The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-05-20
LOTS OF FUN Foz BERNHARDr.
she Sees Prize Fight and Raises the
Dickens in Chinatown.
From The Net0 York sun.

hardE mas D0Sn HAflDk LnS LVeueSU time
during her short stay in this city Of all her
American experiences. If she had sold
tickets 10 her performances off the stage
she would have made more money than her
managers gathered into the box office
For Sarah has not had to depend
on her own fertile imagination alone to
think Of unusual and striking things to do.
She has been aided and abetied throughout
Sam Davis Of Carson, New, who edits the
most wildly original paper in the whole
United States and can think Of more prac-
ticaI Jokes, invent more grotesque notions.
and set forth more droH and unctuous ideas
than any other man Of his weight this side
of the Atlantic.
Mrs. Langtry had an experience once
with this same Sam Davis She wanted to
buy some land in Carson-it was during
her mania for buying real estate of some
kind wherever she pleyed-and he offered
TO sell part of his sage-brush ranch, not be-
cause he wanted to get rid of it, he told her,
but because he wanted TO treat her we'll.
Then the stage call sounded aud she rushed
off to play the statue scene in "Galatea "
telling him to have map made Of the land
He made a rough charcoal sketch, and
held it up in the wings while she posed
as the statue. Then he called out to her in
a stage whisper:
This is the forty l told you about. II
YOU don't want it, shake your head" He
waited moment and then added, Sold
He held the actress to the bargain, but
made amends to her afterward by discover
ing silver on her land-ln the Associated
Press dispatches.
Davis was sent to meet the Bernhardt
train in Nevada by q San Francisco
newspaper, and as Sarah happened to
jolly time. Sam taught her the cowboy
Yell and the Indian warw hoop, and
whenever they passed through a town
Sarah stood on the back platform and
saIuted it with ringing shout, which made
the startled inhabitants think that all the
Piutes in the state were about to swoop
down on them. Occasionally they varied
the monotony of things by going into the
car occupied by the other members of the
company and getting up a sham battle
with biscuits
In San Francisco Davis got up sparring
match for her benefit. 1t was given in q
song and dance hall, after her first
Cleopatra" performance, and Bernhardt
and few members Of her company, to-
gether with some invited guests, viewed the
affair from the wings. The house had been
cleared, and behind drawn curtain Gillen
and Sweeney, two local light weights,
strutted and fought with a full apprecia-
ton of the honor of the OCCASION. They
pummelled each other in good earnest, and
were soon well splashed with blood. Then
one of the ladies Of the Bernhardt COM
pany tainted and had to be carried out
bodily.
Mime. Sarah watched the fight with
breathless interest, her eyes sparkling and
her hands nervously clutching her dress
1t would have been evident from the ex-
preston of her face and figure that she
understood the science that was being ex-
emphhed for her benefit and appreciated all
the points, even if she had not told one sit
ting near her that she had seen "many,
many fights" She got highly excited over
the contest. and finally had to leave before
it was over, because it made her heart
beat so fast"
Beenhardt went through Chinatown, Of
course, and game a performance at the
Chinese theater, which those who saw
wouldn't have missed for 800 seat. In
the course Of her wanderings through
Chinatown she found the leading man Of
one Of the thsaters, and told him she wanted
an engagement. They argued and dickered
over the terms for o quarter Of an hour,
she demanding go per cent. and the Mongol
refusing to pay more than 40 per cent
They jabbered away, she in French and he
In Chinese, in the most serious aud, excited
way, everything each one said having to be
translated by two interpreters before it was
understood by the other. The pantomime.
acting, and by-play of the Chinaman were
almost equal TO her own, and delighted her
so much that she clapped her hands enthu,
siastically and demanded of her leading
man:
why can't you be as natural as that2'
They finally compromised at 45 per cent,
and Sarah was shown to her dressing room,
whence she soon emerged in Celestial robes.
Then she refused to begin unless she had her
money in adyance-"a la Patti" she ex-
pressed it. So collection was taken mp,
which amounted to IS cents. Fer 45 per
cent. was handed to her, and she announced
that she was ready for toe orchestra to be-
gin. When the Chinaman explained that
the orchestra was scattered around through
dozen or so opium dens, she said it didn't
matter-that she would be her own
orchestra.
She had heard the orchestra several years
before, when she was first here, and the
exhibition she Immediately gave OF her
powers of memory and mimicry was simply
wonderful. Sho opened her mouth and let
forth volume of sound that initiated TO
the life the wailing, jumbled music, and
wheezy, hating passages Of a Chinese or
chestra and made the two or three China
men present hold their sides with laughter,
while their eyes stuck out with wonder.
Then she sent the house into commissions
with a Chinese dance, keeping up the or
chestra at the same time. Even the men,
peLS Oh neT company, accustomed as JDeY
are to her freaks and antics, screamed with
delight, stamped and clapped their hands.
Then she seized Big sword, swung it
around her head, and made for the Chinese
leading man. Her eyes CLEANED, and she
made such furious pantomime that he
shrank back little in actual fear. She
made one bound toward him, like tigress,
and let out such howl of rage that he fell
backward among the props in abject hor-
ror.
. after the performance she went all
through the quarter, penetrating TO all the
olrtiest, vilest and most ill-smelling corners,
ana insisting upon being taken into every
hole from which came a worse assortment
Vi doors than usual. She bought a couple
" nighninders' cutlasses, presented one to
n9E IeSolng man, and herself fourished the
Cther In the face of every Chinaman
sne met. She darted up dark alleys
d uozen yards ahead of any one
eiSe, even Of the guides; she tucked up her
sAlrts and slid down into sinking dives
rom Which every one else fell back, calling
10 Cnem gleefully to ''come on, it was a
s9Veiy place, and altogether led the party
slch merry dance than even the men
we're tired out and hoping that she would
uesist long before she consented to forego
any Inrther explorations. And even then
SIe seemed as tireless, fresh and interested
q "uen they first started out.
IL was nearly 4 O'Clock in the morning !;
sue mad given performance that evening,