The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-15
ACCIDENTS TO ACTORS.
Real Tragedies Before the Foot
lights.
An Interesting Batch of Casualties
That Have Occurred Before Theatri-
cal Audiences.
From the St. Louis Globe-Dem,

cal Audiences.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
THAT particular scene in Romeo and
Juliet where Mercutio is first slain by
! Tybalt's thrust, who later falls himself
before Romeo's rapier, has been responsi-
bic for many serious accidents" said the
veteran actor and manager, John w. Nor
ton, as he laid down the paper in which
! he had been reading of how Tom Keene
| had put out the sight of fellow actor by
an unfortunate thrust of his sword at the
| Duquesne theater in Pittsburg on the 18th
| instant. Accidents fatal and serious are
! constantly occurring in stage land, and
every old actor can show scars received
| in the mimic strife. The traditions of the
stage are full of such tragedies. With
the death of every well-known actor, the
story is revived of the tragic end of
Green, who expired with the dying words
of The Stranger on his lips-'there is a
better and a brighter world. There are
apocryphal stories of King Lear, who
passed away with the gasping words:
Look there look therep of a Richard H.,
who was found dead on the stage after
uttering the words:
Mount mount my soul thy seat is up on
| high;
whist my gross flesh sinks downward here
| to die.
''But those things all happened on the
other side, if they ever happened, and
only tell the tales as they were told to
me.
Il recall especially one well-set tragedy
that is said to have occurred at La Scala,
| Milan, about thirty years ago, in the very
| presence of royalty itself. 1t was at the
| finale of O grand production of Fra Dia-
volo,' then the reigning operate sensation.
In the closing business the captured ban
dit chief is led up rocky path on his
way to prison He turns to battle with
his guards, when Lorenzo orders his troop
to fire. and Fra Diavolo dies effectively.
On this particular night the picturesque
bandit, who had always made traditional
fall, so that he would remain the central
figure of the thrilling tableau upon
which the curtain descended, introduced
some new business. He gave one short,
despairing call upon the deity and then
fell forward from his elevation into the
very midst of the chorus of soldiers and
villagers. When members of the com
pany, who, much marveling at the real
ism of the death fall, ran to pick up the
gifted singer, he was dead. A bullet had
pierced his heart. In the confusion one
of the soldiers, beardless youth, known
| only as Giaccomo, and very recent ad-
| dition to the chorus quietly passed out of
the theater. He was pursued and arrested
| two days later, when the romantic discov-
cry was made that GiaccOmo was, in fact,
| Juanita, beautiful Spanish girl, whom
| the gifted tenor had met while singing in
the sunny land of her birth, ruined and
then deserted. She followed him to
Italy and nursed her vengeance, and
when he was at the zenith of his fame
she joined the company of La Scala,
| loaded her property gun with a deadly
bullet, and introduced some startling
realism on to the italian stage. Pretty
story, isn'tit} We have nothing like it in
American stage history, although there
is no telling what kind of American
stories I could tell If were talking to an
Italian reporter in Milan.
\ There is as much of the unreal thrown
about stories of the stage as there is
about the stage itself, and many tales
are told that are implicitly believed that
have no foundation in fact. One of these
is the old chestnut that was hurled at
the late Edwin Booth in every city and
town in the country. He would be intro
dued to an old play-gOer who would
| promptly commence: 81 knew your
father (the elder Booth) well, Mr.
| Booth and it was my good fortune to be in
| the old so and so theater the night when
he was playing Richard sometimes they
said it was Macbeth) and the old gentle
| man was so carried away with the ex-
| citement of the moment that his swords
| manship became terrific, and he forced
| Richmond Tor Macduff) off the stage
| out on to the street, the poor fellow do
| ing the best he could to parry your faith
| ers terrible stroke Now, that incident
never occurred. Edwin Booth told me 50
himself. Yet people go on telling it,
| and there are men in St Louis who now
| believe that they saw it. But was talking
| about stage accidents, and not stage
myths.
lone Of the first of the tragedies that
comes to my mind is that which befell
| the Gail sisters, three beautiful girls who
were dancing at Richmond theater be-
| fore the war. in those days of gas foot
| lights ballet dancers wore a great number
of gauze skirts One of the girls ap-
| preached too near the footlights and in
an instant was in flames. Her sisters ran
to her aid and shared her fate. 1t was all
over in an instant.
''The sad fate of Clara Butler. which
was the stage name of Mrs. Frank E'rayne,
is more recent tragedy. F'rayne, who is
| dead shot, was playing his piece, Isl
| Slocum, - in Pittsburg theater. In one
scene he shot an apple from his wife's
head, standing with his back to her II
was really the safest and easiest trick in
|
use of little mirror hung on the trunk
of a stage tree he was enabled to get
perfect sight. He used a breech-loading
| rife. On the fatal occasion he closed the
| gun carelessly. AS he pulled the trigger
the barrel broke down, and bullet went
| crashing into the brain of one Of the
sweetest little women that ever made a
good man good wife Poor Frayne. He
early went crazy over it.
But talking about Tom Keene's I'M
| fortunate accident and recalling what
said about the quarrel scene in Romeo
and Juliet will be reminded of it every
time that l see Tom Burns. He is a
| comedian. Everybody knows him. He
was here last season in the 'Gioriana
company. He was playing 'Tybalt' and
! Harry Weaver was the Romeo. Harry
! punched his sword into Burns eve.
! Burns had the optic bandaged and played
! out the part. Next day a surgeon was
| called in and he removed the eve
| 81 myself have had three accidents. any
one of which might have proved serious.
! | was playingl Romeo one night and an
actor named Hamilton was the eTybalt.'
| 'Mercutio' had been killed, and the furi-
Gus 'Tybalt comes back to have it out
with Romeo The lines and business are
like this
Tybalt'-Thou wretched boy that didst con
sort him here shalt with him hence.
Romeo drawing his swOrdj-phis shallde-