O'Conor Turned at Last

That zigzag tragedian, James Owen O'Conor, comes again before the public as a litigant. This time he is the plaintiff in a suit against John Koster and Albert Bial, the owners of the Twenty-third street concert hall. The summons demands the payment in Supreme Court of $2,000 and interest to "James Owen O'Conor, plaintiff and attorney and counsellor-at-law."

Ascending two flights of stairs at 491 West Twenty-first street, an Evening World reporter came upon Mr. O'Conor in a big overcoat. He sat at a much littered desk, in a 7 by 9 room, and behind him on a table was butter, bread, potatoes, meat and a dozen other things for the table, uncooked.

With a Henry Irving stride, curtailed as to length by the smallness of the stage, the misfit tragedian reached the reporter and grasped his hand warmly. He apologized for receiving him in Mrs. O'Conor's larder, and took a pair of unhusked onions from a chair and gave his caller a seat.

"I know the nature of your errand," began the star. "I am said to have been obscene at Koster & Bial's. But heaven forbid that a minister of the gospel should be so accused!"

As to his trouble with Koster & Bial, he exclaimed: "God knows, I swear with uplifted hand, I said no obscene word to those who were hired to jibe at me in the audience. I may have called them hamfatters, but it was in an aside. I was engaged for the season. Four times I gave the fortnight's notice to Mr. Bial, and each time was induced to withdraw it. I got a two weeks' vacation, and the attendance fell off ninety per cent.

"I don't wish to say I was the mascot of the house, but I certainly was not its Jonah. One of the firm told me that they could not have kept running all summer had I not been there.

"I dreaded to return to that place. It would be degrading to a star of the third or fourth magnitude. I could a tale unfold (the Dane) but there, enough of that.

"They guyed me and called hard names. I was told that the management hired them to do it. I called them hamfats. The wine-rooms — oh, those wine-rooms! They are a den of horrors to me. I'll give the wink to Anthony Comstock! I'll give the hint to Mayor Hewitt and that place will be closed up.

"I have been engaged in literary work. I've written editorials and critiques. I wrote 'Must Shakespeare Go?' or [...]