The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-10-23
OFF THE STAGE.

OEf IHE SlAUE.
I'm super. 1 suppose you knows
what that is ? If you don't, and amt
theatrically inclined, I'll tell you. A
super's one of them as takes the small
parts in the play, where the "busi-
ness" is important and the "cackle -
particular. That's super. When
Shakespeare wrote GA man in his time
plays many parts" he must have had II
"super in his eye, if supers was in
vented in those days, which L suppose
they was, or Shakespeare amt the man l
took him for. Bless you, our role is
unlimited-we does everything. Why,
In one piece sometimes [ takes matter
OF half dozen parts, if not more. Say
Hamlet is put up; first I'm guard
a-walklng on the ramparts of the castle; !;
then I'm q courtier attending on the
king; then I'm a recorder (Which amt
got nothing to do with the law, as 1
thought at one time, but performs on
sort of fute); then I'm sailor; arter
that mute at Ophelia's funeral; then
I'm soldier again, or a courtier, as the
case may be. And there 1 am. A su-
per's more important than anybody
may think.
1 gets a shilling night, and fndsmy
own color, which, being a saving man,
usually manages to scrape enough up
from the waste in the painting-room-
for in the matter of lime and ochre art
lists is prodigals; and if I'm hard up for
black-for a eyebrow or moustache,
for instance-I gets the needful from
the chimney-pipe of the stove in the
property-room. [ have worked my way
up to the top of my profession in my
line, which is heavy lead of supers; and
I've occasion to know that at particular
times, say the first night of a new piece,
I'm looked up to by the management to
carry the play through; and generally
contrives to satisfy the most sanguinary
expectations. I'm proud of my profess
sion. l amt only actor for the sake of
the filthy lucre (Which I suppose means
coin), but for the literature and art
specially the art. I've studied it,
really studied it; you mayn't think SO,
but it's fact.
I've been married, and had one child
"a girl-and I'm widower. / was
married young, like most professionals.
She was in the third row of the ballet,
and inclined to be stout but she didn't
last long, poor soul She had an apo
plectic fit one night, and died in my
al III VIC SlCCIl lOOlll. WIS very CuJ
up at the time, because she was as good
wife as ever wore ring. My darter
Was as good-looking girl as you'd meet
anywhere quite different from her
mother-not in the beauty line, because
Rose was very thin. She followed in
the same steps as my old woman and
got her an engagement at our theatre.
Of che fa1l -, Iowa rri,lc n
do at that age, seventeen-with as rising
ayoung fellow as I'd wish to see. 1
was proud of Rose, and 1 was glad it
turned out so ; and, what's more, he
wasn't ashamed of me, although I was
only a super, which made me proud of
him too. He was very jealous of Rose,
and wanted to take her off the stage and
marry her at once but objected on
the score of age. asked him to wait
year, till she was little older, and he
took my advice-rather unwillingly,
suspect, if his face was to be believed :
but he didn't say so, for he always gave
way to me, because I knew what was
better than he did.
One night Rose gets a letter sent
round to her from a gent in the boxes
a-asking her to meet him outside after
the performance. She was very much
hurt about it, for it was the first insult
she'd received-they gets used to these
things in time-and brought the letter
to me. Just as 1 was a-reading it up
comes Charley-that's her young man
and Rose snatches the letter out of
my hand and puts it in her pocket but
not before Charley had seen it. He
looks rurprised, and he says:
"What's that ?" says he.
Oh nothing" she says, playful
like, and runs away; and he turned
away too, but not in the same direction.
When saw Rose again, l says
"Why didn't you show it to him ?" I
says.
"Oh, father" she says, "he's SO
thrashed the fellow" she says "and
perhaps got into row, and 1 didn't
want him to do that"
She give me the letter, for fear he
shonld ask for it; and put it in my
pocket, never a-thinking no more
about it.
When work was done for the night,
me and two or three others used to take
our pipe and pot-which was half
pint o'forepenny-at little pub. round
the corner, close to the theatre, where
we was known and respected. There
we used to talk over the events of the
evening and sometimes, when things
was slow, we'd even condescend to talk
politics, but not often-we left them
frivolous subjects to people as hadn't
the sense to appreciate art. While we
was there that night, in comes a gent
rather mopsy; he staggered up to the
counter, and calls for bottle O. cham
pagne, and then asks us to drink, which
we did-we never refuses that. Well,
he was a-going on about one thing and
another, and at last he says:
"That Rose is a nice girl p
1 pricks up my ears at this, and l
puts down the glass OF champagne as l
was just arising to my mouth-the
glass as he paid for-but I never says
nothing. Then he goes on a-boasting,
and says as he was a-going to see her
home. jumps up, and I says