National Republican., 1883-05-15
THE MAN ON THE AVENUE.
smnII Talk About Men aud nIensures

money! great deal of money for a young
ster in those days, and being ambitious, self
reliant, and onterprising, he lost no time In
adding the cares and responsibilities Of a
proprietor to those OF manager In 1852,
when only twenty three years of age, he be-
camo proprietor of the Ho liday Street thea
ter He was exceptionally fortunate
in having won several very warm friends
among mon of great wealth and social dis.
tinction at tho very outset Of his career.
Among the number was Thomas Winans, who
did him one of the greatest favors ] ever
knew Of one man doing another. Knowing
that young Ford was closely pressed Winans
camo to him one day and proposed to take a
box in his theater.
"'Vhat will you charge me for box for
three years. asked the millionaire.
"I hardly know replied Mr.. Ford, you
can take any box you want and fix your own
price. / am satisfied you will do right by
me-
"'Very we'll, them said Mr.. Winans, I
will give you $1,000 year for the box of my
choice, and pay you for IL for three years. and
he did, paying $4,000 down. This was a
handsome sum in those days, and it put Ford
on his feet. He was lucky in many ways,
and had no backsets forseveral years. During
the war he literally coined money, his thea
'ters in Baltimore and Washington proving
perfect gold mines. He was a very rich man
at the close of the war; and is not poor now,
by several dollars, but he has lost great deal
Of money since 1865.
Nearly every actor and actress who has
achieved prominence on the American stage
during the past generation has been asso.
cinted with Mr.. Ford, many of them starting
in his companies at the bottom round of the
ladder. He has put any number of them on
their feet. Barrett and Booth owe no little
of their success to him, and among the
actresses Of the present day are several who
were pushed toward the top through his
efforts. Ho mado Mary Anderson, putting
her forward ten years in her profession.
IIe made tho first tour of the south
with her when she was scarcely known
outside of Louisville. He advertised her
porsistently through the southern states for
five months before taking her out. All Of
his combinations were made to advertise her
and he worked up great boom for her. He
cleared $4,000 or $4,000 net out of the ven.
turo, aud put Mary Anderson into the way oi
winning fortune and famo.
"He has probably seen moro active man =
ageral life than any theatrical manager in
the country, and he is good for many years
hard work yet. He is only "a years old now
and is hale and hearty as many we'll pre-.
served man ten years younger"
"How did the Lincoln assassination effect
him 2" was asked.
II do not think that hurt him after the in
vestgation, which relieved him of all sus.
picion of foreknowledge or thought Of the
| tragedy. The immediate consequences were
somewhat disastrous, Of course, as it broke
right into one Of tho most profitable seasons
he had ever experienced. The theater wa;
closed, and he lost a very large sum in pros
pective profits, which were certain to have
come to him had the Season run through"
ga
A Texerkana, Texas, crank having ex.
hausted his patience writing to the Presi
dent, has addressed a ten page letter to the
secretary of the interior, setting forth tina
he is being relentlessly prosecuted by the
whole world and that unless he is eleved by
being given charge of some distant sigma
service lamp far away from the habitatior
of a man he will ditch train and kill every
body who may chance to be on board. HI
writes that he has waited for relief from tn,
| President until he is almost wild, and thai
unless something is done for him right away
he will carry his bloody threat into execution
The letter is queer combination of ribaldry
piteous appeal and silly muttering.
ss@
Dodge City, Kans., which is now in tha
transition state through which all frontier
towns pass, must have been pleasant place
to live in when it was in the full glory of it:
splendor as the greatest cowboy paradise il
the west. A gentleman who spent severa
months in the town six or seven years ago
when it was remote outpost, tells tae fol
lowing:
dodge City was on the roadway or drive,
along which two or three hundred thousand
cattle were driven north every season from
| the Pan Handle of Texas one of the creates
grazing regions of the world. Herders il
driving their cattle northwest from Texas
always pass Dodge City, and then pointed to-
ward Ogallala, North Platte, Sidney, ant
other cattle stations on the Union Pacific
and hundreds and even thousands Of
those wild, restless, dissolute, equestrian
vagbonds, the cowboys stopped the regoini
north or coming south to spend theil
money in mad dcbauchery. 1t was com
munity of prostitutes and desperadoes. Muir
ders weTs of daily and often hourly occur
renee. There is populous graveyard bacl
of the town peopled exclusively by those VIII,
died with their boots on. None others wert
eligible to interment there. 1t was withou
exception tho very worst town in the coun
try, discounting Sidney, Laramie, Chey
enne, Leadville, Omaha, Worth, or any
of the toughest outposts in the palmies
days of their golden notoriety. The tow
had been planted just far enough from the foI
to insure freedom from interference from the
garrison, as was the case with Laramie City
where the inhabitants were compelled, accord
ing to Bill Nye, to sleep in buffalo wallow
outside of the boundaries, to get out of tn
range of bullets. Such a thing as law and orde
was unheard Of No mans life was saf
a minute. Drunken wretches out on a howl
ing spree were liable any moment to run
amuck, and thon take TO the plains on thei
feet horses. Occasionally some especial,
atrocious crime would startle the inhabitant
into the organization of vigilance commit
tee and then there would be necktie socia
Bile but Judge Lynch only claimed victim
enthusiastically.
Gradually, as civilization crept westward