Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-11

~TF LS~ ing. For the first
two or three years of the rush the Klon-
dixie country will probably be more shy in
the matter Of amusement than any of the
big bo1 ANA camps in the west ever was,
owing to the tremendous difficulty people
have in getting in there with their goods.
So long as it costs from IS to 80 cents 4
pound to have such bare necessities as
bacon and flour lugged over the passes.
there'n certainly be very little Of such
impedimenta as theatrical accessories and
properties taken in. For a while, until
the passes have been made passable and
the carriers figures take a slump, the fell
lows who have got in and who know
enough to get up on a platform in their
everyday clothes and sing a song, or dance
clog, or tell a story, or do some sort
OF mimic turn, will probably pull down
as much dust at this kind of game as most
OF the claim workers will haul out Of their
sfuice boxes.
Il was present at the first theatrical en-
tertainment given in Angels Camp, Cal,
couple Of months after the rush there
q rev years ago, and the affair was only
one among many things that saw in the
California camps to convince me that Bret
Harte was not SO much Of an exaggerator
after all. Angels was one of the few
camps discovered in California within COM
paratively recent years that did not fizzle
OF Improbable understanding and bed
washing, for the gold was found to be
there, and good many Of the fellows who
got there first have been taking it out
ever since. l got there month after the
news of the find, and 1t certainly was a
camp of the old-timers. 1 met men there
in whose company had nosed around most
OF the country from the Rio Grande to
the Columbia, years before, chasing yell
low specters that were always hundred
miles or so beyond us, and from the go
off more of us did very badly at Angels.
Pining for Amusement.
''The camp developed almost as rapidly
as did Cripple Creek, later on, but, on ac-
count of its iDaccessibility. it was the
.crudest camp for several months that l
ever saw. Byron McGregor the San Fran
cisco gambler, started a faro game going
a couple of weeks after tidings of the find
reached San Frarciscoy and Bert Tavistock,
who was afterward shot to death by a
woman, started "a dance hall in tent.
These two joints were at the time 1 am
speaking of the only places of amusement
or relaxation in Angels, notwithstanding
the fact that there were more than a thou
sand men in the camps most of them doing
well, and probably majority of them will
ing and even eager to burn their dust on
something good. 3"
1.-The camp was pining for sensible enter
tainment when the theatrical outfit came
along in the stage one morning and put
up at Rigley's old Grand Palace Hotel,
which was composed of nine 1Ox12 rooms
and a bar. The troupe did not look very
promising to those of us who after quitting
work in the evening saw It's members
prowling 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 unactorlike
In their makeup, three rather refined, but
tired-looking women, none Of them es-
md hoh u hn
shabbiest ran 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 tent the
next night. I had seen this play back east
a few years previously, and remembered 1t
as an affair with some twenty or more
characters IN the cast. So I wondered
some how these six folks were going to get
through with it. But they all seemed to
be straight, square people, way out of
luck by their looks, and when the next
morning the camp saw the dirty, patched
performance that night they decided to do
the right thing by the players, no matter
how bad the show might be.
Most Of the men in the camp knocked
of work early and cleaned up for the
show. Tim Murtha, who was the marshal
of the town, had volunteered to take care
OF the crowd for the manager, and early
in the afternoon he passed around the
the show had better let whisky alone until
after it was over. for he was going to make
1t his job to that the show folks were
treated right.
The Whole Camp Was There.
1.-THE show tent wasn't anything like as
large as these Salvation Army tents you
see around here in the east, and it didn't
begin to hold the crowd, for every man
in the camp was there. So they hoisted
up the front flaps after all the wooden
benches inside had been filed, and the fell
lows who had paid their 81 to see the show
stood good-naturedly about fifty deep out
side the tent, waiting for the performance
to begin. Tim Murtha sold the tickets at
the hotel bar. They were white poker
chips, with some writing in blue pencil
scrawled on them. and when he had dis
posed of them all he had over 81 600 in gold
to turn over to the manager.
Just before the performance began Tim
appeared on the platform that answered
for a stage. He had his guns in his belt,
just as all the rest Of US did.
'Fellers,' said he. I don't know nothin'
about the merits Of this yere show that's
about to begin It's called the white
Slave" so don't s'pose it has much to do
with anythin' but white people, and this
yere's a white community in a whole lot of
ways, because it's get to be- and Tins
hands wandered uncorlsciously to his guns.
But all this is'1neither here nor there.
What I started out to- say is that the peo-
pie that's goin' to do this show seem to
hev' come to this orderly camp in a state
that might be called plumb out o. luck, an
we're here to see that they win out, 1t
makes no difference how their work assays.
This amt no CPaldWin's Grand Opera
House. nohow, and you don't want to ex-
pect too much. There, amt no scenery or
nothin' like that, shut some o. you needs to
exercise your imaginations. Eff the show
don't suit any osayous you know the way
out, but don't do no. criticism out loud
and again Tins hands travelled to his guns
Eff you see anythin' to approve though,
yell as much as you please In conclusion,
want to say that the kid belongin' to the
leadin' lady has been seized with the noun
tain collie or onen o. them ailments kids Is
liable to, an on this account you've got to
leave some margin for the actin O. the
le adm lady, who's q wife an mother. an.
therefore, to be respected accordin' So. be
good. This yere first scene is a plantation
on the Mississippi river and with q duck
of the head, Tim went Off. He was given
an enthusiastic recall, but didn't come
back.
Didn't Pay to Criticize.
'.The show wasn't SO utterly bad. al
though the cast Of characters was more
than cut in two. and even at that there
was some remarkably quick doubling work
by the six people. The manager, who took