The Wahpeton times., 1886-02-25
Gus Pennoyer's Ghost Story.
Interview in Philadelphia News.

Interview in Philadelphia News.
"Meny years ago, j willnot say how
many, for no law compels a man to
criminate himself, l held the humble
position of call boy in the Mobile The
alter, long since destroyed by fire, and
OF which Mr.. J. w. Field (now deceas
ed), the father of the well-known ano
popular Kate Field, was manager.
Years prior to my connection with
the theatre an awful tragedy in real
life had been enacted on the stage and
in presence of the assembled audience,
an incident in the play serving for the
perpetratlon of q crime, and which the
lockers on mistook for fiction.
"Among the company engaged at
the time were q husband and wife, the
former holding, in stage parlance, the
position of Juvenile man, the latter
that of leading lady. The man was
remarkably handsome; in fact, a per-
feet Adonis in form and feature. The
woman, though a fine actress, was
only passably good looking. She was
intolerantly jealous of her spouse-a
jealousy so keen that it approached
insanity. It was said that the hus-
band had given but little causef for this
feeling, and that she fancied wrongs to
feed upon. An anonymous CORE
spondent, an enemy TO both, had made
her believe an intrigue existed between
her husband and a well-known society
lady OF the city, and so wrought on
her feelings that, in her mind, nothing
but the death OF one or both could sat
isfy her.
cat this time play was being pro-
duced at the theater in which the wife
had Ia character) to stab her husband
to death, jealousy singular to say, be-
ing the cause, it was Saturday night
and the last of the production, but
the curtain fell on truly bloody
ending, and the mimic tragedy had
been an awful reality, for there prone
upon the stage was the husband with
blood streaming from O dreadful
wound, and ON the floor, were he fell,
was a crimson-stained knife. The wife
had disappeared. Search was made for
her, but it was of no avail. She had
jumped from the back of the stage to
the ground, ten feet below, scaled
three fences; and made her escape
What became of her after I never
heard. The wounded man was assist
ed to his dressing-room, situated at
the foot OF the stairway leading to the
street and directly opposite the exit
door. In that room seated in chair
he bled to death. The murder created
considerable excitement at the time,
especially in theatrical circles, in which
| both man and woman were we'll kr1wn;
and that one particular room seemed
to have q strange fascination for each
new company, for it was said the
bloodstained floor could never be
cleansed.
For some years after this crime it
was found extremely difficult to keep
a watchman about the place-one aft.
er another they would depart, some
quietly, ashamed OF their fears, others
loud-spoken as to the CHASTITY figure
of a blood-stained man with knife in
his ribs, who would wander beneath
and about the stage. This lasted up
to the season when Mr.. Field took the
theater, and he was at his wits end
how to keep a watchman. One day
he saw in q morning newspa-
per the announcement of the ar
rival of an emigrant ship from Ger.
many and it struck him as a good
idea to try and find among the home
less Germans q candidate for the po-
sition of watchman of the Mobile
theater. With the assistance of a
German friend he succeeded, and
brought back q stout young fellow
speaking nothing but his mother
tongue. A member of the company,
a fellow countryman, explained the
simple duties. but with no word of
thespast crime, and it is as certain as
death that the new watchman knew
nothing of it when left that night in
quiet possession of the theater. At
2 O'Clock the next morning the city
watchman on that beat saw man
with blanched cheeks and staring eye
balls rush from the stage door Shrek
ing loudly: 'Mein Gott in Himmel
Elm mann wird drinnen ungebracht'
MY God in Heaven! There is a man
murdered in there.) This, on my
word. is an entirely true tale"