The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-11-13
~PERIsHABLE PROPERTIES.
Articles Eaten Drank. or Destroyed
In odern Plays
Isl Louis POST Dispatch ]

[St. Louis Post Dispatch
''Wben Clara Morris, Modjeska, or Bern
hardt sit down to the supper in Camille"
aid the manager, IA layout Of real viands
and sparkling champagne must DO provided
that sometimes costs for a single perform
ance as high as SIS or S4U. Six persons sit
at the table in that scene, and when the star
is a paying actress, like any l have men
toned, we can afford to provide a costly
spread. OF course an ordinary actress won't
get a SIS table in Camille About SO or $l2
Is a fair average for a single layout in this
play. In Herne's Hearts OF Oak a very
pretty supper set Is a feature OF one OF the
acts; the dishes come on steaming hot, and
the actors sit down to the table and eat with
appetites that suggest the possibility OF their
having f~oregone their regular vesperal meal
at the hotel for the sake Of eating it ON the
stage. This spread costs from sc IN s. a rer-
formance. In AS You Like It the chaps who
banquet in the Forest Of Arden have ~ real
meal set before them. and in dozens Of other
plays palntable viands are provided for the
perfo' mers."
and they arc usually all they are repre-
sented TO her
Casually. In Raymon1's Col. Sellers as
you know. the colonel, his wife, and their
young guest, the hero of the piece, sit down
to a bowl Of turnips and "A pitcher OF aqna
NAANHAnniDIA ilNfl= ~ INV lbh ''th'h y
expect the act,rs to eat turnips-such a diet
would soon kill them-so we have apples or
pears peeled and prepared 50 as to look like
the r~utabaga article, and of course the audi
ence accepted them for turnips."
THE drinks are, in nearly every case,
realr'
"when wine Is called for. nowadays, the
genuine stuff is usually brought on. In the
time OF Bel De Bar cold tea was used, and is
used even yet by the performers who are tenn
perate and prefer a mild drink; but cham
payne and other wines are common on the
present stage. Last week we had a bill ofs15
for wine used in the sleeping-car scene OF
The Tourist When beer is used in any
quantities, as in the picnic incident in Baker
aud Farrotfs Chris and Lena a key Of beer
is on tap behind the scenes"
"Who was the first to inaugurate the use
Of real food in stage spreadsf'
81 think Matilda Heron Is entitled TO tue
credit OF the innovation. She always insisted
on having the genuine articles on the table in
Camille, Eighteen or twenty years ago
such a thing was unknown, and even now
the tendency TO realism in small detsil of
stage representations is overlooked by many
actors. james Wallnck never went TO play
Macbeth without having a steaming boar's
ead-the real iesh and -bone-article-on the
board in the banquet scene. Neither Booth,
Barrett, Mccullough, Keone, nor any of the
great tTagedihns of the present day, demand
such a property, and the banquet table Is still
set with Dapier-m Ache goblets, epergnes, etc.
us in the olden days. Before Heron's time
fakes were used. Cleverly made pastebolrd
limitations Of articles Of food were employed.
Sometimes other methods were resortcd TO.
Often, In playing Dandy Dinmont, l have
tackled a chicken made from n 2-cent
loaf Of bread, toasted brown and
cut in the shape Of a fowl, with n
real chicken leg stack in one side, which Din
mont has TO pull out aud stick between his
tcoth. When a stcaming dish was wanted, II
little Inns or Lot ashes with water sprinltled
over II gave tho desired ~egfect.n
"Wbu looks after all this stufIr
"The property maj of tho theatre. a com
ing attraction sends on a list of all its props
and the property man Ia expected TO have
everything at hand when the curtain is ready
To ring up on the play. All props not per-
ishabls are cturned to him FOR future use, as
the phial Of poison that Juliet Is supposed to
drnin OIL, the piece OF red flannel, and the tin
tomahawk welded by the savage super in
Oliver Doud Byron's play, Yes, the property
man Is occasionally guilty of u practical
ioke. l can remember the case of II promi-
nent actor, who, ia playing Robert Macaire,
got the bottle OF salt water fixed up for
Jacques Strop by a property man who Ind a
grudge against Strop. There was much spit
ting aid spluttering on the part of Macaire
after he got the dose in his mouth, and there
came near being Il funeral from that prop
orty mans house in consequence"