St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-11
THE spoUTER.

When we come to the spouter we en-
counter the perfected vice of elocution.
The spouter is usually middle-aged and
says, ''Give me the 6agger!' at the slight
est provocation. She is cultural, grandi-
| ose and grave. She was personally ac
quainted with Charlotte Cushman, who
privately told her some things that have
not yet been published. There are. how
ever, some young spouters, who have to be
watched continually. for if you leave chair
around loose they convert it into a balcony
when you are unprotected, and you must
not mention rose of any kind, not even
one of George Fawcett Rowe's, unless you
wish to be Informed with sobS that by any
other name it would smell as sweet which
is manifest abs1rdity-fancy it called
George Francis Train. for example.
At the last census there were 612 spout
ers of all ages between Fourteenth street
and Harlem on the mud. Some of them
have children who lisped in heroics before
they Tapped in the nursery. The queen
mother is supposed to be mature damsel
in Twenty street, who turns an honest
penny and fifteen stone by giving lessons
She plants about a hundred new disclaimers
in our parlors every year. They all have
| the same brand. They fold their arms up
under their chin. They drag the left toe
| perpendicularly on the carpet when they
walk; they have more lungs than logic.
| They remark things in a yolleying way, as
| if depth of voice were profundity Of
| thought. They make Shakesperaean OBJ
servations as il they were firing salute.
| When they want to ''kill you with much
! cherishing" they scare you little. You
| fancy Lille Devereux Blake and her UNI
brella are coming. They seem to have an
orthodox regard for the fall-not the fall Of
| the year. but the fall of the body, they are
always coming down like the waters did at
| LodOre-or that historic coon did before he
was asked They have given rise to the
popular phrase now applied to all tragic
| art. Take a tumble" To spout without
falling would be equivalent to rant with
| out rising.
The queen mother is Scared all over like
veteran where she has stuck herself on
loose carpet lacks and stray hairpins with
black beads Oh them.
| Whenever she spouts at Mr.. Solomon
Reithstags parties-whch is three times a
year-the male patrons of art go up in the
billiard-room until they hear crash. Then
| they come down and wiring everybody's
hands and remark: by heavens. the old
girl outdid herself tonight. That last
| leader was equal to Cushinan in her palmy
days" After that the old girl takes her
crown of amaranths and goes away in a
| coach, puts on some fresh vaseline and
hangs the trophy up in her recitation
room.
All her pupils try to initiate her "header, ,"
whatever else they may do They practice
hours diving at a spot in the carpet, rolling
off lounges, a la Davenport, OF rolling down
stairs la Mather, and finally they pound
the art into their bones, so that they can
with care and confusion plunge under a
table. drop backward off a piano stool or
hit a ive-cent piece on hearth rug with
| their chins and not disturb a Satsuma vase
or crack bric-a-brac.
Miss Nelson Nelson, who recently made
a successful fall of eight feet in the ''Po-i
ton Scene" before select committee of
society athletes and received testimonial
| for her tragic skill, was asked at the close
of the magnificent spectacle if a life Of
such toll in view and such intense applica-
| ton to her art did not make her blue.
She threw her head back with the grace
of an angel, and in tones that will never
| be forgotten, said:
blue? Yes, by st. Paul, black and
| blue! NYM CRINKLE.