River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-11-23
I've Darkies as Braces.

Among the attractions booked for the
| Opera House, says the Dramatic Nelcs
was Annie Pixley, with Miss In the
last act of this piece some set trees and
| fountain are used. As the curtain
was about to go up on this act on the
| first night, Mr.. L. noticed to his amaze
meat that each of these objects was
held up to its place by negro standing
behind it, instead of the usual stage
brace. Hi! you therel' he called to
them. Fix the braces and come of
quick!'
Oats all right, sah," responded the
Ethiopian who was sustaining the foun-
tain coolly
Yves dem"
You're what ?"
de braces, sab"
And so they were. There was not q
brace in the house, and Mr.. N. had
pressed them into service tossustain the
picturesque illusion to the scene. T..
stormed and made things warm gener-
ally. but it did him no good. It was
@niggers or no set pieces" as Mr.. n.
put it, and the latter he had to have.
We'll, sir, he says in telling the story,
"the act is about forty minutes long.
and you can imagine those coons did not
take root during that time. For the
first five minutes they were stayed
enough. Then the fun began. First,
one of the trees began to wobble; then
the brace put out his head from behind
the other to see what was going on be-
tween him and the footlights. As for
the fountain, it began to sway steadily
forward and back with the regularity of
motion like the pendulum of clock.
My wife got onto it, and she says to
Med. between speeches:
".What ails the scenery, Mac?"
~I'll swear don't know, said Mac.
but I'd freely take my oath either me
or it is drunk
Here the niger looked from behind
the nearest tree and Annie saw him.
You rascal she Kissed, how dare you,
sirl Get off the stage this minute
Can't, mum, said the coon, with
smile like whale, 'cept take the tree
wild me, num-
Mac had just got some of his line off.
She took her cue, and as she finished
another woelly head bobbed into sight
around the second tree. The audience,
who had noticed that something was
wrong, saw it now and commenced to
smoker. She pinched herself to make
sure she wasn't dreaming, and Mao
hurried on with one of his long speeches
to prevent an outburst in front. As
soon as he paused, husky whisper,
audible throughout the house, said:
Hurry up, Misses. Fob Gohl eff I
don't git home afore eleben o'clock de
old woman 'ull lam de hide. off'n me,
shuah.'
:" You black villain she cried, in an
aside. Get off, or I'll kill YOU
- All right, Misses, was the reply,
Use gwine right away
And in couple of seconds more the
tree walked off into the wings, the au-
dienoe commenced to applaud, and the
fountain stopped see-sawing, and, with
a bob as if it were making a bow, fell
forward with the brace sprawling on top
of it. The scoundrel had fallen into a
doze, and, being aroused suddenly, had
lost his balance. AS he fell his side
partner coolly leaned the only remain
ing tree against the fiat, and came down
the stage to help him up. Med. made
a kick at him, but aimed short and only
upset himself. Annie leaned against a
wing, nearly dead with rage and laugh
ter, and the curtain rang down ON the
tableau amid round of applause Miss
never listened to before, and hope
never will again"