The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1892-02-20

Trash in bringing . comparative
Stranger behind the ocenes. felt
some aort OF foreboding as OF APP
preaching calamity. At the close of
the fourth at found my substitute
prepared to 60 on. His makeup was
splendid. With his darkened face and
the similarity in our build we were
very much alike. Presently my name
was called by tho call-boy. "Now."
said /. He rose quickly, gave hasty
glance at himself, and rapidly descend
ed the stairs. / was curious to see
how he would succeed. Downing q
soft felt hat, and covering my costume
with long ulster, stole down to the
wings to watch him. He was just
speaking the lines in the death scene
I'When I have plucked thy rose l
cannot give it vital growth again")
and certainly the resemblance to my
voice and manner was marvellous. 1t
was evident the audience were deceived.
Just then the manager unluckily came
up.
T"Why, Croften, whatever are you
doing here?" Then followed an explo-
sion of wrath.
When could get word in told
him in q few words the history oil the
matter. He began to grow calm, and
| his anger entirely abated when he
| learned the name of the actor, and in
n little while he showed nearly as much
interest in the experiment as did my
self.
"By Jove!" he said, che has got you
to q Il, Croften, my boy. Faith, /
would have thought it was yourself
talking, but in matter OF acting you
can't hold a candle to him, my dear
fellow; and, by the powers, he has
electrified Vermont"
1t was true Miss Vernon did not
seem to have penetrated the disguise,
but she was playing with an earnest
ness and passion that had
never seen in her before.
Desdemona's touching pleadings
were given with exquisite pathos, and
when Othello stepped to the bed to
smother her and drew the curtains, a
shreak almost appalling in it's intens-
ity and anguish rang through the
house; the audience, which seemed
spell-bound during the scene, burst
into n tumult OF applause. Othello
who enters Immediately after the muir
der. Up to now, with the exception OF
the extraordinary power OF acting,
there had been nothing remarkable
about the performance, but now
surely the actor must be mad, for in
stead OF questioning Emilia and
hearing OF Roderigo's death, rs he
should have done, he began at once to
acclaim Othello's death speech, while
poor Emilia, not knowing what to
make of him, stared helplessly.
He went on; II pray you, in your
letters when you shall these unlucKy
deeds relate, speak OF ME as l am;
nothing extenuate, nor set down aught
in malice; then must you speak Of
one that loved not wisely, but too
WE'LL" He omitted theintervening lines
and concluded with terrible energy.
"Set you down this and say, be-
sides, that in Aieppo once, where a
malignant and turbaned Turk beat
q Venetian and traduced the State,
took by the throat the circumcised
dog and smote him thus"
1t is impossible to convey an idea
OF the passion of rage and despair
with which the actor spoke these lines,
and then plucking the dagger from his
girdle, he stabbed himself magnificent
ly and fell forward with a heavy thud
upon the stage amid the loud plaudits
OF the audience. myself was quite
carried away, and joined vigorously
in the applause, when all at once the
manager caught my arm.
Look thereW he whispered hoarse.
ly. "Do you see it? There is blood
on his clothes. Ring down the curtain
ouick-uuickl This is not acting
this is real!'
The green baize was already descend
ing rapidly as we rushed forward on
to the stage. The manager was right.
At our feet lay the poor actor, already
dead, stabbed to the heart.
Look to Vernon" cried the man.
ager. "Maybe it's murder as well as
suicide, for by heaven we have had
Shakespeare in earnest, tonight"
His surmise was correct, for on
drawing back the curtains OF the bed
we found to our horror Miss Vernon
stretched on it lifeless. In moving the
unfortunate mans body, a letter ad-
dressed to me fell from his tunic. 1t
gave the explanation OF what seemed
to be the act OF mailman. Miss
Vernon was his wife, and had betray-
ed and deserted him. For two years
he had endeavored to trace her with
out success, until chance brought him
to the Phoenix. There he saw her,
and devised and carried out his terri
BILE and fantastical scheme of revenge.
From that day to this, such is my re-
pugnance to the. part, l have never
again played Othello.
Bonnets and Hats.