Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-26
AMATEUR ACTORS.
Their Tribulations in New Jersey-@
fsCasteo with Too Much
Slow Music.
New York Tribune

New York Tribune.1
A party of youths and maidens set out
from New York with the highest of hopes
bounding in each immature bosom about ten
days ago. They were amateur actors and
actresses, and each one cherished visions of
one day being a Booth or an Anderson, a
JcffeIS son or a Mrs. Gilbert. They departed
under the joint leadership of a lady who has
gained some local fame as a professional
elocutionist, and young gentleman whose
chief claim to histrionic distinction consists
in the fact that he once played with ''rear"
company for Q week, in fact until the day for
the ghost to walkn arrived, and the manager
skipped, 3" leaving the company fifty miles
from anywhere.
The brilliant idea had been conceived of
playing in q circuit Of small towns in New
Jersey, "Caste' and farce being the pro-
gramme. They told their friends theywould
be awaya week, but at the end OF three days
they once more trod Broadway Haggard,
worn and depressed they sought the seclu-
sion OF their respective homes and remained
as tenaciously silent as the proverbial oyster
in regard TO the happenings and events OF
their tour" A Tribune reporter, however,
met the leading male member Of the troupe,
and from him heard the following sad recital:
'EWell, you see we played the first night at
a little town not a hundred miles from Jersey
City. We had not bad house, and the cur
tain was only fifty minutes late in rising.
Some of the audience rose to-. and wanted
their money back, but we ezpla ned that the
gentleman who was to play Sam had been de
tanned in New York, and hadn't turned up.
Fact was his boss turned crusty and
wouldn't let him off, Though he produced
telegram saying that his grand-aunt was
ding and wanted to bless him before she left
the earth. Well, we got our prompter
to read his part, and all went off
frst-class. You see, the prompter being on the
stage with the book, be could give us our
cues quite easily. l played Hawtree, you
know, but forgot my spirit-gum and had to
stick my mustache on with some bill-stickers
paste l found in the dressing-room 1t smelt
awful, and right in the middle Of the last act
the mustache dropped off. The audience
laughed, but couldn't see anything funny in
it. Well, felt quite done up, SO l stopped
with some OF the company all next day in the
town, and only went On to the next stand in
time to get to the theatre and dress.
There was beast Of little circus there,
and they pitched right near the Masonic
hall where we had our show. The people
seemed to take to the circus so there wasn't
much of house. found Miss Brown" Che
didn't call her Brown but the reporter has
tender heart chad engaged local orchestra.
Just before [ went on you know Hawtree
and D'Alroy open the scene), Miss B. came to
me and said, 4 think the tableau in the Sec
ond act drags a bit, so 1 told the leader of
the orchestra to give US a few chords How
about the band cuesH said l. oh those are
right said She I told him to begin when
Hawtree takes out his watch Well,
the orchestra struck up the overture, and it
then turned out it wasa brass band Of about
forty performers, in fact, there were as
many persons almost in the orchestra as there
were in the audience. We got through the
first act right enough. I had got some spirit
gum, but my uniform coat split up the bacl;
as I was putting it on for the second act, and
forgot all about the COMPOUNDED chords the
old lady had spoken to me about. Every
thing went on swimningly. Esther began her
agonizing and hauled out my watch and
told D'Alroy it was time to go.
GAS Ibid so fiendish din struck my ear: it
was the orchestra. They struck up The Girl
I Left Behind Me- which theleader evidently
GuOCSAG JIG uappleS1 OI thoughts, IOr Ne
smiled complacently as he waved his baton
wildly. yelled to him to stop, but he must
have thought Imeantgo on, and the din grew
louder and louder. 1t was impossible to
to keep our faces straight, and I shouted to
the prompter to ring the curtain down But
he didn't. Esther was in tears of mortifca-
ton; Polly and the Marquise screamed with
laughter, D'Alroy swore loudly and I sat
down and laughed till the tears came. In
about five minutes Eccles made his appear
ance and did his comic drunken
entrance, and as he staggered across thestage
the curtain atlength haltingly descended 1t
appeared that the prompter had been threat
ened with a lamming by his big brother, who
played Eccles, if he let the curtain down be-
fore the latter had gone through his ampliied
drunken act, and Eccles was in his dressing
room and knew nothing of the musical diff
Guilty. Well, we were all broken up, Esther,
tie manageress, got mad and made speech
to the audience, telling them she was shame
fully treated, and all the money had to be re-
turned. We all quarreled among ourselves
and came straight back home. How about
the receipts2 Well, we nearly cleared our rail
way fares the first night"