Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-05-09
A ROMANCE OF THE theatre.
Nellie Wilton Perjured Herself But She Wasn't
Happier for 1t.

a hOAANIE ldE THEA l..
Nellie Wilton PerJured Herself But She Wasnr
Happier for 1t.
Dashing Jack Walton stood six feet one
and was the personifcation of PLUCK
good nature, strength and physical beauty
Besides being Incidentally fgood looking
Jack had one talent-he had a capita
memory. For the last three years of his
school life he had been the show boy al
what they termed recitstions, at which
the parents and guardians and friends
and relatives of the pupils used to assist
Jack had no available property-he Ger
talnly had no expectations. As for his
character, Jack was as weak as water, he
was free from vice and was fond of q
pretty face and pretty figure in boy
ISL, sentimental sort of a way.
At the age of nineteen Jack ran away
from his home to try the stage. He OBJ
tanned an engeg ement at once as general
utility at dirty little theatre In the min
ing districts. How Jack Walton managed
to keep his small soul and his big body
together on fifteen shillings a week, /
don't know. 1 fancy he must have vince
died his landladies.
And now Jack made an ass of himself
he married the Columbine at the dirty lit
I'll. theatre-a well developed young per
son, who couldn't write her owa name, and
spoke of him as "my mon." It was rath-
er to Jacks credit, perhaps, that he did
marry her, but his professional friends
unanimously agreed that he had made an
ass of himself. And so he had, for Miss
Vavsssor was innately vicious, and Miss
Vavassor was fond of drink. Jacks six
months experience of married life was
cot happy one, it ended, as love mar
rlages often do end, in the lady running
away. She left him short, i'll spelled
note, written for her by somebody else,
in which she informed him that she
should never see his face again; but she
didn't leave him his watch and chain,
which were the only articles of value ne
possessed in the world.
Poor Jack did not pursue the fugitive;
he couldn't, poor devil, for he had not a
farthing in the world. Jack stuck to his
profession, and he gradually worked his
way up; he was "quick study" and of
commanding presesce, and after five years
he became leading man in a respectable
theatre in the north. One thing Jack
Walton had learned by his early expert
ences, and that was thrift. We should all re-
spect the man who has squared the cir
Gle, for he certainly had accom- plished the
apparently impossible in supporting him
self and wife-and they both had fine
healthy appetites-on his miserable salary
of fifteen shiIliBgs a week. But Jack
Walton, as a bachelor, as a principal
tragedian, at three pound ten week, paid
regularly was wealthy man. Whether
Miss Vavassor was dead or alive Jack did
not know; he had ceased to think of her,
and his short existence of married misery
had passed away from his mind, like a
fevered dream. Jack worked hard, and
he made himself very useful; he stuck to
old Brewer, his manager, like trump.
fear his consistency was not altogether
disinterested.
The lodestone which kept this needle
faithful to it's pole. the pole being old
Brewer, was the old mans pretty daughter
Nellie. All the Brewer family were in the
profession, and five sons and three
daughters in themselves make powerful
company. Old Brewer as King Lear,
Mrs. Brewer as Lady Macbeth, and pretty,
blonde, blue-eyed Nellie as anything you
please to mention, from Ophelis to a
fairy queen or pretty, pert prince of
girI), where each and ali of them a GER
tain draw. I need not say that Nellie
Brewer was thoroughly good girI-girl's
born and bred upon the boards of the
alter, reared IN, SO to say, the atmosphere
of gas and orange peel, always are.
When two young people make love to
each other professionally all the year
round, they generally end by falling in
love in reality. They did not talk about
it, but it came to them as a most patural
thing in life, and the only people who
did not seem to see it were the Brewers
themselves Had Lady Macbeth had
any inkling of the fact she certainly
would have urged her husband to have
sent Jack Walton about his business, and
though it would have cost old Brewer
some trouble, and certainly another two
pounds week to have replaced Jack, he
would not have hesitated an instant, for
Brewer was, in his way, ambitious. The
dream of his life was to see his daugh-
tiers married well. He would say in his
excitement to the faithful Jack, when
pretty Nellie had been called for the third
time before the curtain:
sThat girl will drive her carriage yet,
Mr.. Walton" (they are always very polite
in the profession, and "Mister" each 9th
er a good deaD. at isn't only good
looks you see, my boy-it's good looks
and talent combined; it's the combina-
ton chat does it, sir; we seldom see the
combination nowadays, Mr.. Walton. She'll
drive her carriage yet"
81 sincerely trust she may" replied
Jack, with becoming humility. And as
that artful hypocrite, Jack Walton, was
quite determined that pr city Nellie should
be the future Mrs. Jack, there could be
very little doubt of the sincerity be pro-
fessed, though how she should ever drive
her carriage as Mrs. John Walton, save
by some extraordinary turn of fortunes
wheel, was rather difficult problem.
Though Jack Walton had never for
mally proposed to Nellie, and had never
breathed word of love to her except On
the stage, yet fancied the pair under
stood each others feelings, for
Jack, except on the stage, was the most
difficent of men. He had never even pro
posed to the forgotten Miss Vavassor; on
the contrary, that illiterate but bold-eYed
young woman had proposed to and mar
ried him, and he had submitted, poor boy,
out of pure weakness and good nature.
The great Miss Bellaston had come
down TO "star" for week. The great
Miss Beliaston wa clever, and was far
too great to be anything but star. Miss
BelIaston was never out of an engage
ment. During the London season she
played high tragedy; but during the
greater position of the year she blazed as
a bright and particular star at the var
ious provincial theatres Of the United
Kingdom. It must be confessed that in
town she often played to empty benck-s.
but she was a certain draw in the provin-
ces. She had a very comfortable income,