Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-06-26

! smaller amount, and extracted from him
| his consent to give Alice away. if by a
legal fiction she might be supposed to be.
| long to him temporarily.
She and | appeared at the church ON
Tuesday morning, and were met by a verv
mlld young curate, very snuffy old pew
| opener, and Mather, nervous and confused
IN the highest degree; but by their Joint
ald we were united with security to
which the whole bench of Bishops could
have added nothing; and then we started
for our short tour.
1t was not by any means holiday, for
was Obliged to perfect my knowledge as
much as possible of the lyrical and dra-
matte joys and sorrows of Don Caesar de
Bazan, Manrico, Elvino, Edgardo, and va
rious other persons who sometimes re-
| sorted to extremely complicated methods
OF expressing their feelings The two
weeks passed like two days; and then we
| ruefully said "Good-by" to pleasant little
| Beachley, and journeyed on to Maverford
Bertle Heytesmere was no more; Alice
Rawnsley had ceased to exist; but Miss
Alison and Mr.. Haywood, who alighted
at the Maverford Station, and were there
| received by Mr.. Betterton, bore striking
resemblance to the young couple" who
had been staying at Beachley.
i must not plunge into anecdotes of my
stage life, with all its novelty and excite
ment; for if | once begin, there will be no
stopping. 1t was very strange, at first, to
retire into a little room at the back of the
stage each evening, dressed in shooting
jacket, and to emerge anon in unaccus-
toned trunks and tights, face made upn
with red and white, and mysterious hair
crepe, or "crape hair as it is generally
called in the profession. Wigs were puz-
| zling, too, at first; and having carefully
tucked up the betraying natural crop, a
| terrible feeling would steal over me to-
wards the middle of the first act that
some slight eXertiOn on the stage had dis
arranged the whole affair, and from be-
meath the meretricious adornment of light
! hair, the natual dark was becoming more
and more visible and forming an absurd
contrast to the lightened eyebrows But
| all this soon passed away
Weplayed Maritana,n Faust" .Irova-
| tore Lucia" "Lurline," "Sonnambula, 3"
and the perennial Bohemian Girl" the
fact that my wife had been singer in
some measure removing the brand Of the
amateur beast-so hateful to the pro-
fession-from my forehead. 1t was hard
work, very hard; for there is d mighty diff
ference between learning to sing ballad
y
ing, and Joining in tune and time in
the recitatives and concerted music
throughout a long opera. A notion OBJ
tains amongst amateurs-you see, | speak
from the other side Of the stream now
that il one can sing a ballad "prOperly,"
the said one can sing anything. There is
similar idea with regard to cooks; that if
a man can cook a chop satisfactorily, he
is capable Of any culinary effort. Distrust
each axiom Ask the accomplished vo-
calist to sing "Salve, dimora," and the fin
ished chet to dress You something special
in the way of a sa1hat Vous oerrez.
Toreturn to the opera, however. Though
it was, as l have said, hard work, it was a
very happy life. An old mOtherly con-
tralto took great fancy to little Alice,
and was very kind to her poor Marta.
gone now forever beyond the reach of
Mephistophelian temptation, did any one,
in any nation or language, ever play the
part Of Margherita's unwary guardian as
perfectly as YOU'D. | got on admirably
with Betterton, who was a most amusing
companion when duty was over, and had
seen musical service in every part OF the
world; from improvised concerts amongst
the huts Of Australian gold-diggers to per
tOrmances of music from q royal pen at a
royal castle. With the company | may
venture to say that | was not unpopular.
when the first flush of rawness had worn
away; and the local papers were kind
enough to say civil things. Those coun-
try papers, How contemptuous we are of
their opinions when they don't nearly in
terest us. How utterly we despise their
ignorance when they cut Us up. But if it
so be that on looking down their columns
we find favorable criticism on something
Il
notions as to their merits, and value the
far-seeing wisdom of their remarks!
Nv Wife's success was great, for she
sang very charmingly, and acted
with a natural talent and intelligence
which TO a great extent compensated for
her lack Of stare experience. But away
form the theater she was the veriest child
more fit to uundle hoop round the
town than to wear a symb0liCal golden
one on her finger Fate was propitious,
or don't know where we should have
landed; for if the two ends had shown
any disinclination to meeting, we were
utterly incapable of inducing them to do
Our choice of residence, at Is Cliffe
Road was not fortunate Mrs. Rips, the
landlady, kept a statiOner's shop IN the
High street, and was chiefly remarkable
iOf the TACT IHdI me eQlJOT OF tnc tUteS
and most of the leading publishers had
conspired together to effect her ruin, by
deliberately refusing to supply her with
the various papers and magazines which
she punctually ordered; for what reason
she was quite unable to say, as she was
not conscious of ever having done any of
them an injury. Mrs. Rips did not show
the light of her cOuntenance much at
Cliffe street, leaving US % the tender mer
cies of LiZer, a young person who, If
wanting as an attendant-a fact which,
think, her most faithful friends would not
dspute-was even more dismally a failure
looked at in the light Of a cook. In spite
Of all this we enjoyed Maverford, and were
sOrry when our stay was drawing to
close / had waited in vain for a letter
from the uncle, but one day we received
one from Charlie Mather. He was going
south, and as he he'd to pass through the
town, and was very anxious to see US
proposed remaining at Naverford for a day
or two, if I would take some rooms for
him at the hotel.
s'Are you a sufficiently experienced
matron to entertain visitor?' | asked
Alice Charlie Mather is coming to
Maverford for day Or two, and of course
he must stay with u.s.
Alice looked pleased; but serious with
al Il don't know, Pm sure, DEAR she
renlied. I'm afraid Mr. Mather would