Arizona weekly enterprise., 1881-10-29

schaum, and, without regarding his others entreating looks, proceeded to !, and light it.
 "Come, Charlie, she could not for bear saying at last |" it is not often that 1 ask you to sacrifice anything for me, out do wish you would give up smok- ing."
 "No use, mother; I should think you would know better than to make such demand"
 "Obey P thundered voice from the open door. "Let her lightest wish be law, or beware My fate may be yours P
 The deep, tragic tones in which these words were uttered, the erect, dignitied | form standing upon the threshold with l threatening foretinger pointing directly at the object of his attack, the flashing, | magnetic eye that compelled attention and obedience-all involuntarily re- minded me of an evening some forty years before when l had seen the elder Kean advance to the footlights, and, with rapid, unexpected speech, electrlfy the audience. So, too, had seen re- ligious revivalist single out some stiff necked sinner in the crowd, and with darting forefnger pour out the viala as scriptural vengeance on the unbapfizod head.
 "The man must be mad, or strcIling actor playing D part r cried Chsr1ls, who was the first to recover from tt1e general amazement.
 The effect of this remark on the naaz was magical; the extended kazad dropped his figure shrank and dropped into its former listless attitude; the fire died out in his eyes, and his coat once more revealed its rents, while his voice, low and hoarse, muttered an apology:
 Forgive me. forgot where I was and who I am. No, can never forget that. cannot escape myself"
 Nettie's sympathetic soul was touched
 "Perhaps you would like to tell us about yourself. That is, you might like to feel that there were those who pitied your misfortunes. My brother is some times nasty, but always kind-hearted. We would all be glad to assist you If We can."
 "My tale is one of horror, and could gain me only your detestation yet why should 1 shrink from the recital when the pain I thereby inhict on myself is | the only penalty l can pay for my crime?
 II am, he continued, Tor rather was, sn actor, and so was my father before me. As & child, I mimicked the set phrases and gestures of the actors about me, and early learned to look upon the | play house as my home and the field wherein I should develop whatever tal ents I might possess. My father occu- pied the position of leading man at the l B. Theater, and WAS the most popu- lar actor in town. He basked in the l glare of the theater, exerted, nay, ex- hausted, himself in the effort to please a fickle public, and possibly looked upon his home only as retreat where he might recuperate his exhausted ener- gies and equip himself for fresh oonquests. My mother naturally rival, and a successful one, to the home. Yet, for all that, she never re faxed her efforts to make that home g her suferings and despair might have been, she never voiced them. Only remember on one occasion she had play fully asked me what intended to be when I grew up to manhood, and re | all means.' She pressed me closer II her arms, and felt her warm tears or my face as she cried out: Oh, not that my son Anything but that Choos' again, just to please your mother Bu I obdurately insisted that would be ai actor and nothing else. From that mo ment my mother seemed to regard m with great apprehension, and an afraid would have secretly reioiced i my first appearance had been such al
 utter failure as to deter me from takin' any i.uEther steps in that direction. Blu my father tsIt.l~a --s>5 encouraged me Himself careful, conscsentious student he would quench my too-t~-dent entbu siasm by an immersion in the -,cean { work that lies between every artlh-+ an his goal and anon, lifting me up to ri own lookout, he would point out som new and undiscovered country wher, fresh glory awaited the first comer Alternately stimulated and held i check, l rapidly grew in popular favor and divided almost equally with m, father the smiles and tears of the town Oh he alone who has commanded then can testify to the sweetness of tn power.
 ''About this time there appeared oI the scene one whom my father nervousl, feared as a possible rival. He playe, parts that my father considered pecul iarly his own by right of repeated rep resentation, and, being young, hand some and of good address, secured large following of friends The misun derstanding between this stranger an
 my father was of so serious a characte
 that they only spoke to each other whel
 the demands of their profession force
 some courtesy from one or the other, an
 1t required all the firmness of the stag
 manager to keep them to their duties
 One night, late in the season, when al
 the new plays had been worn thread
 bare, an old melodrama was revived, an
 to my father and this newcomer th
 principal parts were assigned. Eacl
 now started out in the race to enlis
 the applause of the audience. My fath
 CT watched the house nervously, bot
 off and on the stage, to see to which sid
 feel the laurels plucked from his ow and bound on younger brow. Nea J the close of the play my father was , his feet You have already apprehend l ed the sequel. The gun, an old, unuse ! one, supposed to be loaded with sma : charge of powder, went off in my fatf CTS hands, and the rival, whom he ha so lately feared and hated. lay dead be . fore him.
 1T have related this incident to sho 1 you the cloud of misfortune that hun r over our family, and shortly afterwar
 enveloped me in its folds.
 : Although probably no one aetuall
 believed that this tragedy was otht { than sad accident, yet some there wei - who, recalling the enmity between Il
 two men, were malicious enough to whi ,; per that the shooting was premeditste under cover of the play. These rumol ' coming to my fathers ears cut short h