Helena weekly herald., 1885-02-26
CHICAGO LETTER.
Secretary Lincoln's Futura-Jeff. Davis
Uuder Fire-Swing and Irving Swop
Compliments Spectacular Opera
"A Story on Gov. Shuman.
Especial CoRREspoyDEScrl

1 CHltAGO, Tepiuaiy ne story
once more afioat that when Secretary Bob
Lincoln retires from the cabinet he will mo-
return to Chicago, but will practice law il
Washington. This is, to say the least, very
doubtful. The law firm here, of which hs
is a member, has never dropped his name
nor taken in its sign" and the under
standing has always been that he would
resume his place as a member of IT. Be.
sides, Robert is credited with an ambition
to remain in politics, and the only place
where he can crafty that ambition is in
\ Illinois.
Capt. Dave Medburry, of Governor Ham
1 iltons staff, came back from New Orleans
a few days ago. He was guest on one
occasion of a Mr.. Richardson. who is noted
chiefly in the South for two ocharacteristics-
His admiration for JEFF. Davis and his hos
| pitality to people from the North. On the
occasion of Capt. Medburrys visit, several
others from the North were there, and so
was the ex-chief of the late Confederacy.
One of the Northern guests occupied seat
next to that of Mr.. Davis. After dinner
the Northerner turned to his next chair
guest and said: Il beg yeur pardon,
didn't quite understand your name when
we were presented to each other"
Davis
'No relation to the traitor Davis, | sup
pose?n asked the northerner
The ex-chief replied in the Yankee style:
Were you in the Union army?'
mo, sir"
Then you did not fight for the princi-
Piles involved in that struggle
No. SIR
"Mr. Richardson, will you please hand
me a cigar - said Davis 10 his host, and,
lighting the weed, he puffed the smoke
over his head, while the Nortberner, turn
ing to his next friend, said:
Il guess I've put my foot in it,
Mr.. Richardson said to Medburry "It's
no use; try the best can. the subject of
that war will come up"
Prof David Swing did not miss seeing
Irving for a single evening during the
Irving engagement. One evening he called
on Mr.. Irving behind the scenes. and Mr..
Irving said: IL am coming to hear you
preach before / leave Chicago" :" TO which
the professor replied: Il wish ! could
preach as well as you can act" And Mr..
Irving retorted: IF could preach as
well as they say you can, | wouldn't try to
act" And then the curtain went up.
The Kiralfy brothers intend making
Chicago their future base OF operations.
They propose to organize grand spectacu-
lar opera, whatever that may be. To this
end negotiations are in progress to secure
some Chicago talent, and am told in this
connection that John Hamlin and his man
ager, Mr.. Hess. are interested in the
scheme. Hess is to superintend the musi-
cal part of the enterprise, and the Kiralfys
are 10 furnish the red fire and the tights
and females, while Hamlin is to become an
interested party 10 the extent of whatever
dividends may he forthcoming Also that
the affair is to he the greatest thing on
earth, and that it will be sprung on Chi
cago at the opening of the fall season.
There was more than one reason why
Mr.. Hill, of this city, leased the Union
Square Theatre According TO one of his
friends, Hill wanted a theatre, and when
he got the Haverly here he was satisfied.
But when t,e let Henry Irving name it and
that clever gentleman called it the Column
bia. Hill kicked himself, metaphorically
and said well, I'm in for il, ! suppose
and Columbia il must be. But | am not
satisfied with the name, and am going to
get another theatre just to get even
And that's why he got the Union Square.
Fremont Shuman, now out of the ranks
of newspaper business, used to be re-
porter on the Times in the good old days"
Ii so happened mo offense to Shuey) that
Shuman at that time found il difficult to
make his stipend reach from Saturday to
In consequence he found it
necessary TO cultivate the acquaintance OF
the cashier, Mr.. Stridison, who, next to
Mr. Storey, commanded more respect from
the staff than any man on the paper Shu-
mans calls on "Strid' became so frequent
that the latter at last informed him that
the "box was shut" against any appeal he
could make In due course of time Shu-
man discovered that "Strid" had weak
ness for listening to stories. He soon found
the old cashier ready to hear every new
story that came in, and having related his
contribution he would strike for "V" or
an N" and it was always forthcoming.
BY and by Shuman went away from the
Times and "Strid relapsed into his old
firmness on the boys. Now and then some
of them would venture to start in on yarn,
but the eyes of the faithful old
cashier would be riveted on his business
and his ears would he deaf to all appeals
Yesterday Shuman met him on the street.
They had not seen one another for years.
Having passed the usual compliments,
Shuman was reminded by something of
new story which he had, and proceeded to
tell it. The old cashier listened attentive
ly, and when it was finished he handed
Shuman "fver" and walked off. Shu-
man overlook him and reminded him that
he (Shuman) was no longer on the Times.