town, one may be very fussy about municipal reform and also about the age and charac ter of one's wines at the same time; and the (Harvard club, severe almost in Its simplicity of architecture, yet they do say that when the score of the recent foot ball game was posted there but this is not the reason for our stroll. Further east on the same side la the Berkeley theater of various art attempts and oth ers, not all srt snd, strangely located, a very fashionable girls' school. On the other side of that wonderful block, chief feeder of the Acre, the south side, is the Hotel itoyaltcn, with its quite amazing variety of private dining rooms, the sombrely vast library and club of the Bar association, the Yale club, the Rac quet club extension and the home if the General Society of Mechanics and Trados ircn, founded In 1TO, but newly housed; and at the corner of the avenue, Shorry's. Across the avenue as ono reaches the eastward of the Acre district Is Dulntonl co's and the Day and Night bank, and, of course, the Acre of all places in the world would be the first to need a bank which n ver closi-s Its doors. Where the Illwhborn Lssch. Returning to the Acre by Forty-third street one pnssts the Century club tho denns of all the learned professional lunch well there the Racquet und the Army and Navy clubs, the Rryalton sguln, the Bur association and the Hippodrome, and of these all but the Century extend through the block to Forty-fourth street. Fli.nlly the Hotel Woodstock, on the eds of tho Acre, and then a stroll across yau don't stroll, but hop. skip snd Jump to escape the gasolene pi. rs and a start on n other short trip along Theater Row that Is west on Forty-Second street for one blr.ck only, but In that one block you pass Hammorsleln's. Bclusco's, ths Lyric, the News Amsterdam, the Liberty, Hack tit's and the American, seven theaters In one block, with Harvey's restaurant to. take the hungriest of the 15 ft) thester goers who turn out from playhouses In thnt one block every night. On the southernly spur of the Acre, along Broadwav Itself, ars other theaters, the Broadway, Metropolitan, Empire, Casino, Knickerbocker, and Just off the main street Maxine Elliott's new playhouse; and, by the way. there Is to be an Annie Russell pluyhouFe In West Forty-fourth street, Just off the Acre. In the Acre llself are the New York, the Criterion, the Astor and a little way t0 the east the Lyceum theater. They may not all hsve been mentioned here, but In eluding the Annie Russell, there soon will be .fnty-tvo treatrs nightly pouring their crowds ln:o the .cre. Crater of the taor World. Wl st this riear.s as to the daytime In the Acre only those who have closely observed Iho r'. rritrir im nuliie; tie Acre Is the busiuess centir of ths theatrical word In America. Referring now to those who have to do with ths business of the theater, "the front of the house." their number Is surprising, and they may all be seen n the Acre during some pert of ths day, at lunch time particularly. A business so varied, employing ao many millions of capital, so many thousands of people, with Its companies scattered throughout the whole of the United States and much of Europe, has to be elaborately organised In Us administrative end. Owners and managers of theaters, owners and managers of companies, producers, stage managers, costumers, employment agencies, play brokers, authors, composers, scene painters, musj all be in close touch, for there are many and sudden shifts to be provided for. A failure at some point requh-es the changing of several routes, the organisation of a new company, the shifting of players, the rehearsal of a play sooner than planned or even tne hurrying up of some book or score, the production of new costumes, new scenery; and the army of business men, of writers, artists and others concerned must meet, they do almost dally to learn of new or changed intentions. By common consent these moetings, many ot tnem are i soma nun " commonly In some restaurant in the Acre. This Is the business end or It, me practical work by practical men whose fforts bring the many tnoussnas or plea sure seekers to the Acre and make us more characteristic life. When the Acre Lights Up. That pleasant life begins when the Acre takes on its first brilliance, wnen iw fronts and roofs of a score of theaters blase with electrlo lights, when dosens of hotels and restaurants are little less bright with attractive illuminations, when the highway of the Acre Is alive with hundreds of brilliantly lighted cabs, automobiles, street cars running hither and thither like countless distracted glowworms. Then the Acre takes on Its show aspect. the restaurants, fill wltn gay crowas 01 diners as the streets begin to fill with hundreds of players hurrying from their earlier dinners to prepare for their nightly entertainment of those thousands of more deliberate diners. But the hurrying busi ness of tha, day, tho eager preparation of the early evening are all as nothing In d Importance, in a Long Acre way, to the scenes after the theaters are closed and the players and audiences rush into the Acre for Its night gayety. Then begins a confusing scurrying of cabs and automobiles, a quick filling of the popular restaurants, cafes, rath skellers, college Inns, chop