The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-02-26
Gus Pennoyer's Ghost story

Interview IN Philadelphia News.
MANY years ago, i will notsav ~.
many, for no law compels a mar i
criminate himself, / held the humbla
position OF call boy in the Mobile m.
alter, long since destroyed by fire "A
Of which Mr. j. w. Field tnow decaoa
ed), the father of the Unknown ona
popular Kate Field, was mana.a.
Years prior to my connection With
the theatre an awful tragedy in real
life had been enacted on the stage ana
in presence OF the assembled audience
a nmcident in the play serving for the
preparation of a crime, and which tba
lockers IN mistook for fiction.
"Among the company engaged 81
the time were a husband and wife Az
former holding, in stage parlance, ths
position of juvenile man, the Latter
that of leading lady. The nan Was
remarkably handsome; in fact. d nor,
feet Adonis in form and feature. Tha
woman, though a fine actress was
only passably good looking. She was
intolerantly jealous of her Spouse
jealousy so keen that it approached
insanity. 1t was said that the hrs.
band had given butlittle causefor this
feeling, and that she fancied WRONGS ~
feed upon. An anonymous CORE.
spondent,an enemy toboth, hadmada
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.
"At this time a play was being pro.
duced at the theater in which the wife
had la 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 q truly bloody
ending, and the mimic tragedy had
been an awful reality, for there prone
Upon the stage was the husband with
God streaming from a dreadful
.,ound, and on the floor, were he fell,
was a crimson-stained knife. The wife
had disappeared. Search was madefor
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 / never
heard, The wounded mar 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 a chair
he bled to death. The murder created
considerable excitement at the time,
especially in theatrical circles, in which
both man and woman were well known;
and that n particular room seemed
to have a strange fascination fer 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 Waterman 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 a knife in
HIS ElUS, WHO WOuIu W6hdCh DChCO
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 q Waterman. One day
he saw in a morning newspa-
per the announcement OF the ar
rival of an emigrant ship from Ger.
many and it struck him as q good
idea to try and find among the home
less Germans q candidate for the po-
sition of Waterman of the Mobile
theater. With the assistance OF @
German friend he succeeded, and
brought back q stout young fellow
speaking nothing but his mother
tongue. A member of the company,
q fellow countryman, explained the
simple duties, but with no word OF
the past crime, and it is as certain as
death that the new Waterman knew
nothing of it when left that night m
quiet possession of the theater. At
2 o'clock the next morning the city
Waterman on that beat saw q man
with blanched cheeks and staring eye
balls rush from the stage door shrek
ing loudly: sMein Gott in Himmei!
Elm mann wird drinnen ungebracht'
my God in HeavenI There is a man
murdered in there.) This, on my
word, is an entirely true tale