Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-04-24
AS we were entering the theatre Broener
said: "You must go home alone tonight. ]
shall not return till some time tomorrow"

said: "You must 90 home alone tonight. ]
shall not return till some time tomorrow"
CHAPTER XIII.
SURPRISE. L
The play was '"Othello." It was q farce
relative to properties and mounting. Two i,
wings of the signboard style of art had to
serve all the scenic demands ofshe piece.
The dreadful bell" was the tocsin Of the
Placer hotel, borrowed for the occasion, and
its tones being recognized by some Of the
borders drew from them the cry, "Time
for Bangs hash" The jealous Moor was
commented o. as the "nigger," and during
the entire performance was made a target
from the demonstrative portion of the
audience for a running fire Of combined
criticism and %admonition, not friendly in its
character, and evidently based on the Sec
tional prejudices Of those who, coming from
the south, looked with no favor on "nigger"
for daring to aspire to the hand off white
maiden. Their chronological research had
never Disseminated between Moor and
Ethiopian. Iago was the favorite of the
house, more and more as the drama Id
vanced, and as he, playing on the Moor's
emotions, made him more and more miser-
able, one enthusiastic commentator bawled
out as announcements: "Thats right! sock
1t to him!"
OCCUPIED with Broener one Of the two
dingy recesses on either side Of the stage, dig
nifed by the name Of "boxes.s and held at
SO each for the night. His keen apprecia-
ton of the part continually played by the
audience, his hearty relish of the total failure
to impress them with aught OF the serious
ness Of the play, and his instant detection OF
every ludicrous point brought about by the
misit of the drama relative to the time, tenn
per and character of nine-tenths Of the look
ers on, made his society to me equivalent to-
fine comedy played simultaneously with the
piece set before us.
In reality many of these rough fellows
were critics, in their way, of no mean order,
though themselves entirely unaware of it. l
think that their years Of isolation from the
/ conventional life. Of the older settled locali-
ties from which they originally came, and
| the lack of sham and pretence in the life they
! now led, bad %quickened their minds to dis
| criminate between what was natural n
| what was artifcial-what was acted with
| real emotion and what was merely stilted
| defamation, as much of the piece before US
was on the part of the principal character:
So, when lagos wife, who, 1t will be remem-
bered, is but little prominent In the first &C.
ton Of this drama, stigmatized her scheming
husband and wished for a whip to seourge
such s%coundrels through the world, the house
"rose to her,"
had ceased to pay much attention to the
play, being more interested in the motley and
tumultuous audience. But the voice of this
actress seemed strangely familiar.
I regarded her closely, and my thought
said: That girl Is wonderfully like Blanche
Seton.
Impossiblel / looked, after that, but at
that one figure. The pose and bearing were
those of Blanche. In standing, Blanche's at
titude always gave one the impression that
she alone owned the ground she then stood
over. In speaking, or when spoken to, she
seemed to turn her whole mind in the direc-
tiou of the subject of the moment, and never
seemed in mind to stray or waver from that
subject.
So did this actress. But tbs makeup puz-
lied me. Hair, eyebrows, complexion were
different. The voice was pitched in a higher
key than ever I had heard from blanche.
Once let the doubt beset you as to the
identity Of any person long unseen, or seen
suddenly under unexpected circumstances
and generally that doubt remains until dis
PEELED by certain recognition and indcntiflca-
ton. So did mine then as to the identity of
the person bsfore me.
"Thst gal means bizness," I heard one man
whisper TO another. "Put her in a tight
place, and she'd shoot"
Noticed that Broener was regarding her
as attentively as I. He heard the remark
mentioned above and smiled, saying:
Trough diamonds. One as q character
reader in the house, and one-a brilliant on
the STAGE"
Hooked for her name in the cast on the
roughly printed programme. 1t read:
"Miss H. Brown"
The stage was not more than twenty feet
in width. Once she stood so near the box
could have reached forth and touched her.
Height, contour, bearing-al resembled
those of Blanche Seton. But as to the face
that wa so made up" as to leave me in
!, doubt. Once her eyes ranged across the box
where I sat. They were Blanche Seftons
eyes, but there was no recognition in theil
expression. Physically they looked at me-
otherwise they seemed no more to see m
, than would those of a wax figure.
= The play was over. The curtain fell. Thu
: audience struggled in a congested state fol
exit from the one narrow front entrance
I Broener turned in the opposite direction to
. ward a door leading to the stage, saying: 81
have an old friend in the company and an
! going behind the scenes. Good night"
He had gone. l would go to the stag,
a door in the rear, and in some way solve my
a doubts. But l was impeded by the crowd
A wretchad fracas, between two armet
inebriates, had developed directly in front o
q the "opera house." and the lingering mass
nothing 10th to see blood sled, cluttcred VI
a the passageway and sidewalk.
Freeing myself from them at last I sough
y the stage door. A high board fence ral
from the middle Of the rear of the theatre
which in reality was but the wing Of anothe
house. got on the wrong side of the fence
b ran back and was obliged to pass out agail
in front Of the theatre. At last l stood b,
= escort passed out. She certainly was 10
Of them. The third and last, closely veiled
i finally came, and accompanying her wa
: Broener!
n OF course, my friend, you would have stage
In camp that night, and found out "some
Z howl whether the girl was Blanche Seton O
q not. l didn't. Had I not seen the lady wit
|. Broener l might have so done. But his pres
ence put such Q complexion on the matter
!, that Of the two situations I preferred to b
In doubt as to Blanche's identity to findin
her thus with Brocner, whom Of course
pictured as the dangerous rival," as ~certainl
4 he was in almost any case.
q Besides there were imperative interests a
/ Scrub mountain to be looked after immt
l. diately. Broener expected me to get th
quartz out of the caches down to the cabi
10 as soon as possible. He had given me d
"a ~rections how to find them, and despite Ii
~ repulsion Of everything from me of graf
"a tude, I felt under too much obligation I
to him to neglect anything bearing on b