Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-26


nv good friend. Christmas is coming
es,Christmas is coming, aud a special
bill Is ordered to be got reedy for the
matinee that day. The sensational
me lodrama was proving such popular
attraction that there was no necessity to
make any change in the night bill, but
the manager thought there ought TO be
special bill for the matinee to please the
children and ladies. The manager was
white paper manufacturer, and knew
very little about theatres or their man.
agement. but be liked the business and
proved himself to be a good financial
manager, and with Johns advice and
assistance he did not make many mis-
takes or bother himself about affairs be-
hind the curtain.
When the change of bill was ordered
John decided the play should be some
thing appropriate to the occasion, and he
adapted a domestic story of the profit
gates return on the occasion OF the holi-
day merry-making, calling his play ''The
Christmas Tree" and introducing one,
which the shrewd speculative manager
filled with presents bought in Job lots at
auction and presented TO the children in
the audience. John did not let the man.
sger know the play was original with
him or the other would have objected to
the experiment of the production; and as
lots OF cheap presents was consumed on
the occasion in question, there never was
second performance of 1.-The Christmas
Tree" so that the manager does not know
to this day that the work was original
with modest John Downs. John fire.
quently permitted himself to indulge in
dramatic composition, the dramatIzing
of emotional stories that he and his wife
had read together or to one another, and
he frequently produced these, but none
ever achieved the success he anticipated,
and so he never acknowledged them. This
clandestine authorship and ambition was
an amiable weakness of Johns but a
carefully preserved secret between him.
self and his wife.
In these plays John always wrote the
leading or strong parts for himself or his
wife; the part. rather than the play, is the
thing in an actors estimation.
In "The Christmas Tree" which was
in three acts, John and Betsy, as a pros
porous middle-aged couple, surrounded
by their children and grandchildren, and
only needing the return of the prohigate
son to fill the measure of their happiness,
had parts well calculated to display their
respective abilities.
Johns character was his own; a good
natured, jolly old gentleman, who was
never happier than when seated by his
fire side. surrounded by his
little ones, with the baby on his knee;
while his good wife, seated opposite, had
the next youngest on her lap. l need not
her, and that she was companion picture
to her husband In the domestic scene OF the
play.
AS may he imagined, the baby was to
play an important part In the piece, al
though il was not expected to utter a
word or scream, only to keep quiet and
allow itself to be affectionately dandled
by the gleetul John, CLICKED to and
chucked under the chin, and all such
by play.
The E'baby" was to be supplied by the
wife of the low comedian Of the company,
and if the truth was known John decided
to put up the piece more for the pleasure
he anticipated deriving from fooling with
the infantile specimen OF humanity than
to crafty his personal ambition. He
would not only have the baby on the oc-
casion of the performance, but at the
rehearsals, and it was a great joy TO him;
for the baby that had almost been born in
the wings toward the close of the pre-
vious season, had been reared Ia the
greeDroom, aud from the first manifested
a marked preference for him, going to his
extended arms sooner than any one else's,
all OF which. 1t is needless to say, pleased
him very much.
Betsy shared Johns fondness for child
rem, and tears flooded into the eyes OF both
of them whenever in the solitude OF the
twilight they would converse about their
own little ones lying asleep In the rural
graveyard across the water.
Betsy, too, was equally fond OF this
little baby and not at all jealous that she
i've neglected to state, come to think
of it that 1t was little girl-preferred
John, and scarcely a day passed that che
and John did not bestow some sweetmeats
1x-I oh Lot 4
mothers lay in the greenroom during
rehearsal or repesed in her cradle in the
dressing room.
That year Christmas came on Sunday,
and, of course, the popular celebration
occurred on n onday.
John and Betsy had managed their
usual Sunday night reception, and on
leaving the theatre Saturday evening all
the people, even the stage hands, had
promised "Pop" they would look in on
MIN and the wife the next evening.
The last rehearsal on Friday morning
the matinee Saturday prevented one
that morning-had been so satisfactory
scenic artist and stage carpenter were
alike ready, that it was not considered
necessary to have final one Sunday, and
all the little colony employed in the
theatre, and comprising JoOn and Betsy's
little world, retired in blissful anticipa-
ton OF the morrow. or jolly Sunday
evening and OF successful production
on Monday afternoon.
would like to record that all these
bissiul anticipations were realized, but
truth compels me to state that the sud
den illness of the baby next morning
threw the little colony, which.
as If feeling its independence OF
the bustlng, active outside world, of re-
alities rather than shadows had nestled
together in the immediate neighborhood
OF the theatre, into general and sincere
sorrow.
The baby had caught cold either in the
draity region behind the scenes or In be-
ing transported home at midnight, and
the next morning developed a severe case
OF Group.
John was the first in attendance, Betsy
passed the day with the mother and father,
until towards the afternoon the doctor
pronounced the bah, out OF danger. or
course IT was decided at once that the
baby could not be introduced In the play,
and during the afternoon John in vain
looked about the neigh borhood for n sub.
stitute, but one OF the right age could not
be found.
"Ob, don't worry now" said Betsy,
'don't worry about this. Tomorrow
morning I'll make good seerch. and
Pll be bound Pll find nice little baby for
you'll"
"All right, wife; all right, wife" John
replied as be busted himself with his share
OF the preparations for the eveninG-the