The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-28
adorned, and ny surm1se was quickly

adorned, and ng surmise was quickly
proven to be correct.
pretty hard luck" said one, evil
IDENTITY referring to story which the
other had told. sit reminds me of the
Arabian Nights at Mendoza"
''Guess that's new one on me. New
er heard about it"
"You know Wemys Henderson"
''Sure: brother of Dave"
"Well, this happened to Wemys in
the early days when he was just begin
ming to take hold Of the business He
started out of Chicago In charge of his
brothers big spectacular troop playing
tho Arabian Nights. Hundred and
1fty people in the cast; half dozen
horses and three camels, two of them
live and the other stuffed and rugged
to run on castors. Instead Of going
ahead of his show he stayed right with
II, at first; and. after week or two of
fair business, he found himself some
where in northern Illinois with an opcn
date just ahead Of him.
$50 he took a map and looked around
for town where he could give per-
formance at short notice. Didn't ex-
pect to make much, thought he might
pay expenses and clear up a ton or two
of hay for the camels. He ran his eye
over the map, and right on his route he
struck Mendoza. 1t looked like big
place. Any quantity of railroads CEN
tered there, so that a casual observer
would have said that Chicago and
Springfield were scarcely in it with
Mendoza.
$50 Wemys telegraphed the manager
Of the opera house in Mendoza, asking
if the date was open. If it was, he
said he'd take it. Well, it was.
should say so. There hadn't been any
thing but open dates in Mendoza since
the strawberry festival in the preced-
ing summer. Wemys telegraphed the
manager to engage an orchestra, and
have the town billed in great shape.
They had splendid paper. Nothing
could be more attractive. 1t was cal
culatcd to draw the frost out of the
ground in the middle of December.
"WelI, the show arrived in Mendoza
one forenoon, and just about doubled
the population of the place. Wemys
asked the first man he met where the
opera house was, and the man smiled
sadly and said he'd never heard of
any such place. There was a hall over
somebody's grocery store where enter
tainments were sometimes held, but
thaSwas the extent of the theatrical
accommodations.
Then he viewed the hall. The
auditorium was just about big enough
to seat the company exclusive of the
ANIMALS The stage was eighteen feet
by ten, and there was a wooden pillar
running right up through the middle
of it. Wemys had three carloads of
scenery, but there wasn't piece of it
that could be got inside the hall. But
his blood was up and he was deter
mined to give a show. He turned to
the proprietor of the hall
'' Did you engage an orchestral he
asked
We'll, did the best 1 could. The
melodeon'-
"'What?'
'''Yes, sir; the melodeon. That's
what we generally use for church en-
tertainaents'
"Wenys interrupted him with a
yroan. Isn't there man in town
who can play the violin?' he asked.
"'There used to be feller who
:ould fiddle little but believe he's
dead He lived two or three miles out
o town. so l amt heard positive, but
I was told
"'Send boy to his house and get
3is fiddle. don't care anything about
.he'man
"Wemys had just remembered that
there was man in his company who |
scraped the violin when nobody was |
present with authority TO prevent him. |
By request this performer had not
taken his instrument on the road. |
However, his despised accomplish. |
neut promised at this juncture 10 be |
he salvation of the whole show The |
violin of the deceased Mendot9n was |
obtained and the melodeoa arrived |
without accident. During the after |
noon Miss Nutter. who was a pillar OF |
the church, and Wemys' violinist, who
usually did the turn with the trained |
camel, practiced together. but they |
did not produce first-class ballet music, |
according TO the accounts which have
heard.
There were no dressing rooms in |
the hall, but that didn't matter. for
the show was TO consist of a few spe-
eialties. and such changes of costume
rs We're absolutely necessary gould be