The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-26
PLEASED THE CAMP.
.cTING WAS BAD AND THE THEA
TER WAS A TENT.

,0snt outfit in Dawson City will fetch more
,.,-.sts and dust out of the Klondike than
+,,r-dfths of the panners,' said Luke Nc
,,,rrrie. a mining man from Butte, Mont,
-, Star reporter at the Shoreham the
,tta- evening. For the first two or three
,..sr- of the rush the Klondike country
-.l probably be more shy in the matter
ofamusement than any of the big bonanza
o,,7,-,7 in the west ever was, owing to the
+rsmendous difficulty people have in get
,irq n there with their goods. So long as
q. costs from So to 50 cents a pound to have
.,.5 bare necessities as bacon and -four
,rassd over the passes, there'n certainly
ts very little of such impedimenta as the
otri,al accessories and properties taken in.
For while, until the passes have been
made passable and the carriers figures
,,rs slump, the fellows who have got in
and who know enough to get up on a
platform in their everyday clothes and
SING a song. or dance a clog, or tell a story,
or 5o some sort of mimic turn, will prob
obIy mil down as much dust at this kind
If anne as most of the claim workers will
banI out of their sluice boxes.
~ was present at the first theatrical en-
+srtainment given in Angels Camp, Cal,
connie of months after the rush there
4 few years ago, and the artalr was only
one among many things that l saw In
the california camps to convince me that
Prer Harte was not so much of an eXag-
gerator after ALL Angels was one OF the
few camps discovered in California within
comparatively recent years that did not
fzzle out and go to pieces after few
months of improbable surface-scraping
hIr1cr for q
~ be there, and a good many of the fell
lows who got there first have been taking
il out ever since. 1 got there month
after the news of the find. and it certainly
was a camp of the old-timers. l met men
there in whose company l had nosed
around most of the country from the Rio
Grande to the Columbia, years before,
chasing yellow specters that were always
a hundred miles or so beyond us, and from
the go-off none of US did very badly at
Angels.
The camp developed almost as rapidly
as did Cripple Creek later on, but, on
account of its inaccessibility, 1t was the
crudest camp for several months that 1
ever saw. Byron McGregor, the San
Francisco gambler started faro game
going a couple of weeks after tidings of
the ind reached San Francisco and Bert
Tavstock, who was afterward shot to
death by a woman, started a dance hall
time I am speaking of the only places of
amusement or relaxation in Angels, not
outstanding the fact that there were
more than a thousand men in the camp,
most of them doing well, and probably a
majority of them willing and even eager
10 burn their dust for something good.
The camp was pinlng for sensible enter
tanm6nt when the theatrical outfit came
along in the stage one morning and put
up at Rigleys old Grand Palace hotel,
which was composed of nine 10x12 rooms
and bar. The troupe did not look very
promising TO those of US who after quitting
work in the evening saw its members
proving around the camp like folks who
were puzzled what to make of the aspect
OF things. There were seven of them
three men, shabby and very unactor-lke
in their makeup, three rather refined, but
ured-lOOking women, none of them es-
pecially good-looking, and a baby. The
shabbiest man of the lot was the manager,
and his wife, who owned the baby, was
the leading lady. We got to talking with
the men, and they told US they were going
TO give The White Slave in a tent the
next night. had seen this play back east
lew years previously and remembered it
as an affair with some twenty or more
characters in the cast. So l wondered
some how these six folks were going to
get through with it, But they all seemed
10 be straight, square people, way out of
luck by their looks, and when the next
morning the camp saw the dirty patched
tent going up back of Rigley's for the
performance that night they decided to do
The right thing by the players, no matter
now bad the show might be.
Most of the men in the camp knocked
of work early and cleaned up for the
snow Tim Murtha, who was the marshal
OF the town, had volunteered to take care
OF The crowd for the manager, and early
a he 4,
Woid mat the men who intended to take in
me snow had better let whisky alone until
after It was over, for he was going to
make it his job to see that the show folks
We're treated right
Inc show tent wasn't anything like as
large as these Salvation Army tents you
See around here in the east and 1t didn't
nesln TO hold the crowd, for every man
III me camp was there. So they hoisted
up the front flaps after all the wooden
benches inside had been filed, and the fell
lows VINO had paid their 81 to see the show
1000 good-naturedly about fifty deep out
sue the tent, waiting for the performance
TO begin. Tim Murtha sold the tickets at
'le motel bar. They were white poker
SHips' with some writing in blue pencil
sawed upon them, and when he had dis
losed OF them all he had over s, 800 in gold
70 turn over to the manager.
Just before the performance began Tim
Tor q stage. He had his guns in his belt
JUS as all the rest of us did.
refers said he, L don't know nothin
apout the merits of this yere show that's
g5pout to begin. It's called the white
ave so | don't spose it has much to do
WIN anytin' but white people, and this
SSIe white community In a whole lot
u ways, because it's got to be- and Tins
a1L1s wandered unconscously to his
suns But all this is neither here nor
.l'te' What 1 started out to say is that
e'e people that's goin to do this show
lem 10 new come to this orderly camp
~ d state that might be called plumb out
luck, an We're here to see that they
WI out, it makes no difference how their
C%oIh assays. This amt no Baldwin's
1'ahH Opera House, nohow, and you don't
l-' 70 expect too much. There Amt no
sIeiy or nothin' like that, but some o.
IT, y- needs to exercise your imaginations.
H., lue snow don't suit any O. you you
i-3" the way out, but don't do no crit
,r- OUT LOUD and again Tins hands
,'.s'ed to his guns. 'Ef you see anythin
IMPROVE though, yell as much as you
In conclusion, want to say that
N'a Delongin' to the leadin' lady has
go seized with the mountain colo or