News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-08-06
STAGE LIFE AS IT rs.
ACTORS LAUGH AND Joke TrJOIrGH
THEIR HEARTS BREAK.
SAD lncideZIts that Come Under the Notice
of a Stage Manager.

eyes" said the manager osad Incl
dents come to the notice of our people
every day. Look at poor DAILY, who
directed every detail in the production
of new play while his two BOYS Law
dead at home.
II remember well the case of a Door
young woman in one of my companies
a few years ago, who had been deserted
by a reckless husband, and whose sole
JOY IN life was little boy. She played
small soubrette parts. Whenever her
duties took her on the road the child
went with her. No mother could have
been more devoted to her boy, and no
boy more devoted to his mother. They
were inseparable. One Saturday, at the
matinee, knew from her looks that the
boy must be in very bad way. She
arrived promptly for the evenings per-
Torrance, Her lips were compressed,
and her face wore look of great deter
mination. 1t was evident that her ner-
vous system was at tremendous tension.
One of the stage hands told me, when I
went behind the scenes, that the little
boy had died soon after the matinee.
Well, everything went all right till she
came to comic song. In the midst of
that she broke down, and ran weeping
from the stage.
81 know another case where woman
singing in a travelling comic opera COM
pany got telegram at her hotel Just as
she was getting ready to start for the
theatre, announcing that her husband, a
well-known actor in the West, had COM
mitted suicide. Yet she had to go on
the stage and act her part. Not long ago
popular comedian undertook the pro-
ductlon of new play in Boston. The
night of the performance he came to the
theatre, leaving a dead child and a wife
to whom he had hidden what they had
thought a last farewell, as the doctor
had told him she hadn't two hours to
1--we. The play was a miserable failure
1t seemed as though the comedian might
be driven mad by misfortune But to
his unspeakable joy he found his wife
living on his return home. By what the
doctor pronounced a miracle she re-
covered, but neither she nor he has for
gotten the misery of their parting that
night. The leading man of Mary An
dersons company went on the stage of
a Washington theatre under the same
circumstances. During the performance
kilograms came from Baltimore that his
wife was improving. Just before he
went on for his best scene in the last act
telegram was handed to him. He
opened it hastily, expecting better news,
but he saw the announ cement of his
wife's death. Just then his cue came,
and he went on the stage 1t seems that
almost the last words of his wife were
instructions that kilograms containing
words of cheer should be sent to him up
to certain time, when she thought the
performance would be over, and not till
then should the telegram announcing
her death be transmitted to him. By
some oversight the last dispatch was
sent half an hour too soon. l could go
on and tell you dozens of equally sad
cases-how the lives of comedians are
shortened by domestic grief; how wo-
men leave festive banquet scene for the
death bed of husband or child.
OF course manager sees SO much
misfo rtune that after while only the
saddest cases make an impression upon
him. Yet l always feel sorry when mis-
fortune overtakes any of the extra girls
or super ladies employed about
theatres. They are plucky women who,
as rule, are the support of some poor
relatives. 1t seems to me as if fate could
afford to spare them, but it doesn't. You
remember that some time ago in one of
our theatres a platform upon which
number of super ladies were standing
gave way, and that one of them was
severely hurt. That woman supported
from her earnings, poor blind husband
and several children. Since her injury
she hasn't been able to work, and the
actors fund won't help her because she
has sued the manager. Another sad case
Is that of woman who has two children
to support Formerly she could live
quite nicely, Tor her husband made con-
siderable money as an actor One night
after returning from the theatre he began
a letter to her, for he was then with a
company. The next morning
his mangled body was found at the
bottom of the elevator shaft. The UNI
letter lay on the table. He
must have stepped out into the hall and
through the elevator door, which had
carelessly been left open.
81 often think, when I hear of ANA
teurs who aspire to go on the stage, that
If they only knew how little glitter there
was behind the scenes, and how many
breaking hearts beneath smiling faces.
they would never care to learn more Of
the theatre than they can see from the
auditorium. "-Neao York Sun.