Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-29
MUSIC AND DRAMA.
REAL BURGLARS ENGAGED IN THE
sTowAwAY COMPANY.
''The Burglars" Demurrer-aIista, 10
My Tale of Woe"-FIashes From
Many Footlights.

round which all other evils cluster Some
have been more lenient and claimed that
1t could be quite harmless, and some again
have seen in it something which might be
called good in semi-educational sense.
But even its most sanguIne admirers have
not thought of it in the light of a reforma-
tory institution, and yet such it may be-
come. In fact, the transformation has
already begun. The scenes are being
shifted, as it were, in preparation for the
great act. One crime-stained mortal has
turned from his evil ways and sought
peace and honest future on the stage. He
is one of the real bank burglars who ap-
pear in "The Stowaway," doing on the
stage, for the sake of realism, Just what he
has spent years In prison for doing in real
life. He says of himself:
"My name is Spike Hennessey That
is not my right name. | was born in Bos
ton, and my parents live there still. |
learned the trade of a machinIst in the
Charlestown Navy Yard there. l was get
ting along nicely when l fell in with a
party of young fellows about my own age.
and then began to dissipate. finally lost
my job in the navy yard, and, after look
ing all over for work for weeks, l became
desperate and one night, in company of
two Others, | determined to try my skill
on safe. A place-a large furniture
store on Washington street-was selected,
and | was so successful that / opened four
others in about ten days in different sec
tions of the city. The sixth one was fate
full. Three of US entered the place, and,
after unsuccessfully opening the safe, were
in the act of escaping, when, through the
carlessness of the outside man in not Civ
ing US the signal that all was safe, two of
US were arrested, and under an assumed
name was sentenced to five years in the
Massachusetts Penitentiary on November
10, 1880. / served four years and three
months, and was discharged from there on
February 10, 1885. worked at my trade
while in prison, and it was there that l
met my partner, Kid Mccoy, alias
Limpy, the Blk who is now working
with me. He was doing three years for
participation in burglary on Devonshire
street. His sentence expired three days after
mine, and | arranged with him to come
over 20 New York and see if we could get
work, but we were foiled in this, and after
spending what little money we had we
started in at the safe-blowing business
again. We were not so successful in New
York as we were in Boston, and we were
arrested on our first attempt. We had
blown large safe in the rear of big dry
goods store on Eighth avenue, only to find
nothing in it. We were disgusted. and
hearing a noise overhead, ran through the
hall out on the sidewalk and around the
corner. When arrested no tools were found
on us, and no one saw us enter the house,
but woman who lived over the store
said she saw US standing in a doorway
about half an hour before she heard the
explosion down stairs. Upon this evil
deuce we were committed for trial, and
fearing that Inspector Byrnes' detectives
might get our record, we took a plea in the
Court of General Sessions before Judge
Gildersleeve; and / was sentenced with my
partner to four years in Sing Sing prison.
l was discharged on June II, 1888, having
earned one year for good conduct. l
worked in the shoeshops, but after the
contract was abolished by the Legislature
| went into the machine or jobbing shops,
and remained there until my discharge.
My partner here was not discharged until
September, he having lost three months
of his shoot time for infractions of the
prison rules.
II then went to New York and worked
in the Delemater Iron Works until my
partners time was out, when | left, as we
had fully determined to return to our peo-
pie in Boston and sin no more. Seven
years and three months satisfied me that as
a safe blower | might have been a success,
but in getting away after my work was
done | was failure.
at was in conversation with a theatri-
cal friend of mine that learned that Mr..
Davis, the manager of the 'Stowaway'
Company wanted some one to blow safe
in the second act of the play, and l made
application for the place When l told
Mr.. Davis that had only a short time
before come home from prison he did not
take kindly to me, but when my theatrical
friend satisfied him that his company's
jewels would not be molested, he employed
me. l nope you will not try to hunt up
my previous record any further, as 1 shall
never do a criminal act again. Perhaps
my debut on the stage as safe blower
may be an entering wedge to new and
successful career as an actor"
The truth of "Spike's" little auto
biography cannot be questioned, as it may be
in many of the most important particulars
verified by the records of the prisons where
he has 'done time," and the story is
vouched for by Inspector Byrnes, Chief of
Police of New York. Should this new de-
parture in stage realism "catch on" peni-
tentiaries and reformatories will shrink
amazingly, and the growth of the theater-
going public will be marvellous, for every
good Christian will feel it his duty to
patronize literally the notwithstanding
shows, so as to prevent their disbanding on
the road and the consequent necessity for
the criminals to go back to their old,
wicked ways in order to get home again.
"THE BURGLARS DEMURRER.
The members of "The Burglar" Com
pany at the Madison Square Theater, New
York, are having considerable quiet
amusement at the expense of one of their
number, Sidney Drew, who was married
to Dido" Rankin few days ago. Mrs.
Drew stood in the wings during the fourth
dCt, tue otlieI evening, Watching neT nus
band as he played what is, in way, his
strongest scene. Maurice Barrymore, as
the burglar, lying in big armchair in the
center of the stage, asked to see his child
once more.
Not in the presence of the mother"
said Drew, following the lines of the play.
" 1t is, perhaps, best that the child should
not associate with Alice and Will"
" Perhaps you are right, Ned" Barry
more replied.
Drew "cut" the line which the author
wrote, and, saying instead, II am always
right" started to go up the stage. But
Barrymore clung to his hand, and, in the
agony of the burglars death scene, gasped,
"Not always, Ned; not always" This sent
everybody on the stage to the "about
face" and provoked laugh at Drew's ex-
pense.
81 was obliged to make that remark for
your sake, Mrs. Drew" Barrymore ex-
planned, when the curtain had fallen.
Sidney was trying to put himself on rec
ord, and it would never do to allow his as
sertion that he was always right to go un-
contradicted in your presence, and before
you have been married a week."
Everybody knows that Barrymore and
Drew are brothers-in-law, but the former
dislikes to be mentioned as anybody's kins-
man by virtue of marriage. Once some-
badv in ir1tr0ducino hin, IN :, friord s,,oI, q