Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-11-25
/, ELOQUENCE OF RAGS.
SroRTEs ABOUT STAGE COSTUMES PROM
HARRINGTON AND CHARLEY REED.
Exploring Baxter Street. Castle Garden and
0hsr Regions Where Human Nature
Is Clothed IN Characteristic Tatters
", Y. World.

time Of Queen Elizsoetn OF o. h'u'' Az
IN the stage with all its buttons eHcktss
and fr.lIs. his wig, his sword and his other
belonging All the theatrical msrSger
has to do is to indicate his wishes for the
ocurtier's costume to tnestricsl cossumer
and that accommodating tra6esman grinds
Il ont or p,iu6s oat dozen Of them, and
they drop upon the 'or Of the Manager
Cfice like hooks INN PNntlng press
But when Hairigsn or CaaIiel tceeo, VINO
ia the central sLd picturesque hSure
in a Brass Monkey" at pres
ont wants to place before the
nnblic a char ct,r drawn ttom ire
,wer walks of modern life, tie securing CT
a suitable costume in any such SIM q and
,o,om,,c;aI way is GU of the qpe 'hen
Tnere is no erttamsr IN the c5ultry wto
Vrinds cut character cosiu mes, or could do
II IL he I led. Ths comedian himself mas
4, On ont into the world and hunt for what
ha wants Sometimes he conduC:saFe rch
nj DAYS aad weeks before he lights on the
,,oyn,snt a that meet bis idea and hIa lceai,
ard when he SEES them, very 1'equen!Iy
fbsv cannot bs purchased, snd 10 secure
them l5 II - I'd lc5JAs " Sh.s'N' 81
NED HARRIGAS SEARCHING THE sLCMs
Some Of tie adventures of Eiwa:d
Harrizan sud Charlie Red, IN thtlr pursalt
of picturesque al Characteristic rs g, Fave
hen exsrpmel 2 interesting mere loteres.-
irg'perhaps in the telling Of thsm now tnah
10 tie actual exp r.enCe. Bat theresult YES
nrcb b,y worth AL the trouble. When
fbty scored what they were looklng for
tbey added On element Of attr2c:iveness to
their stl p'ctarls which more than COM
peusated them for th:ir labor aud more
than made up 70 than their lnatlilty 10
advertise en- their three s5est posters that
the new pay would be produced VITA
I'new ard elegant costumes,
"The vArious psrta CT ny OLD Lavender
costume " said Ned Harrigap, were gath
e-ed from various sources. The hat, whca
must have been fifty ec sixty yeas old,
was discovered By Dan Colyer in little
old curiosity shop on one OF ,h9 back
streets of Syracuse. This was remarkable
from tie fact that actors when on the ROAD
rsrely leave the street on which tie hotel
and theatre are situated. What lmpelled
Dan 10 90 prowliDg down thst dlItg Little
hack street is q mystery to himself, but
the moment he Cl1rpel his eyes on ira
hat he knew it was just the thing | want
ed for Lavender, and he lost no time in
securing it.
Tine coat discovered in a Baxter
street pawrshop. The pIopri:tor Ene"
me and saw that I wanted the Co1t badly
In consequence had to give him soou'
double the quantity Of the usua! s1rg and
d4rce between counter and street dolr
The pants we're brought ia by one of tie
bows of the theatre who had bought them
of a beggar lie met on Xth avenue.
had everything but the shoes, srd couldn't
fiud what wanted. To be perfectly can
did. I didn't exactly know wha. l. did
want. Ole day stopped to watch some
haasons at work in the Ninth ward
Every one knows me down there and
one of them came over to speak to me
Ths minute | saw his stOoS / was nc
longer in doubt as to what l was locking
for. Tne peculiar color give1 to his shoej
by the lime made them just what Wal
needed for the part
What will you sell your shoes for p
asked.
" 'pd give them to you if l had another
pair 10 wear home, he good nat Iredly re
plied. I took him to q shoe store anC
boupht him new pair of shoes. These be
wore back to work while walked of with
his old ones.
''Thae ara forty people in my company
and 112 employed in the ujlding. Every
one has instructions to keep constantly or
the watch for character costumes, secur,
them and bring them to me to look at. a
good many Of my cd supers from the first
Theatre ComiGue are ktill with me, and
tuev work for the most part around the
markets in the lower wards during tie
day. There is no place in the city that
affords such variety of character as these
old markets, and am constantly gettio9
old garmrnts in this way which are worth
nearly their weight in g)ld. When / have
new pie,e in rehearsal l irs'rIct every
man on the stage just how he
is 70 dress his part and then
make him get out and hunt for bis
costume. Wnen he thinks hs hiss scared
the right thing he briug3 it to nee. II
happens very often that man will bring
in something rot suited for his part, but
which is just the thing for some other
character. I always inspect everything
carefully and then apportion the costumes.
by having these people hunt up the
costumes l am saved on enormous amount
of labor. In the old days Tony aud
spent more time huatiUg fer costume;
than anything else. We probably had tn:
finest collection Of character costumes 10
the world 1t was the accumulation Of
seven or eight years and was totally de
stroyed by the burning Of tEeNew Theatre
Comiqus, 7i6 Broadway. We also lost
the costumes Of "The Blackbird" which
cost us from $4,000 to Slz, 600 in cold
cash. Bat we gave no thought to that. A
little money would replace those. Bui
all tie money in the world
could not replace Cur collection
Of curious and rsgged Cd clothes
which represented many years Of Clreful
search. Clothes of course bought from
immigrants or negroes aie apt to be dan
gecous. We have a place on the roo
where we boil these clothes and ther
spread them in the SUI to dry.
AFTER AN IRISH PEDAG0GJE'S. COAT.
TO illustrats the difficulty in iuding
garments for peculiar characters, here is O
else in point For the last three Il OrthS
have been securing the city for en- old fash
toned Irish re1sgogue's cost, and have nOt
s1ccseded in finding anything neag like
what l want l have left no 81 me IN
turned and have even stationed man IL
Castle Gaydeu.
"a friend OF mi ne named Nolan visited
Ireland this sumGe-. B-fOre he left
asked him t. lo,k around and see if BIT
could not discover 4 cca. to s1it ne. No,
lan's adventure in search of this eeat, a,
he afterwards related tfem, were very
amusing. He visited half 4 dozen small