The record-union., 1897-05-23

bdyTeutn IS Sllll cOHSlUeTeU the pcol VI
all advertisements and recommends
tions for singers, most of them are will
ing to take much less than they receive
elsewhere. Should the De ResZke broth
ers ever accept Nine. Wagner's urgent
invitations to sing at Bayreuth, they
would probably give their services free,
as the small sums paid there would, of
course, be no inducement to artists who
receive so much more in England and
America
OF course you have all heard of the
women who manage theaters and make
a success of it, but have you ever heard
of an actress who owned play, acted
the leading role in it, and took large
company through several months
tour without any masculine assistance
at all?
Well, there is one such actress, and at
present she is living with her husband
in this city. On the stage she is known
as Miss Bessie Taylor, but in private
life she is Mrs. Newton Bennington, the
wife of Well-to-dO business man down
town.
But, to begin at the beginning. Miss
Taylor last summer purchased Wllllam
Haworth's naval melodrama, THE En-
sign," and organized company to pre-
sent it in the Western and Southern
cities. She engaged man to look after
the business end of the enterprise, OF
course, and in August her tour began.
All went we'll for four weeks, but at the
end of that time Miss Taylor began to
have doubts about her ability to get on
with her manager. She kept her eyes
open and her suspicious We're confirmed
by what she saw In Columbus. Ohio,
the week before election, she called the
manager up, and they had a serious con-
versation.
From Columbus the company was to
go South. Miss Taylor pointed out to
her manager that from all accounts the
theatrical business was not f1ourishing
in that section of the country, and that
it would be particularly inadvisable to
take a play like 1.-The Ensign" below
Mason and DiXon's line at such a time.
The manager couldn't or wouldn't see
it in that light. Anyway, he could do
nothing, he said. Miss Taylor thereupon
expressed her determination to do some
thing herself, and first of all she told
the astonished manager to draw the
salary due him and go home.
He protested but she had given him
his chance, and now she was going to
have her own way. 1t was her own
show. and she could do with it as she
pleased.
She would be her own manager for
the future.
fa1 vii n a
villain "Ha-ha," and Miss Taylor locked
the door after him, and-and-yes, it
must be confessed, she cried. But then,
you know, there is really nothing like
a good cry to brace up a woman's
nerves, and after Miss Taylor had
cleared her system of all superfluous
tears she was ready to face any amount
of difficulty.
She put her hat on straight, went down
to the telegraph office, cancelled all her
Southern dates, wired to managers in
the East and Northeast for open time
and took the train for Indianapolis to
see what she could do there. An In
dianapolis engagement was speedily ar
ranged, and Miss Taylor began to feel
just little bit proud of herself.
The members of the company were
thunderstruck. Some of them even
had the courage to hint that she was un-
dertaking a very large contract, but she
only smiled and gently counseled them
to let her attend to her own affairs. And
the event proved that she hadn't gauged
her abilities bit too high.
FROM Indianapolis the company went
to Dayton, Ohio; thence to Chicago, and
Vile, Springfield, Ohio; Cleveland, Pitts
burg, Rochester and Lockport. Christ
mas week Miss Taylor played in Brook
lyn and closed her season. All that
time she never missed a performance,
never was i'll, counted up" the house
every night, bought all railroad tickets,
attended to the baggage and sent out
her own advance notices to the newspa-
pers. When her manager left her, the
books showed a loss of s., 600 on the sea-
son. When she closed in Brooklyn and
balanced her accounts there was a nice
little sum to her credit.
And how do you like being a man
ageress?" I inquired after Miss Taylor
had told me all this.
''Oh. / like it," she said I'm going
out again next autumn, and I'm going
to be my own manager from the start.
It's easy enough after you know how.
OF course was very green at first, and
I suppose / was cheated sometimes. but
| soon learned the ropes. and then-well,
they didn't get ahead of me often.
"The company behaved lovely from
the start. but there was just little ten
dency when 1 first took hold for each
11 7 w
that wouldn't do, and so I just called
them all together, after a performance,
and made a little speech. What did l
say? oh, | don't remember exactly, but
it was plain for them to understand, and
reckon there was never any better dis
cipline maintained in any theatrical or
ganization than mine after that.
Il had some amusing experiences.
though. after that. One night the
treasurer came to me in a great state
of alarm The twenty supers' had
gone on a kind of strike. 1t was in our
contract that the theater should pay
these people. and, as l happened to
know. they had been paid. They thought
they had only a woman TO deal with.
though, and so they demanded payment
again from my treasurer. If he didn't
settle with them, they said, they
wouldn't take off our costumes. / sent
the treasurer out for policeman, and
then I hurried down into the dressing
room where the 'supers' were. One big
fellow was standing in the middle of the
floor. and l made straight for him. He
saw / meant business, and he backed
off, but grabbed him by the collar, and
L fn1I haf Il q
Of them. and wound up with the state
ment that I'd stay in town to prosecute
them If they didn't take their uniforms