The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1896-10-01
Supes" to Burn at Canton.


We are in q position to assure theat-
rical managers generally that any time
after November 8 they can supply them
selves with the most accomplished, YER
satile and industrious supernumerarie
ever seen on any stage, by the simple
act of going to Canton, Ohio, and en-
gaging the gifted persons who are now
in training there under the admirable
conduct of Hon. Mark Hanna. They
are engaged, very busily engaged, for
the present, but will be at liberty after
November 3, and we make bold to say
that nowhere else upon earth can their
equals in the line of general utility be
found.
For several weeks past we have been
watching with the keenest relish the
admirable performances of Mr.. Hanna's
company at Canton. We have seen
them as glassworkers, as unemployed
laborers from Homestead, as travelling
statesmen, as coal and iron miners, as
members of the bicycle delegation, as
sound money toilers and sweaters of all
trades. They have padded the throngs
of horney-handed voters from Toledo,
Cleveland, Pittsburg and indianapolis.
They have lent volume to the cheers of
the multitudes visiting Canton from
every quarter of the globe as represent
atives of every form of industry. One
day they will crowd about the hero of
the American Versailles attired in paper
caps and leather aprons, begrimed with
the dust of boiler shops and FORCES.
Next day, spick and span in wheeling
costume, and ruddy with exercise, they
sport their bullying calves and fire off
Homeric shouts as delegates from the
Wheelmen's Union. Now we see them
in hickory shirts and oil-stained over
alls, giving Mckinley the glad but
greasy hand. Again they pass before
us in respectable frock coats and the
very cleanest faces, speaking for the
frugal and intelligent artisan at large.
They have every dress useful to the
campaign stage. Their property room
is crammed with excellent material.
Their lightning changes have never
been approached. Their versatility is
a monument to the dramatic genius of
Mark Hanna.
It would be cruel to them and to the
amusement loving world to recommit
these men, after the excitement and the
invaluable experience of the past few
months, to the insipid occupation of
loafng about small Ohio village and
brooding over the vanished glories Of
an election episode. It were wasteful
to let such talent and such training
rust while millions wait their exploita-
ton on worthier stage. Think what
q Roman army Hannas Canton supers
would present-how Keene or Downing
would enthrall the galleries with their
martial bearing and their tempestuous
shouts Think how DeWof Hopper
might utilize them as the terrifying
and remorseless Cambodians! AS cour-
tiers, as an excited populace, as howl
ing Dervishes, or as wild men of Borneo,
what priceless treasures they would be
to any management They have passed
before the Mckinley mansion at Can
ton, an endless procession. They have
been counted ten thousand times apiece
since last July. They are equally at
home in a boiled shirt or q vesture of
grease and cinders. They know the
bicycle as intimately as they do the
sledge-hammer or the monkey-wrench.
There's not part they can not play
with perfect ease of custom. They are
the best and highest fruits of art. The
drama needs them, and after November
3rd Mark Hanna will open wide his
arms to let them CO. Washington Post,
Independent.