The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-27
Story of A Stage-Struck Man.


$50 you want to know something
about the inner life of the show busi.
ness?" said q dapper young man to
the reporter. "Well Pm just the one
who can give you the straight tip as
to roughing it on the road"
"Ever since was a boy I have had
a hankering after the show life, and a
couple of years ago, while [ was en-
gagged in church choir, felt the fever
coming on mighty strong. I began to
cultivate an acquaintance with theat-
rical people, and almost before / knew
it had signed contract with a COM
ic opera company for a forty weeks
engagement. l was to receive S1S a
week besides travelling expenses, and /
had it figured out how [ was to do the
country and have few hundred dol
lars saved up when we disbanded in
the spring. Everything seemed rosy;
there was an air of business about all
the details, for the contracts, were
drawn up by a well-known agent, and,
although the chorus was mostly COM
posed of amateurs like myself, the
principals were public favorites and
well up in their several lines.
''It was the middle of August, so we
had about two weeks in which to re-
hearse our parts. The theaters were
vacant at the time, and we had little
difficulty in getting q suitable place.
Although our repertoire consisted of
several comic operas, we were to be
put through only two, the others be-
ing rehearsed while on the road It
was here the trouble began. The
chorus was painstaking and quick to
learn, but the principals, who were
blown up with self sufficiency, seldom
appeared together at the rehearsals;
and when we made our debut in O
small town in Jersey one of the men,
who had boasted he knew the whole
thing, word for word, forgot his lines.
We had struck our first snag, and the
local papers gave us q poor send-off
the next day.
"But I enjoyed the life. The gilt
had not yet worn off the business for
me, and had conquered all traces of
nervousness. The only thing we were
afraid to face was the empty benches,
and we saw plenty Of them until we
got into Pennsylvania. The boys
were q jolly, devil-may care lot of fel-
lows, and we had not been two weeks
on the road before 1 had blown in the
little sum of money Ihad stored away
for an emergency. Then until again
set foot in Brooklyn, hardly knew
what it was to have dollar in my
pocket.
Gas soon as the manager got his
clutches on the door receipts they were
sent off to the hacker in New York.
OF course the principals, got their sal
aries, but the chorus and the rest of
us got nothing but promises. 1t did
not matter how good the houses were,
we were always told we would be paid
in full as soon as we struck good busi-
ness. Our travelling expenses had to
be paid, as well as the board bills; but
we never had the money in our own
hands. When we struck stand, the
would make arrangements
with some third-class hotel to board
the chorus. The principals, who had
the spending of their own money, nev-
er put up at the same hotel with us,
and I didn't blame them.
"Why didn't we ekick. What was the
use? We were far away from home
cent in our pockets, and as I
something to eat and a place to sleep.
Some of the members who could afford
it telegraphed home for enough money
to take them back to New York, while
others slipped into rival companies
and took their chances OF jumping
from the frying pan into the fire. We
thought of nothing but schemes to
raise the wind, and there wasn't q
crook in the country who was so full
of ways that are dark and tricks
that are vain as we. Some cur
ried favor with the principals, and
in that way to squeeze the
box, while others bribed the stage
to discount their notes. But
the best of all was the box-office rack
ct. Tt was this way. You see, a man
would buy something-an umbrella, a
valise, OF any other article he liked
and enter into an agreement with the
storekeeper to take it back for a con-
Then it would be sent to
the box office with the bill. This pam
ned out immensely until one day when
we were in Galveston a Jonah sent a
coon in with mule, upon which there
was $65 to be paid. That was work
ing it q little too much, and the man
ager shut right down on it there and
then. We never got up anything so
good afterward, although Jerseyman
we had with us, a pretty hard drink
er, hesitated at nothing when he want
ed a drink. One afternoon, while we
were rehearsing, he rushed into the
green-rc ON clad only in an old oilskin
suit smeared with paint and tar. He
told the manager he had been taking
q swim off one of the docks, and some
sailors in skiff had stolen his clothes
and left the jumper and overalls in
their place. He was drunk for three
days, when the manager asked him
how he got such fine New York clothes
in Texas he never winked an eye.
"The manager thought of nothing
but making money, and after the
treasurer had skipped with the re-
ceipts one night. he became harder
than ever on the For weeks
we had nothing but one-night stands,
and when the cities were a hundred
or more miles apart we had no sleep