Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-27

CuSHuldu FeullnueO MIS-. JOnn DreW OF an
other about the great Charlotte. who, being
large, masculine woman. had feet of pro-
portionate size and always wore No. shoes,
though she could crowd into No. 6ts ION q
pinch On one occasion, just after recov
ering from severe attack of inflammatory
rheumatism. to which she was frequently
subject, she was playing Lady Macbeth in a
pair of slippers much too small for her
After enduring untold agonies through two
acts of the play, she rushed behind the
scenes, tore off her offending foot-coverings
and flung them clear across the stage, shout
ing at the top of her great masculine voice
and in her heaviest tragedy manner, ''Ie
gods! Somebody lend me pair of big
shoes, or I will go on in my stockings.'
What number do you wear!'' asked a
young actor.
ANY number from seven to twenty,' re-
Piled the great actress.
The heavy man promptly came forward
with pair of masculine Fights, and Miss
Cushman finished the performance IN COM
fort.
Our hostess, Maggie Mitchell, related a
good anecdote Of Fanny Kembe in the days
when that gifted actress made her nomi-
nal winter home in Boston and spent her
summers here and there in rural Aiassa-
chuSettS, as the fancy seized her During
one of her sojourns in an agricultural dis
trlct she engaged prosperous tiller of the
q
out. to take her for daily drive, his bill TO
be sent in at the end of the season. On set
ting out for their first excursion, the
farmer, with true rural lOguacity, began TO
discourse on the beauties of the country,
the crops, etc, and to point out Deacon
Perkins barn. Uncle Rube Dubbin's COW
house, and other objects of equally general
interest in the rural landscape. when
Fanny stopped him summarily. saying in
her most imperious and freezing manner.
BE silent. man | hired you to drive me,
not to talk to ule.''
After that time the worthy hayseed never
addressed i word TO the lady, but main
tanned an intense silence, ana they drove
about together every day like two deaf
mutes.
When Mr.. Rural presented his bill at the
end of the season and Fanny looked over
the items she found one which read 80
Sass. So
What does this meant she asked in
great surprise
We'll, marm," replied old rustic, that
'ere'S for the sass you gin Inc that fuSt day
day we went out | doesn't often take
sass, but when | does | alters make a
charge"
Fanny paid the full amount of the bill
without another word and the great actress
and the rural philosopher We're the best of
friends ever afterward.
n
familiar incident of the great emotion dis
played on one occasion by Matilda Heron
when her little girl Bijou, now Mrs. Henry
Miller, called to her from the auditorium of
a crowded theater while she was playing
i'll the last act of Camille and this
brought to the recollection of Mrs. Henri
eta Chanfran, wife OF the famous come
dian who had entertained us with his eX-
perience as the apothecary in Romeo and
Juliet" to the Romeo of Miss Charlotte
Cusnman, an incident that occurred during
performance of 1.-THE Rent Day. in
which she was playing with the late Will
lam r. Floyd, who never allowed his
friends to cail him anything but Billy"
In one scene she was supposed to be
asleep and Floyd was to waken her with
much difficulty after several Intellectual
efforts. Her little son Frank-named for
his tather-who was in front with her sis
ter, Miss Baker, endured Floyd's unavailing
attempts to arouse his mother as Ion. as
as he could, and then he stood up on
his aunt's lap and called out at the top of
his childish treble-which could be heard
all over the crowded theater-.' Wake up,
mamma. Billy wants to talk to you"
John S. Clarke now favored US with
good story of the tribulations of super at
the Arch street theater, Philadelphia, du-
ring a production Of the 1.-TWO Orphans
1.-The utility man who had been cast for
goes in at the end of the sixth act to read
the names of the French girls who are TO
be sent from the prison of La Salt Patriere
into exile, was suddenly indisposed at the
last moment, and an ambitious supe was
selected hastily TO take his place Forum
ately he had no lines to speak, as the names
of the exiied prisoners were all written
down by the property man on sheet OF
official-iooking paper. and the supposed
officer of the guard had merely to read
them. Now the supe no sooner came before
the audience than he was seized by stage
fright, and with his knees knocking to-
gether he began TO spell out the French
girls names, Adrienne Cote Alphonsine
Rousseau The next name ON the list was
Jeanne Mullaine' This was too much for
the frightened supe. and after bordering
over it for several seconds, with his teeth
chattering and his hair rising, he recovered
himself by a desperate effort and called out
in the voice of a stentor, Jane McMulleni
The effect ON the audience, like the difficult
passages in novels, may be better imagined
Than