, 1890-05-22
THE OIL WELL DRAMA.
RemInisceeces of TragediRn Keene Among
the PennsyIvania Miners.

RemInIsceeees o. Tragedian Keene Among
the Pennsylvania Miners
when an actor gets to be as old as
l am he forgets many things" OBJ
served Thomas w. Keene, the TRACE
dian, as he sat in the corridor Of the
Hotel Anderson, but if / should live
to be as old as the traditions of Mem
non l could never come to P~ittsburg
without recalling the days of 1867 and
1868, when / played in the stock com
pany with 10 Seton in the building
which stood where Harris theatre 10Y
stands. There were 10 Seton and his
wife, Annie Seton, and Mrs. lie For
rest and Oliver Doud Byron and the
O'Neil girls in the company, but Seton
himself was the central figure.
After the regular season Seton
would send me outi in the oil regions
starring. was playing Hamlet, Mac
beth and Richard III then for the
princely salary of $40 a week and fur
nishing my W wardrobe. l remem-
Der well the first town we struck after
leaving Pittsburg. 1t was Pleasant
vile. By the way, there was a Pitts
burg boy along with us named Harri-
son, o in the glass business, | un
derstand. But moro of him anon.
well we reached Pleasantville.
Alighting from the train l walked
around and could discern only two
buildings, one evidently a hotel, the
other a store.
" Where is the theatref asked Of
a man who seemed to comprise the
population of Pleasantville.
" 1T will be acre all right by the
time you are ready to play this even
ing replied the population, coolly.
+" Well, but where are the people TO
play tot
" oh, they'll be here all right
81 took his word for it Indeed, that
seemed to be the only thing in the vi
cinity to take, and | had to be satisfied
with IL My confidence was not misplac-
ed, either, for along in the afternoon
came a number of diggeHs from Rouse
vile, where the wells had played out,
bringing the theatre with them, along
with their tools and other baggage. Ii
took them less than an hour to rap up
the light board shell which constitut
ed their Temple Of Thcspis. So, there
was my theatre. But | was still at "A
loss to know where my audience vas
coming from with only two houses in
view.
Might came on, however, and a
sight was presented to u poor and
hungry actor that hc will never forget.
Out rom behind the dcrricks, along
tie little hills twinklcd an apparently
nuumerlblc number Of lanterns,
From places where one would never
dream Of a human habitation thronged
the hardy miners. and long before !
was ready to Nurp upon the stage there
were 600 81 1ol people in the theatre.
"Nrll. wrgavc Them Richard, and
IA more enthusiastic audience you
never SAY had sent TO "a tinshop in
Htusyillr for sonc sheets of lin from
which we cut liltla circular pieces and
fashioned oar urmors, aud tell YOU
Richmond and tae CrnDkback showed
up rs glittcring warriors. That night
was nil right But the next we cs
snycd Hamlet and that was Il mistake.
'Tlie miners bad pitched our thea
tire oyer a little brook. Heavy rains
during the forenoon had swollen the
stream. and 10 the scene where Laertes
jumps into the grave of Ophelia we
had a catastrophe. Young Harrison,
Of riti,nurg, whom | mentioned, was
f]aertes The trlpdoor in the floor
Wls open for the grave, Laertes took
his d, pirate jump. There was a
splash. a cry aud a scream from the
audience. Laertes had Immersed him
<clr IN the swollen stream, and it took
the efforts OF half the audience to res
ae him from his watcry grave before
ne could % on with the performance.
There were n number of little mis-
nuus like this. but, Notwithstanding
chem, we played to good business in
he oil settlement for forty-thrcc weeks
aud when we came back to Pittsburg
% Seton made me "A present Of 5000 in
addition 10 my salary, which was more
money than ! had ever seen together
before. P~ittsburg Dispatch.