The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-09


/ Il was IL at the beginning. The most in
/ portant thing about the Abbott kiss was
that il was no kiss al all The story came
/ up in this way: We were rehearsins part o =
I Paul and Virginia in her parlo- at the
I hotel H. New Orleaas. We wished 20 get
some new ending for the situation in which
4 Paul and Virginia separate as be 5 is out
for Paris and they swear eternal hde ity 70
each other. / suggested finally that ter
| we part that we turn and lock at each other
I ard then run into each others arms. She
liked the idea. At the performance at
night she, al the proper point, rushed into
/ my arms like a shot from a catapult
wrapped her in my embrace and put my
face close 70 hers, and the curtain came
down quick.
ITO The audience 1t looked like an infinite
kiss, and il made an instantaneous lift. We
were Obliged to repeat { 9 scere five times
and even then we were allowed to ST p only
because we we're so exhausted that we could
| not sing IL any mora The next day the
papers were full Of the so-called kiss. and
the paragraphs Travelled all over the c1un-
| try, 50 that audiences used to wait in ex-
pectancy for this scene.
IT WAS A BUSINESS KISS.
And what did Miss Abbott think Of IL
ang'
'Oh, she used 10 laugh and j Ike about it.
| You see. il was very good for business, and
Miss Abbott was very cute business
woman. Her husband, Eugene Wetheri.I
was a good business man, too. He had a
remarkably keen appreciation Of advertise
ing. You see, for many years he was the
right hand man of manufacturer of patent
| plasters and pills, and he knew Just VIII,
advertising was.
sit is said that Miss Abbott has left a
large fortune, and no doubt it is true, for
she made a great deal Of money in her pr,
hl-r- In
Ously judicious. She was fond of real
estate investme Is, and she usually bought
some land in all the growing cities that we
visited.
"She conducted all her business matters
in a very methodical way-even the care of
her diamonds and current earnings. She
had several secret pockets in her dress, one
for every day IN the week, and some over
for jewels. She put the earnings of each
day aud night in its own pocket and
securely buttoned and pinned them up, until
she could put them in bank. she carried
usually about 5000 worth Of diamonds
that she disposed of in the same way. re-
member funny incident about those dia-
monds."
"Yesl What isitr
"We were travelling in Texas several
years ago, and during an excitement about
train robbers. Several daring robberies
had taken place; therefore you can imagine
our feelings when a conductor OF a train on
which we we're travelling came into our car
and whispered To u5 that there were 70 r
men in the smoker whom he believed 10 be
train robbers, and that we should look
after our valUables. We were in consterna-
ton instantly, for we all had a little some
thing. Mr. Wetherill, the manager. dis
posed of several thousand dollars in cash
by depositing it in an old stove, for, fortu-
uately, the time was summer.
after we had all settled down, and in
fear aud trembling we're awaiting our
fate, the train stopped. and in a moment
more the conductor came back again and
told us that he guessed he had made a mis-
take after all, for his suspicious characters
bad all got out at the station and gone
about their business. Then the train started
again. We all tried to look brave, and we
giggled while we sneaked around and got
our valuables out Of their places Of secre-
ton.
DIAMONDS IN AN OIL CAN.
"After the rest of us had all been fixed
right l saw Miss Abbott coming from the
back part OF the car hugging an old coal
oil can TO her bosom. 1t certainly looked
ridiculous until she confidsntially whispered
to some OF US that in the midst Of the scare
she had found the can half filled with oil
amidst some train hands effects in the back
part of the car. She had thrown out the
OIL ana poured the WnOle S5O,UOO worth of
diamonds into the can. She got them all
out safely, but she had great time clean
ing them up. We never forgot that scare.
though have always suspected that that
funny conductor set up job on us inno-
cents abroad"
II don't think Miss Abbott ever disap-
pointed an audience. She came near 1t,
though, during the smallpox epidemic"
Afraid OF the scourgea" HG1
"Dear me, no. She was not afraid of
anything. Vaccination was the trouble.
All the company was vaccinated. We got
over our puuctures on the arm quickly
enough. But Miss Abbott would not be
vaccinated on the arm. She was punctured
on the leg Inflammation set in SO badly
that for two weeks she could not walk more
than a few yards at a time. Still, every
evening she would be brought over
from her hotel and would appear
before the audience and sing two or three
songs, while leaning on the back of chair
for support. She won the sympathies of her
audience. aud an understudy went on with
the opera. The songs she sang had nothing
to do with the opera itself. She had a way
of adapting anything to the pleasure Of her
audience.
IS was singing in ia ST in an Indiana
town one night, and, observing that the
audience was wearying of the classical
music, she calmly went on in the garden
scene and sang Nearer My God to Thee, ,
and the audience went wild with JOY. In
| deed, she would not hesitate to adapt
Shakespeare if she could please an audience