, 1891-05-14
FUN FOR %BEREHARDT.
Sarah Takes a Night Off in
San Francisco.
Sees a Prize Fight and Visits
Chinatown.
Gives a Performance in One of
Their Theaters.

Bernhard has been having the ~liveliest
time during her short stay in this city of
all her American experiences. If she had
sold tickets to her performances of 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 abetted
throughout by Sam Davis of Carson,
New, who edits the most wildly original
paper in the whole United States and can
grotesdue notions, and set forth more
droll and unctIous 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 dur
ing the mania for buying real estate of
some kind wherever she played-and be
offered to sell her part OF his sage brush
ranch, not because he wanted to get rid
Of it, he told her, buC because he wanted
to treat her well. Then the stage call
sounded. and she rushed off to play the
statue scene 10 Gdldted, telling him to
have a 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 10 a stage whis-
per:
This is the forty | told YOU about If
you don't want it shake your head" lie
waited a moment and then added,
Sold. He held the actress to the bar
gain, but made amends to her afterward
by discovering silver on her land-in the
Associated Press dispatches.
Davis was sent TO meet the Bernhardt
train In Nevada by a San Francisco news
paper, and a. Sarah happened to be in
high spirits they had a very jolly time.
Sam taught her the cowboy yell and the
Indian warwhoop. and whenever they
passed through a town Sarah st lOd on the
back platform and saluted it with a ring
ing shout, which made the startled inhah-
itaOts think that all the Piutes in the
state were about to sweep down on them.
Occasionally they varied the monotony of
things by going into the cars occupied by
the other members of the company and
getting up a sham battle with biscuits.
In San Francisco Davis got up a spar
ring match for her benefit. IL was given
in a sonG and dance hall. alter her first
Cleopatra performance. and Bernhardt
and a few members OF her company, to-
gether with some invited guests. viewed
the affair from the wings. The house
bad been cleared. and behind a drawn
curtain Gillcn and sweeney, two local
light weights, strltted and fought with a
full appreciation of the honor OF the occa-
sion. They pummeled each other in good
aaFnnGF u ND mara nA- I'LL ,.I..l-l III.
blood. Theu one of the ladies OF the
Bernhardt company tainted and had to be
carried out bodily.
Nine. Sarah watched the fight with
breathless interest, her eyes sparkling and
her hands nervouslv clutching her dress.
1t would have been evident from the ex-
preston of her face and figure that she
understood the science hat was being ex.
emplitied for her benefit and appreciated
all the points, even if she had not told one
sitting near her that she had seen many,
many fights" She got highly excited
over the contest and finally had to leave
before 1t was over. because it made her
heart beat so fast.
Bernhardt went through Chinatown, of
course, and gave a performance at the
Chinese theatre, which those who saw
wouldn't lave missed for 500 a seat. In
the course OF her wanderings through
Chinatown she found the leading man of
one OF the theatres, and told him she
wanted an engagement. They argued
and dickered over the terms for a quarter
OF an hour, she demanding 60 per cent
and the Mongol refusing to pay more than
40 per cent. They adhered away, she
in French and he in Chinese, in the most
serious and 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 50
much that she clapped her hands enthusi-
a~stlcally and demanded of her leading
man:
Why can't you be as natural as that?"
They finally compromised at As 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
ADVANCE la Patti she expressed it.
So a collection was taken up, which
amounted 10 sIxty-6ye cents. Her As
per cent was handed to her and she
announced that she was ready for the
orchestra to begin. When the Chlnamau
explained that the orchestra was scattered
around through a 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. She opened her mout,!