Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-01-14

of Mr.. Calverton's powers than "The
| Graveyard of the Ganges;" but as IL was
my cue to remain fncog. until | had seen
| him, and as had no time to spare, di-
rectly the doors were opened / secured
| little pit box close upon the stage, and
ensconced myself snugly in the darkest
corner of it. After awhile few yokels
in the pit half dozen of the better class
of tradespeople, amongst whom sat young
| Dunkley, in the boxes, and an unmistaka.
BILE gallery Of "paper" made up the au-
dience. The gross receipts could barely
have paid for the gas probably nothing
else was paid for, nor would the gas COM
pany have been so fortunate had it not
possessed the power of shutting up the
house by shutting off the light. Two
fddles, flute and a trombone completed
the orchestra; the decorations were of the
seediest the empty benches in the PIT
shone with grease, and the draperies Of
the boxes were tattered and torn. In truth,
| was but little prepossessed; the play was
badly mounted, and in the first few scenes
| supported miserably.
| promised myself a night of unuttera-
| able dullness, and was halfasleep already,
when a round of applause-not loud, tho
audience was too limited for that, but un-
dOubtedly hearty-roused my attention
| Miss Collingham had just come on. One
look at her was sufficient TO explain her
popularity. l had seldom seen upon the
stage a face and figure more striking. 1t
was such a good face, too not merely
handsome and regular in feature, but
| thoroughly good. Her large brown eyes
were honest as the day when she smiled
it was with q frank heartiness that in
spired confidence, almost friendship, at
first sight.
As my box was so close upon the stage
could watch her narrowly. 1t occurred
to me at once that if to her splendid
gifts of beauty were added the smallest
scintilla of talent she might certainly be
developed into complete theatrical sue
cess. / had gone in search of one thing,
and had tumbled, quite by chance, upon
another of Infinitely greater value. She
spoke. Her voice was sweet as a silver
bell, reminding me much of the tones
with which Miss Helen Faucit, years ago
kept her audience enchained. She made
her points we'll, her intonation was clearly
marked, and her grasp of the character
she was playing, such as it was, intelli-
gent, not to say original. Her move
ments and her poses, too, were graceful,
whilst she used her hands with great ef-
feet. "She'll do" l said to myself;
"she's a nugget 70 be dugup and removed
from Dumborough'
The play proceeded. The man, this
young Calverton, whom l had come down
on purpose to see, performed one or two
curious, semi-acrobatic teats, which were
clearly iuterpolated to show off his tre-
mendous vigOr and activity; but his act
ing was not bad, and l saw he would quite
serve Shopland's purpose in the emer-
gency. l stayed on, weary as | was,
however, in my stuffy little box to see the
last piece, a dreary burlesque, solely for
the purpose of watching Miss Floppy,
who of course was in it.
Patiently listened, through an act of
interminable length, to commonplace pc
riods, and puns spoken in the most COM
monplace tones, till the whole perform
ance, growing more and more monoto-
nous and dreary, assumed at length a
shadowy, unsubstantial character, and |
seemed to he gazing up out of the mar
row aperture of my box, which was just
! on the level OF the stage, at a party of
desperately dull ghosts playing a phan-
tom show behind dark and misty screen.
The weariness of the time increased
and, seated snugly in the corner, on
low easy-chair with my legs up on an
other, / found myself constantly doing;
yet l waited on and on, inspired with the
hope of seeing more of Floppy; only
when she was on the stage did my interest
revive, and by degrees it seemed as if her
entrances and exits, even, were becoming
as shadowy as everything else.
| Suddenly was sharply aroused by
sense of intense and acute pain-I had
fallen to the ground, and starting up, now
thoroughly awakened, found that was in
darkness, in some small place, gloomy,
] .>,I al h I,
of horror put forth my hands and felt u
curtain, coarse pail of curtain, in front
of me, and dragging it aside sickly burst
of daylight revealed the fact, clearly, that
| must have passed the night in the little
dust bin of box. The curtain / had
pulled back was part of the brown-hol-
land hangings with which, when the per.
| formance is at an end, the cushions and
curtains of the boxes are covered up. 1t
| had been lowered from the grand tier over
the front of my little stage-boX and, thus
concealed, had escaped observation when
the house was shut up for the night.
Surprised and startled beyond express
sion at the lapse of time and my apparent
oblivion of it, doubted at first if could
really be still inside the theater, for | had
a sense so strongly upon me of having
been but very lately in quite different
place. In spite of the details which now
/ surrounded me, and which 1 distinctly
realized-the covered boxes, the orches-
| ira, the stage cleared and deserted, save
by the long coils Of the tire-hose brought
| up close to the float-in spite of all this |
was haunted with notion that had been
at sea, that had climbed and clambered
up somewhere, amongst masts and rig
ging, and crawled out upon the yards,
only to fall, the victim of some terrible
| treachery, suddenly, far into bottomless
space.
But, although these vague and impalpa-
! bic recollections continued to surge
through my brain, dismissed them-Or
sought TO do so-as the mysterious YES
iges of dream that has but lately fed,
and scrambling out Of my crib got up on
the stage. Here, as | made my way to
the back, / saw standing in the wings
three property masts, with cFoss-trees and
yards, and high up in the flies wide can
vas sails and other nautical gear. Could
it have been these that had influenced my
sleeping thoughts? | did not pause to
consider. My watch had stopped at a
quarter-past four; the morning was doubt
less far advanced, to Judge by the sun now
piercing the skylight at the back of the
gallery; all | thought of at present was
uOW W OoNdpO -AOhi NtAC t1CdlCl anu HCb
home to bed. Nothing but latch pro-
tected the stage entrance, and figure fast
asleep in a chair in the doOr-keeper's re-
cess was the sole protection against
thieves and the sole hindrance TO my exit
was soon back at the Bald-faced Stag
The waiter did not think much of gen.
tleman who, ordering a supper and bed,
turned the meal into breakfast, and retired
to his couch at eight in the morning.
was too stiff, cold and miserable to care
for hissuspieiOus salutations, and, turning
in, slept soundly till late in the day.
Toward afternoon l strolled down TO the
theater and asked at the stage door for
Miss Collingham.
"Ohi rot Miss Collinghaml" growled
the surly old doorkeeper, "d'ye suppose
we've nothing TO do but TO take messages
for Miss Dillingham;
Evidently Miss Floppy was in request,