The morning call., 1893-03-18

second time for the picture, and gave the
wondeT-wist house another glimpse of cow
ardly soldiers baffied and pleading for quar-
ter, and noble c"nyicts picturesquely STAY
ing them. Tie worm had turned at last. and
he brought down the house.
In the scrimmage the rusty bayonet fell
off the end of my musket, and the soldier
had dOwned winked uD at me pleasantly:
Deuce take that gun" said lie. IN
get another tomorrow night"
The curtain went up on act four and dis
covered us convicts, at work with pick and
shovel, still In the background. 1t was the
anniversary of the birthday of the heroine
OF the play, and she asked the gang for
song. Leslie, the comedian, who leads US,
turns about and says
Shall it be the 'ConVicts' Chant boys"
Aye, aye, aye-e-eH we shout.
We lean our heavy spades against the
geranlums and verbenas painted OH the
scenery and line up before the fnOtlights.
and prancing up and down before the line
Leslie begins his song.
Thsre's captain. mate aud a MILDLY.
bos'n and all the SHIPS crew,
first and 4 second class passenger
What a lot we poor conYIctS so through.
We repeat the last two syllables of each
line in time with Leslie, and when he has
finished we sing the entire verse, following
II up with ringing. swinging clog dance.
One, two. three; one, two, three.
Fifteen years more must stay,
For steering guy up alley
And taking his greenbacks away.
Again the repeated syllables, the verse
sung over, and we wheel about and 60 of
the stage, dancing away 10 the one, two,
three tune.
OF course we were encored-we had re-
ceived instructions to 60 on anyway-and
we tripped sportiyely across the front, do
ing our little turn with vast delight.
Its the best thing in the play" said the
suDers to one another.
1t was our pleasure 10 the last scene of
the fourth act TO be present al the trial and
complete eXoneTatiOn of the hero He had
gone through enough woe for one human
being and as be was at last acquitted we
gathered around with ordinations of Joy
and congratulations and saw him off into
the wing.
What becomes of the convicts, according
TO the play, from this time on no man knows.
There was another act to follow, but we
were not An it, The manager said "be
around at o'clock tomorrow night, good
| night" which we took to be a plain hint to
retire and of course did so at once. We
vert to our dressing-rOom to get out of the
conYict's rig.
l had some opportunity 10 look about me
and had noticed that Griffiths and Brophy
ana other men, and the leading ladies, too
had considerably better apartments tn an
the supers.
What do you expeet?" said Plumer
when | mentioned the fact. I'VE get So 80
week and they get $50 to SO. They ought
to have better places"
We went over and looked at their quar-
tiers second time. Wigs by the score and
coats and clOaks. Costumes for d dozen
plays. Plenty of gelatina for sticking on
whlskers and cosmetics of every hue. A
delightful disregard of order was apparent
Everything had many different places and
came near filling them all a once.
Think of il - aalU Btumar. stGE0i nnpSf
II make your mouth water?"
Talking THIS we passed down the back
stairs into the street. There before us was
a flaming placard of The play we had assisted
IN performing. The conyicts were in line,
dozens of them in the Autograph, singing
aiTily:
Twenty long years have we been here
c. (. HOWELL.