The herald., 1895-02-23
HARLEQUIN'S LEAP

gets tired of the make believe, and the
poor man has no chance after putting in
the sailors hornpipe with the columblne
unless you allow him the dives. This
chap was so nervous at rehearsal that IT
was full ten minutes before he would
look at jump.
Were we sure the men were there to
catch him? Had they got the mattress all
right? We're they strong enough to. hold
him? Were they sober? And lot OF rub
bish of that sort, / have seen few cab
horses coaxed on for the wild, untamed
/ steed in Mazeppa, and I'll take my oath
they were perfect lions compared to that
man. ! fancy he must have been let down
at some theater or other, and this made
him shy. He was very clean jumper,
mind you, if you once got him to go, ana
on boxing night he went without hitch.
And he could dance. Yes, | must say that
for him, although the most miserable chap
in private life | ever knew.
Seemed to have something on his mind,
which is an awkward thing for a man
with little on his body. Why? Because
there's no counterbalance. Whoever knew
hlm to give any of our stage hands pint
OF beer? and yet if the men were nasty,
they could have played sharp trick upon
him any evening. His lack of business
need not have made him down in the
dumps. Far from it. Why, | remember
heavy father in our stock for three
or four seasons who was so affable ''off,
and cracked such Jokes you might have
thought he did nothing but rescue maid
ems in distress, and had double call at
every performance.
We could not have been running the
panto for more than a week, and the
harlequin--still melancholy jumping
III splendid style, yet every bit as cautl,
Gus about our men catching him, ana
evidently glad when the job was over. |
recollect he had to do the dives through
pawnbroker' S shop window, reappear from
the wings rush on and jump again, clown
and pantaloon making a show at striking
at him, but never hitting him. Finally
he bobbed up through trap and posed
with the columbine Just as the clown was
being marched off by the policeman for
tripe stealing. The jumping went with
rare rattle and was one of the best fea
lures in the harlequnade. On the night
have in my mind, the poor chap went
through the work-including the horn
pipe and twirling trip with columbine-
as well as he had ever done it, until the
scene | am telling you about came
on. You see the pit stalls right
was on the stage and Tipping his wand
before the chase commenced, when all of
sudden he catches sight of a face there,
and looks as though he was going to drop.
| could see him turn pale under the rouge
ON his cheeks, and for minute | fancied
thinks |, what's up?" Then on comes
the clown, singing out 'Father!" to PAN
taloon. They catches sight of harlequin
and points at him, and that was the cue
for Snangles to make his leap through the
pawnbrokers window. | must say he
went at it ike bull at a china shop.
The gallery applauded, and in half
minute he should have come up again to
make the second jump. Clown was wait
ing with the poker to aim blow at him,
and pdntal0on made ready to pretend to
be Knocked over by his heels as he went
through. The band was playing a
hurry" and the two lnds behind were
on guard to catch him. Half minute
slipped by and no harlequin appeared.
But the stage manager commenced to
well, to say things, and ran behind to see
what was the matter, wondering whether
young Spanges had slipped or lost his
shoc, or something. But devil a hare
qnin could he find.
The audience began to hiss, and the
clown, who was no good If he had Il wait
to fill, was calling out: "Now then, where
are you-how much longer?" At the end
of another couple of minutes-though it
seemed Il good deal more-the house was
shouting out nasty remarks and begin
ming to make a row. So the stage man
ager hurries ON the swell with the white
trousers for the clown to chivvy about.
The people hissed more than ever. Bless
NDuI btdlt. all tuultlCe dlWdNS KNOWS II
there is screw loose, and we had a deuce
of job to finish up the evening without
harlequin. Where was he? Ask me
another. Nobody ever set eyes on him
from that day to this. 1t was his last
leap IN this town.
We discovered afterward that he had
ebolted clean out of the stage door in his
war paint, run To his lodgings-they were
only in the next street-changed his
clothes, left the place in quarter of an
hour and disappeared forever. You see,
the face he saw in the pit stalls was the
face of the wife he had deserted four
years before, leaving her with three chill
dren to bring up. He knew that she had
tracked him at lasi, and his leap was a
leap for liberty. A strange story? Lor,
the world is full of them. A startling
what? | know what you mean, only you
don't pronounce it properly. Yes it was
a startling denouement | can excuse the
poor fellow now for being so melancholy
and nervous but my opinion of harle-
quins in general is lower than ever
London Daily telegraph,