Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-14
DRAMATICs ON A FLArBoAr.
A Floating Theatre Famous When This
Century was Young.

century WAS 1OunBs
'The project now being mooted of
floating theatre" said Mr.. George F..
/ Browne, s'reminds me of the only one that
was ever a success. 1t was that built
/ by William Chapman, the eldest OF the
wonderful family, not one member OF
/ which but was an artist. and hardly one
| but was a musician. They were so many
/ that it would take long time TO give a
/ separate history of each. Caroline Chap
man was for a long time in BurtOn's COM
4 panv. Harry Chapman, nephew of W.
! b.. married Julia Drake, and was the
father of the Chapman sisters, Blanche
4 and Ella. The Chapmans were English,
/ and dated from DrurY Lane, London, very
4 far back-twO centuries ago the names
was in old English playbills.
civilian b. Chapman, born in 1863,
was the first of the family to come to our
shores. He made his first appearance on
/ the American stage in 1927 at the old
/ BOwery as Billy Lackaday.' He was
one of the finest DR.. PanglOsses' / have
! ever seen, but he did not confine himself
to low comedy or any one line of BUSH
| ness, and was equally fine in all.
''Tne' family were called the gypsy
family because they spoke a gibberish
among themselves that none but them
| selves could understand. 1t was neither
dead nor living language, unless per-
haps that of some gypsy tribe. 1t used
to make those acting with them nervous
to hear them jabbering this jargOn. The
name of the gypsy family was afterward
fastened upon them by their travelling in
their floating theatre. 1t was in reality
only a Mississippi flatbOat, but was ex-
ceedingly large, as it could seat 400 peo-
pie, and contained the scenery, proper
ties, ETC., and living accommodations for
the entire family.
Il cannot tell you exactly how many
years they ran the tlatboat, but you may
judge that it was no incOnsiderable
period from the fact that a large family of
children was born to William Hamilton
on that floating theatre. Ham
ilton married one of old man Chap
mans daughters, and what with the orig
inal family, the marriages, and intermar
riages, they had sufficient people to cast
even the fullest of Shakespeare's TRACE
dies. OF course, some of the parts had to
be doubled occasionally, snd man who
was killed in one scene would appear in
| the next, alive and well, as some other
| character; but that was only in such
plays as demanded very large casts,
like Hamlet
''Orchestra they had nOne-that is, not
in the front Of their theatre-but they
played all the necessary music behind the
scenes. Thra was in the day of music in
plays. No actor or actress could come
rObber' dressed in top boots and buried in
Inky whiskers and wig, delivered himself
of his yillainOus schemes cOnfdentially
to the audience to piZZicatO music.
Everybody died to slow music. In one
piece Harry Chapman, who was first
violin, was on the stage, and so was every
one else. Harry received a fatal sword
| thrust, and fell with his head and should
ers off the stage, and spoke his last
speech, and played slow music for himself
to die by. The Chapman family were
even more ingenious in stage eXpedients
than the rest of the strOllers of that
time.
They hardly ever bought anything to
eat on the boat, but subsisted mainly on
the fish they caught. The lines were al
ways out trolling during the performances
and any one of them would rush off even
in the middle of a speech to pull in fish.
One night the elder Chapman was playing
The Stranger He had just exclaimed.
'Oh, God! oh, God! what are chains
or death when some one behind cried
out:
50 "A bite, bite, Billy
HE flew off, pulled up his line, returned
and continued his speech.
Compared to misery like mine?'
''In the same play The Stranger calls
'Francisv twice, but Francis does not
appear on the second time of calling. The
Stranger then impatiently demands:
Where were you when l called?
zone night 'The Stranger called four
times before Francis made his appear
ance, and in reply to The Strangers
question, the Chapman who played
Francis answered, with smile Of great
satisfaction:
g i was hauling in the finest 9-pound
catfish you ever laid eyes on
''lt was j0kingly said that the Chap
mans always smelt fishy, even years after
they had given up the flatbOat. used to
fancy So"
"Did they eat nothing but fish,"
"Oh, yes, they had plenty of provisions.
They would take chickens, eggs. hams,
meat, flour, butter, corn, and anything of
that kind as admittance fees, and as the far
mers were very liberal with such comm0-
dities, you may be sure the floating actors
had variety of food and penty Of it. OF
course they charged an admittance fee,
and as it was in the old slavery times, the
SOutherners were not stingy. They would
inquire, How much to see the showY
and being told forgot the scale of prices,
but think it was high-they would fling
down a ten or twenty-dollar gold piece,
and never wait for change. Then, too,
there prevailed a custom of throwing
money to the performers instead of flowers,
and if anything pleased the fancy of the
audience, like a dance or a song, they
would shower down the yellow boys L
fancy that custom would even now be ac-
ceptable to some of our performers.
81 do not think the floating gypsies had
any bills-certainly not any programmes.
A bill of a performance by them would
be great curiosity now. | have never
seen one, and my collection of playblls is
very large and varied. They drew up to
wharf, mOored, and put out a canvas an
nOuncing their entertainment. This was
sufficient. The news that the players had
come soon spread among the country
folks, and long before the doors were
opened the farmers and planters, with
their families, were on hand, in every
style of conveyance, and loaded down with
the best products of that rich and fertile
country.
''It took the Chapman family pretty
much a whole season TO travel down the
Mississippi and OHIO. The men did the
navigating, the women the cooking. They
finally broke up the show, becoming
not profitable, for the small places they
usually played in never saw any theatre
but theirs. They never played in the
large cities, like Cincinnati, although they
often laid up there for a while. They
drifted apart, going various ways, each
winning more or less renOwn. Death has
claimed nearly all Of them now, although
| understand that the widow of Hamilton
is living in New York. She was fine
singer and brilliant musician, and, al
though of great age, still earns her sub
SlStence by teaching muSic.n