Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-05-31
WHEN IRVING WAS POOR.
Noted Actor Tells of a Time When
He Needed Clothing.

New York Tribune. A company of
professional men. composed Of some of
the lawyers, doctors, newspaper men
and actors whose names are famous
on both sides of the Atlantic. was
scattered in groups about the rooms
smoking and chatting after the Satur
day night supper, which had become a
standard institution with them. In a
ShelterednOOk over by the fireplace sat a
small knot of men, every one of
whom had reached the top, or at least
the front rank, of his profession. The
talk, drifting in a smooth, desultory,
half-sleepy way from phase to phase,
had gradually assumed retrospective
hue. From one to another the story
had passed, each telling the tale of
an empty stomach or an amnty
pocket, or a hopeless tramp of so
miles or so in thin shoes along a snow
bound road in search of employment.
Henry Living, thoughtfully smoking,
with an air of deep attention, had not
spoken and did not speak until the
others, having exhausted their stock,
turned to him. He had experienced
harder luck than any Of them, and
they knew it. He looked up at them
for moment, and then, after "a pause,
said:
1.-THE recollection uppermOst in my
mind just now, while you boys have
been talking about tramping and Win
ter roads and all that, is of a certain
Christmas dinner at which I was pres
ent. l wonder whether any of you re-
member a poor fellow. long since dead,
Joe Robbins, who played small parts
in London and outside of it, and who
made the one big mistake of his life
when he entered the profession. Joe
had been in the mems underwear
business and was doing WELL when an
amateur performance for a charitable
object was organized and he was cast
for the part Of the clown in q bur
iesque of Guy Fawkes.' Joe belonged
to one Of the Bohemian clubs, and on
the night Of the show his friends
among the actors and journalists at
tended in a body to give him a send
Off He played that part capitally
and the mischief might have ended
there, but some one compared him to
Grimaldi. His fate was sealed. He
sold his stock, went on the stage and
a few months later 1 came upon him
playing general utility on a small
salary in a small theater in Manches-
ter. One relic Of his happy days still
remained to him. He had retained
shirts, collars and underwear sufficient
to last him for a generation. But if
Joe lacked ability as an actor, he had
heart of gold. He would lend or
give his last shilling TO a friend and
piece by piece his stock of underwear
had diminished until only a few shirts
and underclothes remained to him.
''The Christmas Of that year-the
year in which we played together
was perhaps the bitterest I ever knew
Joe had a part in the pantomine. When
the men with whom he dressed took
OF their street clothes, he saw with
; pang at his heart how poorly some
of them were clad. One poor fellow
without an overcoat, shivered and
shook with every breath of the wind
that whistled through the cracked
door, snI as he undressed there was
| disclosed a suit of the ightest sum-
| mer gauze underwear, which he was
wearing in the depth Of that dreadful
winter.
Poor as Joe was, he determined
to keep up his annual custom of giving
his comrades Christmas dinner. Per
haps all that remained of his stock of
underclothing went to the pawnbroker,
but that is neither here nor there.
Joe raised the money somehow, and
| that filed into his room was his friend
with the gauze undertaking. Joe
beckoned him into an adjoining bed
room, and, pointing to a chair, silently
walked out On that chair hung a
suit of underwear. 1t was of a COM
Portable scarlet color; it was Of silk
and wool; it was thick and warm, and
it chung around the actor as II 1t
had been built for him. As the shirt
fell over his head there was suffused
through his frame a gentle. delicious