New Orleans Republican., 1871-06-04
CHANFRAC.
Tho Original of "MOse.o
IR-s... ,l..a Naxr XarE World 1

|
Essex Market with his parents, and nearly
every day on his way down was in the
habit of dropping in at the Broadway
| House, on the corner of Grand street, in
obedience to the BOwery boys instinct, and
get sixpenny plate of corned beef. One
day while enjoying this frugal meal fellow
with red shirt and open collar came in and
sat down near him. The swagger, the soap
| locks, the projected chin, the saucy air,
formed strong typical picture. He called
out to one of the walters: ''LoOk heah !
| gim me sixpenny plate ev pork en- beans,
and don't stop to count dem beans, d'ar
| heah ~
The manner and language were intensely
| characteristic of certain class then known
as "the fire boys" The man himself was
Nose Humphreys, a printer employed in
Beacb's Su,, office. When Chanfrau reached
the theatre, and was called upon for his con-
tributiOn TO the club, he told this incident
and accompanied it by such an unmistaka-
BILE imitation of the fremen that he made
greenroom hit. For several days he fol-
lowed it up with further limitations of Nose
Humphreys. This man was q member of
Engine Company No. 40. whose machine
lay i'll Mulberry street, near Grand. 1t was
a noted apparatus in its day. Nearly all
the members were butchers OF Centre
Market.
The engine was painted in white and
gold, and they came to designate her by
such a term of endearment as 'The Null
berry Street Ghost John Cartin was then
foreman and not he but the entire Centre
Market brood of butcher boys were regular
patrons of the Olympic Theatre. A char
acteiistic anecdote of this engine company
was told me a long time ago, and as it illus
trates most perfectly the phase of life which
Chanfrau subsequently caught so accur-
ately l may as well tell it. Forty" like
most of the other companies, was often en-
gagged in fights. 1t was the custom then of
the authorities in Furnishing the men to
take their apparatus away and lock it up
in the corporation yard. Forty" on one
occasion suffered this indignity.
"Fellers" sat all over the steps and yawned
round the corners and loafed disconsolately
into the cellars, waiting YEARLY enough for
the "GhOst" to come back. 1t happened
one day that Alderman Bard, of the -Four.
teenth Ward, who had brass foundry
down in Canal street, found his cellars
flooded, and he sent up to the corporation
yard for an engine to pump them out. Very
soon after there was crowd ofmen grouped
about the market, all of them toned down
to one hue of grim sadness, when there
broke into the party suddenly an excited
butchers boy.
''Sa-yer fellers! Do you know where der
Ghost is o.
why, she's in der yard. Where would
she be 7"
"No she amt; she's down in Canal street
a suckin' cellari"
Fancy this information, given with all |
the contempt which the face and the frenzy |
of the butcher boy could impart.
A concerted howl went up. and MANY |
tremendous Oaths, which, emanating from |
butchers. were curiously significant in terms
of their calling. Every man managed to
damn some one of his viscera, and the whole
party started for Canal street, infiamed by
the the psrfsIety Idlyy appalling th nSSgntE put upon
was in the van. At all events they fell
upon the lrishmen who were pumping,
routed the entire neighborhOod and were
dragging the machine home when Alder
man Bard appeared, and threatened to have
the whole company put in the TOmbs II
must have been Humphreys who, with
cigar stump pointing from his mouth to his
eye, put his nose into the alderman's face.
and said:
Look a-here, boss. der Ghost can't suck
no cellars. She can't"
An alderman had good deal of authority
there, and this one was determined to have
his own way. He swore he'd have every
man of them arrested if they touched the
machine again. WhereupOn, after some
words, it must have been Humphreys who
oihpioulScu lHdtttTS III UllS authoritative |
style, shaking his finger under the alder
mans nose:
''Well, see he-ah, alderman, she can suck
your cellar, but der Ghost can't suck no
,ther mans cellar, by -"
Benjamin A. Baker, the prompter at the
olympic, after Chanfrau had created a
,reat deal of merriment by successive imi-
atlons OF the firemen, suggested to him
hat these characterizations might be
Mt a 1Noa al oh |
tage. In fact Baker wrote the sketch and
alled it "a Glance at New York" 1t was ,
to Mitchell, and he condemned it
It once with great deal of justice THE
haracters are good" said he, tbut what a
'ad piece. 1t was laid away, and must
ave been forgotten had it not been that
ONE time after Baker was to have a bene- {
t, and, being pushed for novelty, he !
hought of this sketch. and proposed to :
;hantrau, who was then playing in subor- :
mate roles, to do it. The consequence was ::
was produced for the first time at Ben
lmin A. Bakers benefit, on the night of the .
fteenth of February, 1848
There was no Lie nor Sikesy in it at this !,
me. 1t was, in fact, the merest sketch. !
spending entirely on the one figure of
lose for It's success. Mitchell used to tell ,
ow he went on the stage that night Just :
efore the curtain was run up, and seeing
at Juo DdCh ufeSbtu 1Or MS part, | I
as ON the point of ordering him off, sup
Oslng 1t was one of the Centre Market
afers. When the play opened and Chan
au made his appearance there was a dead !,
lence in the house. This was remarkable.
ecause the patrons of the establishment !.
ere in the habit of welcoming every we'll
lOwn member of the company with ap- 8
ause.
But the fact is they did not recognize 8
hanfrau. He stood there in his red Shirt,
lth his fire coat thrown over his arm. !,
ne stOve-pipe hat better known then as a l.
,lug'-drawn down over one eve his =
Ousers tucked into his boots, a stump of i"
gar pointing up from his lips to to his eve =
e soap locks plastered fat on his temples, y
id his jaw prOtruded into half beastly, %
If human expression of contemptuous
rOcity. j.
For moment the audience eyed him in u u
ence; not a hand or a foot gave him a I,
'lcome. Taking the cigar stump from his -
'uth, and turning hallway round to spit, '
said:
Il amt a goin' to run wild dat mercheen :,
Y morer" u
there rose such veil of recog- q
ton as had never been heard in the little ''
use before. Pit and galleries Joined in T.:
e outcry. 1t was renewed several times, II,
d Nose was compelled to stand shifting -,
coat from one arm to the other, and ~
wing and waiting. Every man, woman
q Child recognized in the character all
distinctive external characteristics of
class. 1t was complete and instantane-
8 p0rtraiture. The neyt nigbt tho bouSa | Dl