The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-07-06
PLAYING 4 STRANGE PART.
An Actors Experience MS the Hind Legs Of
. Properly Elephant.

ELDtLAGhCC
property Elephant.
"One of my strangest and most uncom-
Portable experiences, sir, was being the
hind legs of an eiephantW says an actor
in Cassell's Journal. "Id gone out 10
Australia, like many other young fellows
do, or rather did u few years ngo, with
tho fxed idea Of making my fortune.
Needless to remark, failed dismally, and
soon lost the little money did possess. !
had been well educated and tried one
thing after another, with the invariable
result that every market seemed over
stocked. As n last resource went around
10 the theaters to try to get job, At
one was successful, being told that 'one
OF the chaps was i'll, and the boss in a roar
ing temper made my way round and
arrived in time to hear the aforesaid boss
remark somewhat loudly and In scarcely
polite language:
"tWhat does the "hind legs" mean by
being illf His business is to be "hind
legs" and II he doesn't turn up tonight
he won't have another job in my theaterp
rather timidly approached and asked II
could perhaps supply the missing mans
place. We'll, young man, II you'll come
and be "hind legs" Of an elephant, you
can; il not, clear out; the pays 10 bob
week. The outlook was not cheering,
but was too hungry to be proud, so an
awered that l had no knowledge of the
duties of hind legs, but would do my
best and hoped that few reheprsals
would perfect me. l followed the front
legs who had been witness of this in
terview, and was quickly set to work.
First, had to put on pair Of large, loose,
dirty brown looking trousers, with the
cardboard feet attached. They were kept
on by straps over my shoulders.
"The front legs attired himself in q
similar garment. Then we both stopped
down to about half our height, and a
large, dirty brown covering was drawn
over us to form the body, to which the
head, etc., was attached. The cord work.
ing the trunk was given into front legs''
keeping, while was accommodated with
that appended to the tail At first 1t was
most difficult to arrange our strides prop
erly, and we commenced by the front legs
making up his mind TO take a walking
tour by himself, poor hind legs descend
ing into little jog trot gallop to keep
anywhere near. Then we found the posi-
lions reversed, and was told to stop trip
ping up them trout legs At last we were
fairly perfect, and were released with ach-
ing heads and stif backs TIL the evening
Performance. was naturally pretty pune
tual for the first time, but Yhep the cry,
the stage waits for the elephant was
heard no front legs was there. The man
ager was furious, and the audience impa-
tient, when at last py other half was dis.
covered in the bar 'only getting drink.
He was promptly hauled along, but the
walk Of that elephant was decidedly Gu.
rious during the evening. However, we
managed to get along somehow, but
wssnt sorry when my week came to an
end, and, taking into consideration the
discomfort Of bead and backsche, the de.
cidedly unclean condition Of the skin,
and the long hours spent In rehearsals and
performances, don't think / ever took .
more hardly earned 10 shillings."