The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-07-15
JOE GOT A BAD SCARE.
The Reason why DIR. Jekvll and Mr.. Hyde
will Not Play Here Again.


The papers Tuesday evening an
nounced that the VIM. Owen company
would be here all next week. The
return of this company gives us an op-
portunity to tell splendid story on Joe
Rhode, and if our readers will agree not
to tell Joe that we told it we will let the
cat out of the bag. We will take the
responsibility for the assumed agree
ment that the story is to remain a
secret between US and our readers, so
we will tell it.
A number of people noticed when
they read the announcement Of the
coming of the company that DIR.
Jekyl and Mr.. Hyde" was not included
in the repertoire as it was a year ago.
The company played it here a year ago
last June. But Joe says it will never
be played in his house again if he
knows it and thereby hangs tale.
If our memory serves us rightly it
was the week of June that the COM
pany played here and " DR.. Jekyl and
Mr.. Hyde" was the Saturday night
play 1t wound up the engagement
Those who have seen the play do not
need to be reminded of the hideous
character of Mr.. Hyde. He was as
fiendish as the arch fiend himself could
be. The part was so we'll taken by
Mr.. Owen that every time he assumed
the crouching, Kissing form of Hyde it
sent the cold shivers down the backs of
the audience. 1t was an unearthly
thing and we'll calculated to work
heavily upon any one who had any i'm
agination at all and those of us who
haven't are mighty close to idiocy. 1t
gave one that uncanny, creepy" SEN
sation that most of us who used to hear
ghost stories in our extreme youth will
remember. Several persons told US
that the sensation stayed with them for
a week or more after the company had
left the city. Some of the ladies declared
that it was with the utmost difficulty
that they managed to keep from faint
ing away.
Well, Joe, of course, after the tickets
were all sold, went into the house to see
the play. 1t had the same effect on
him that it did on the others. His hair
was just about to stand on end by the
time the play was over. And here is
where the big scare came in.
Joe usually looks the house all over
after the crowd is gone and turns out
all the lights. The crowd had gone
and he went up onto the stage with a
lantern to turn out the lights. The
phantom of that Mr. Hyde was still
with him. He imagined he could see
the hideous form raise up from the
stage and for a moment he was not sure
but that he heard the Kissing monster
as he appeared just after he had so
brutally murdered his best friend. And
for fear the formless shade might leap
upon him from some recess about the
stage Joe ran out of the house, and
with the nerves about the roots Of his
hair still twitching and filling him with
a nameless dread, he began to congrat-
ulate himself that he had got out of the
house alive.
But when he got into the corridor he
noticed that he had not turned out the
light in the ticket Office. He stopped
and looked at, it a moment, and began
to argue with himself that it was fool
ish to allow such feelings to gain pos
session of him. So long as he had a
lighted lantern with him how could
anything harm him. There was no one
in the house except himself. The
character of Mr.. Hyde was one merely
taken and acted by play actor; it was
no separate shape or shade and the
actor was out of the house. He downed
his conflicting emotions for a moment
and resolved to go back to turn out
that ticket Office light. He started
back, but as he walked down the side
aisle to the stage entrance the moving
masses and shapeless shades cast by
the weak light of his lantern rekindled
some of those strangely weird feelings,
which like Banquo's ghost would not
down. However, he kept on with set
purpose until he got onto the stage and
had turned out that offending light.
Just as he did so and had turned to go
out again his lantern went out. There
was not breath of air moving about
the stage, but Joe hadn't time to reason
concerning the why's and wherefores Of
the sudden disappearance of the light,
for no cOOror had If OOOA ont than
there was that Kissing and hoarse
breathing of that Internal tiend. Mr..
Hyde was a real shade and had risen
suddenly from the floor of the stage.
There was a light foot fall upon the
boards accompanied with slight
scratching sound. 1t was too plainly
audible to be the work of Imagination
now. The footballs approached him.
He thought for an instant to turn on