Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-02-02
F0RREST'S FINESSE.
Procuring Colored Wife for Stage Duty on very /
Short Notice,

Procuring Colored Wife for Stage Duty on very
Short Notice.
Mr.. Forrest told me that on the first
night of the performance of Sol Smiths
play, he came to the Globe Theater,
went to the dressing room and blacken-
ed his face and hands, and put on wig
of wool and appropriate clothing, and it
was nearly time for the curtain to rise,
but he had to appear upon the stage in
the part of Tom with his black wife. A
lady of the theater had rehearsed the
part of the wife of Tom, for which she
had been cast, but when the night of the
performance came she utterly refused
TO blacken her lovely face with cork for
the purpose. She was in brief thorough
ly disguised with the apprehension of
the fact, and she would not color or dis
color herself. What was to be done
Forrest tried other ladies of the COM
pany, but each and every one utterly
refused to blacken her face and arms
and hands, In this extraordinary di-
lemma, Forrest, all dark that he was,
bethought himself of his negro washer
woman who lived in a shanty upon Sixth
street just around the corner from the
theatre, and resolved, in the dire emer-
gency, TO visit her and see if he could
not get her to come to the theater and
appear with him as his wife upon the
stage. 1t was the der7aier resort, and
off went Forrest Just as he was, around
the corner to his washerwoman's home.
He knocked at the door and was told
to come in. He opened the door and
entered the room, where he found Dinah
up to her shoulders in suds over the
washtub, and this brief colloquy occur
red:
Forrest-How do you do. Dinah ?
Dinah-Lord sakes, what strange
brack fellow be you
Forrest am Mr.. Forrest, and /
want you to leave your washtub and
come along with me to the Globe Thea
ter, and go with me upon the stage as
my wife in the play. Come, be in hur-
ry for they are waiting to raise the cur
ton and begin the play.
Mr. Forrest all this anxious time was
wholly unmindful of his strange darkey
appearance, and he spoke to Dinah as
Forrest and not as tom :" and she ex-
claimed:
Dinah-You brack rascel, you can't
fool dis nigga dat sort o way, Go way,
you brack man, you is no good-go
way.
Forrest-Dinah, l am Mr.. Forrest.
Don't YOU recognize my voice. / am
only dressed up in the this way for the
negro part of Tom which | have to
play, and | want you right off to be my
wife.
Dinah-Lord sakes you don't say
so. Why who in de world wud have tuck
you in dose clothes and that brack face
for Mr., Forrest? don't believe you
yet. Let me look you ober
Forrest-It is fact, and | am in
great hurry, SO come along with me and
see for yourself.
MIR. Forrest approached nearer to
Dinah, and to convince her pulled off
his woolly wig and showed her his own
hair, all silken raven as it was, and
assured her that everything was right,
that he was Mr.. Forrest and that he
wanted her to play part upon the stage.
She finally became convinced of the
situation, and leaving the washtub and
takig the arm of Forrest Just as she was,
was willing to 90 with him. Forrest
now hurried to the theater with her and
was just in time for the raising of the
curtain, and when his proper cue came
he made his entrance upon the stage
in the character of black Tom, with the
real darby, Dinah, as his wife-iust
released from the soap and washtub,
amidst the laughter and applause Of the
delighted audience. And this is how
Ned Forrest, in the character of black
Tom, got his black wife, and produced
Il double darky sensation among the
pioneer theater-goers of our goodly city.
The incident was among the sunny and
funny recollections of our friend Forrest,
and 90 hear himself recount it with his
peculiar and particularly dramatic eff
feet and close imitation of the darkey as
| did, was almost as good treat, no
doubt, as to have seen and heard him
when he initiated the plantation negro
in his smart sayings and songs and
dances in 1928, on the stage of that
early Globe Theater of Cincinnati
Cincinnati Commercial.