The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-02

| nng"eho. Spy, WHO plHye1 the part OF thu
Irlnce Amoret In the spectacle did not notlc.
tho cage until the Sunday night full-dress re-
nearSai had progressed very smoothly Ia the
second act, and stood ready to 90 on at tn.
second entrance, left, Happening TO cast hpl
Rushing off to the first entrance She cauvh,
George Deyere, the stage manager, by this
arm ana led him to her former standpoint
ana pointing to the cage asked In great OK.
| element
Mr.: Devere tell me-what is that up
| there?" 'f
| - why. It's very large bird cage. Miss
Weathersby," he replied In great astonish-
mpnt
And what are they going to do with it?''
It's 70 DO used ia the final transformation
but they must take 1t down. I'll not have
It there"
Why, what objection can you hsve2"
What objection2 Do you suppose | nm
my headH"
"Why not2"
Because It's unlucky. Tho piece will be n
failure, or l. or some Of us, will die, or some
| thing awful will happen"
"You don't believe that, Miss Weathersby7''
ooh, you don't know I'm astonehed
That you end tho management would permit
| such thing"
"Pshawl Why this IA foolish" laughed
Devere. There, that's you. There's the
| about IT,"
"But I won't go on" pouted the beautiful
and hayward actress, 80 long as those doves
are on the stage"
And she didn't. There was pause-a long
pause-in the lay; there was an argument,
ana long argument: but II all ended la a
surrender to the superstitions of the actress
The piece was stopped until the carpenters
could maui down the ponderOus cage aud re-
move the obnoxious doves, and at the regular
performances IA nf irIu
substituted for the birds of evil omen.
During the run OF the spectacle "Sardanapa-
lus' at Booths, the stage manager, l.. j. Vim
cent, and Harry Palmer were kept I'm constant
not water owing to the superstitious Of the
girls of the Italian ballet. One night, before
the curtain rose, one Of the coryphees rushed
from her dressing room to find Vincent.
Mr.; Veeneent 7 she cried, that girl Leila r.
well, what the devil Is 1t nowl !" exclaimed
the manager, out of all patience with the
wranging set.
"She whistle! She blow her mouth, sor'
We'll, LET her whistlel Let her blow her
mouth What's that to your"
TO me! Much to mel She whistle me out
Of the theatreT exclaimed the girl between
her sobs
1t took the frantic Vincent some time to dis
cover that 1t IL superstition Of ballet girls
that II one of their number whistles white in
her dressing room, the party who Is whisted
at will lose her situation in the theatre within
the fortnight. The utter impossbility of
stage manager preventing the vicious or en-
vlous girls from whistling at their enemies
makes the stage placeof torture for that Of
ficlal during the run Of any spectacle.
The same fatality accompanies Locke's in
cidental music TO Macbeth" especially tho
witches refrain, "Around, around, around"
The writer was, q couple Of seasons ago, wait
Ing on the stage of the Union Square Theatre
for a friend to finish his duties at a REHEARSAL,
and at the close Of the repetition, after u
brief chat with Tfssington, the orchestra
leader. he turned about to walk up the stage
to relon his friend, hummiDg the Dir eve
fly by night" Charles Thorne and the late
Claude Burroughs hasten d toward him with
looks of terror In their faces.
Hush" they cried together. Don't sing
that Macbeth music
"Why not p
Its bad luck Do you want the new
piece to fail or the theatre to burn down r
This was said SO earnestly that there was
no arguing or laughing 1t of.
Poor Harry Murdoch, tradition has It,
whistled inadvertently q few strains Of this
fatal Macbeth music In his dressiDgIoom In
the Brooklyn Theatre two nights before It
was burned down, and Claude Burroughs
told several OF his friends about Union Square
the next day how he had stopped Harry's
OmiunuS music.
Another bad sign which Is quoted in regard
to the Brooklyn Theatre is the fact that dog
took fancy to thu stage doorkeeper, and
finally got so familiar that 1t ranged the
house driving all the cats out. This was a
bad sign, for In all theatres the entrance Of a
cat l. sign of good luck. and a dog always
typfies disaster. In every theatre In this
city cats roam at will, and dogs are outlawed
Two Of Jarrett " Palmer's best dancers In the
'SardanapAlus' spect tcle broke their con
tracts after they had been in this country
only two days, and took the next steamer
back to Europe, because on visiting the dress
ing-room assigned them Mt Booths Mt re-
hearsal, they found q yagrant black cur en-
there unseen from the streets.