houses and the famous lobster palaces of the district. The recently reopened old Normandle hotel at Thirty-eighth street marks the southern- ,nt nf he after sutioer places. And a word about that Is tit interest. People not so old but that they can still go about alone at night remember wnen the Normandle was a show place of hotel. It was far o'..t''pTeii by the esrly Fifth avenue bis; hotel bui'dlngs, but still held Its ovr. In Brosdwsy. Competition cams closer vlir. Iho opening of the Astor and the Knickerbocker and the Normandls closed and all ii furnishings were sold One at Low Prices. But some out-of-town men saw an open ingand ouf-of town men have seen about all the good New York hotel openings and refurnished the old place, did It all over anew snd reopened It aa a tl snd II. BO room hotel, and confidently asserted their belief thst It would pay as such Just as soon as the new Ides became known In six months or so. The first night of the re opening 180 of Its 190 rooms were taken. Then Its basement rathskeller was opened with prices proportioned to the room prices, and one more successful supiier place for tha Acre district was established in one night. The Albany, a courle of blocks furthe north, opened a dosen years or so ago s a strictly bschelor hntl, but took off it restriction un-ler new management, and has a college Inn basement which aoeom modates a younger set of Joyoui tenipviu niwnl who have not tha pi lee demanded In ths Acre itself. In ths newe.t Acre supper resort, the grill room, the white room and ths various other rooms of the Hotel Knickerbocker, tha professional Ufa of ths Acre is most represented Just now after the theaters close. There, rather than at any of the other places, you are likely to see supping Miss Barrlmore, Miss Taliaferro, Miss Loftus,' Miss Scheff and a score more women stars, when In town, generally patronise the grill room. In the white room Oscar Hammersteln usually takes upper dinner. It really is, though midnight at a corner of the white room, all alone. Playrlghts Are Social. The playwrights seem to be social and not Jealous, for you may see so many of them gathered that tables are Joined to accommodate the number. Paul Arm strong, James Forbes, Henry Blossom, George Broadhurst and George Ade may be seen In one group and the artists fore gather, too. for Will Fisher it s "Fisher girls" now, hot Gibson girls Archie Gunn, Eddie Unit, who designs and paints Bcenery; Will Barnes, who designs the stun- lng costumes of the stage, and Hy Mayor, who draws funny things In English, French and German, hobnob at ono table. Victor Herbert, who really Is Irish, In spite of his slight German accent, comes Into a grill room, a wnue room or any oiner kiiiu of a supper place like a breeze, wafts about from table to table until he has said Howdy" to half the people in the place before ordering a modest repast Impar tially composed of French, American, Gor man and Irish dishes. If Georgo Cohan and Sam Harris are not there for supper ihey surely are for lunch, for they belong to a "Knlck" lunch club, and every member must stand for the price of the lunch and a tip for the waiter, whether he is present or not. Other managers drop in with frlendB George Tyler, who looks ever so much more as If he had Just come ashore from a private yncht than coming from counting the house at half a dosen theaters; Frederic Thompson, so absurdly young looking that strangers have to be reassured that It Is the genuine Frederic; "the" Shuberts, suave, bandyboxy looking, and now and then Mayer Livingston, little known by the pub 11s, but who Is said to be the financial manager of the theater syndicate. Homes for the Aetors. Few actors, the reader observes, per haps? No, the stars and leading men have their own clubs, the Players and the Lambs, and the latter claims most of those who sup in the Aero district. The others, tho lesser men players, do not sup at such places as have been considered, for obvious reasons, or an obvious reason the price. The lesser women of the profession sup numerously In the high-priced places of the Acre, generally In the company of non professional men. They sup well, too, and their presence lends liveliness to many of the places. Leaving the "Knklt" and going north 1n the Acre, Shamley's and Rector's are next In line. The managers of these two famous places will assert, with some heat per haps, that there Is a distinction between the class of patrons of their respective places. There may be; ,to the casual ob server those who sup there are much alike. In Shanley's perhaps there are more New Yorkers, strangers being mors likely to favor Rector's, but those strangers sr. people of about the same class apparently In their native Pittsburg, Boston, miia- delphia or wherever aa the natives in the other shop. In Rector's there Is a division of classes, so old patrons assert, which Is physically marked by a certain aisle. North of thst the ushers seat those they slse up as of a certain financial or soclsl standing, south of the 11ns those of another class finsnclally or socially. It would, of course, be unfair to tell which, according to the ushers, are the goats and which the sheep. Perhsps it Isn't so at all, but the belief that It la cannot be disturbed In the minds