The Russellville Democrat., 1893-10-05
ACCIDENTS TO ACTORS.
Real Tragedies Before he f0otIIghis.
Aa Interesting Batch of Casualtiss Tnai Have Occurred Before Theatri-
 cni Audiences.

fore Romeo's napier, has been responsible for many serious accidents, said the vete- ran actor and manager, John ". Norton, as hs laid down the paper in which he had been residing of how Tom Keene had put out the sight of fellow actor by an unfortunate thrust of his sword at the Duquesne Theatre in Pittsburg on the 7th insta.t 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 .sThe Stranger on his lips-sthere is better and brighter wo-ld' There are apocry- phal stories of King Lear, who paced away with the gssping ysri.. Look therel Look there;' of | Richard II, who was found dead on the stage after uttering the words
 Mount mount my soul thy seat is up on high; Whilst my gross hesh sinks downward here to
 die.
 But these things all happened on the other side, if they ever happened, and 1 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 It was at the fnale of a grand production of Fra Dia- volo,' then the reigning operatic sensation. In the closing buniness the captured ban dit chief is led up rocky path on his way to prison He turns to battle with IL nt. T l.. l. 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 diety and then fell forward from his elevation into the very midst of the chorus of soldiers and villagers. When the members of the company, who, much marveling at ihe realism of the death fall, ran to pick the gifted singer he was dead. A bullet had pierced his heart h the confusion that followed one of the soldiers, beardless youth, known only as Giaceomo, and very recent ad dition to the chorus, quietly passed out of the theatre. He was pursued and arrested two days later, when ihe mastic dis covery was made that Giaecomo WAS, in fact, Jnanita, a beautiful Spanish girl, whom the gifted tenor had met while singing in the sunny land of her birth, ruined aud 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 prop erty gun with deadly bullet, and intro duced some startlir realism on to the Italian stage. Pretty story, isn't itf We have nothing like it in American stage history, although there is no telling what kind of American stories I could tell if was 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 introduced to an old play -goer who would promptly commence: I knew your father (the elder Booth) well, Mir. Booth, and it was my good fortune to be in the old so and so theatre the night when he was playing Richard Sometimes they said it was Mae beth) and the old gentleman was so car ried away with the excitement of the mo ment that his workmanship became terrific, and he forced Richmond CT Mac duff of the stage, out on to the street, the poor fellow doing the best he could to parry your fathers terrible strokes Now, that incident never occurred. Edwin Booth told me so 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.
 ''0n 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 theatre be- fore the war. In those days of gas foot lights ballet dancers wore great number of gauge 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. It was all over in an instant.
 ''The sad fate of Clara Butler, which was the stage name of Mrs. Frank Frayne, is the more recent. Frayne, who is a dead shot, was playing the piece, ''Si Slocum," in a Pittsburg theatre. In one scene he shct an apple from his wife's head, stand ing with his back to her. 1t was really the easiest and safest trick in his reper. toire of fancy shots, as by the 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 trig- ger the barrel broke down, and & bullet went crashing into the brain of one of the sweetest little women that ever made good man good wife. Poor Frayne. He nearly went crazy over it.
 ''But talking about Tom Keene's un. fortunate accident, and realizing what 1 said about the quarrel scene in Romeo and Juliet" will be reminded of it every time that I see Tom Burns. He is a comedian. Everybody knows him. He was here last season in the "GloriaRa" company. He was playing Tybalt and Harry Weaver was the Romeo. Harry punched his sword into Burn's eye. Burns had the optic bandaged and played out the part. Next day a surgeon was called in and he removed the eye
 T myself have had tAree accidents, any of which might have proved serious. was playing Romeo one night and an actor named Hamilton was the Tybalt. Mer. eutio had been killed, and the furious Tybalt comes back to have it out with Romeo. The lines and business are like this:
 Tybalt-Thou wretched boy that didst eonsort him here shalt with him hence.
 Romeo ldrawing his swordl This shall de- terrnine that
 They fight. Tybalt falls.l
 "He should have fallen, but on this oc- casion we both fell, for with an awkward lunge of his rapier he laid open my wrist, and the blood spurted from severed ar tery as from q fountain. show the scar to this day.
 "The next time was playing Canonchet in The Wept of the Wish-ton- Wish,