of those who hold it. Look for Good rood. At the many supper rooms of ths Astor ths patrons are not so much of the class who frequent the Acre at that hour because It is the Acre. Thsy ars more, rather neopU who are In search of good food, drink, musle and agreeable surroundings and take It where, they find it. In the Acre or elsewhere. Not that the Astor is without Acreage characteristics,, so to speak. Attractive show girls may be seen there in quiet company and wholly on their good be havior. Also David Belasco, David War field and others of the "Belasco crowd" seem to find satisfactory nourishment In the victuals of the Astor and may be seen there now snd then with some of the Belasco women stars or leading women. Yet further north. In the heart of the Acre, is Churchill's, a restaurant of a class more popular, or at least more fre quently seen. In New York fifteen years ago than now. Society may be a lltUo less conventional there than elsewhere; but It Is none the less fashionable In part at least, for If you haunt the Acre much you discover that the ssme Individuals seen earlier In the night at other Acre recorts are supping again at Churchill's later In the night. Patrons circulate about more freely, they drink to each other with something more moist than eyes, from table to table. The late men patronise the place freely; men who have been working late find a welcome relaxation there, and even some of the women of exalted place In the pro fession may go to Churchill's with a friend later, that is, after pssstng the shank of the evening, from midnight to, say, 1 or 2 o'clock In other restaurants. Late at Night. And at about that hour, that is. some time after mldnighjr. another class of res taurants In the Acre aro crowded with patrons: restaurants where some kind of meal may be had for 10 cents, and where tho patrons are glad to have the price. They have seen better days most of them. st lesst brighter days, and no doubt many have dined where a M supper was as com mon as a 10-cent supper Is where fortune sends them to sup now. Tho edges of the district retain their faithful patrons; over on Sixth avenue In Jnck's and Bums', tables are crowded with men and women who assert that only there can they get the kind of sup per they like. None of the newer fancy dishes of the Acre, Itself, for them. And still you note, as you did when as a very yourg man you first supped st Jack's or Burns-, that the waiters all Iook like pugilists in good training! as they should. In Jack's there Is a peculiar rule: A -woman may not leave her table anu visit at another table. You may say that this Is unconstitutional, and threaten to write to Mr. Roosevelt about It, but that mtkes no difference. A woman Just can't visit, among the tables, no matter how so cially tncllnrd she may be, no matter how much she may desire to cross to another table than her own and ask Bessie where she got her new hat, or what her route will be when they go on tour. A rule is a rule, and, as has been remarked, tho waiters nil look well trained. When the Lights Go Oat. The glaring theater lights are out, the big signs of colored nleetrlc globes which Implore you when you drink water to drink Somebody's, or if beer or whisky are yet on your mind lm sure to consider the merits of Ro-ond-to's. 1 he Acre Is rot so bright with light, the milk wa;ons begin to crawl slowly up Broadway, the street cars run with sn appreciable Inter val between, the Ittest of the evening extras have been called In and the earliest of the morning papers are out, but- thcri Is not much change in the amount ,of human activity In the Acre. The astonishing number of cabs It takes to convey the woman residents of tho district still makes the Acre dangerous crossing, the crowds are thinned somo In some of the supper rooms, but tho en thusiasm Is Just as thick as ever-a little more so, perhaps. The Acre never sleeps ; even as tho latest of the supper parties break' up the day also beaks and calU upon thousands to begin the activities of the next day. Just as other thousands are closing the activities of the do buXoro. Veils that I'lease t?e Ciroeer. "Those veils the women Mks are wear ing, all nailed down tight under lieii chins are a great boon for us all right, all right." said an East Knd grocer. "Women, you know, lire the greatest pel-.nil- on earth ti coine In and sample tlilnirH They'll take a taste of this and a tasto of that while you're wrapping up ?,netl,ing for them, and the first tiling vnu know they've eaten up about a nickel a worth of stuff. We can t say anything to a woman, particularly those that ar good customers. Now we don't have to. I haven't seen a woman taste anything in the store for a month or so. Those veils are put on so tight that the only way they can samplo anything would he to take It through a straw."-Ch veland JMain lealer. mm TRIMMED CHRISTMAS TREES FREE From now until Christmas we will give with every sale of $10.00 or over, in our Men's and Boys' Clothing Department, a nanoaome Trimmed Christmas Tree ab solutely free of charge. See duplicate of the trim med tree that we give away free in our Men's Clothing window. Here is a chance to get a beautiful trimmed Christmas Tree for the little ones free of charge. 16UI 6 tkOHAft 6TUtt.IV OTIAIU.