Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-11-30

She was always fond of music and car
red the instrument around with her.
"'Now, you try she said, and Merriam
answered that he didn't know a note.
9TH teach YOU she said. There's an
air | want you to learn and remember
"'All right said Merriam, and he took
the mandolin from her. She showed him
where to place his fingers, and kept hum
ming the tune until he could play it with
only one or two breaks. Then she went
to her dressing room to get ready, and
Merriam sat there drumming until the
half hour was called.
THAT night there was q good deal of
handshaking and the word went around
that there was to be a weddin' at Christ
mas.
THE next night, on my way to the
theater. | noticed crowd around the
stage door, and heard talk Of a runaway.
I hurried up, and as | did so Merriam
came out his face as white as a ghosts
4" For Gods sake, get Il doctor, jerks!
he cried.
Il rushed to the nearest drug store, and
luckily, found one there. When we got
back to the stage door Merriam was wait
ing. and. without Il word, he led us to 4
sofa in the wings on which Nellie Moore
was lying The doctor bent down over
her for minute, shook his head and said
he was too late.
can understudy played Juliet that night
and Merriam rs usual was the Romeo
The audience didn't know the real reason
for the change. but in the tomb scene
don't see how they could help feeling it.
'Those of us who saw it from the wings
will never forget it. The women We're in
Mysteries and the stage hands and fymen
were nearly as bad. / don't know how
Merriam ever lived through it, but this
do know. He was a different man from
that night. He seemed to lose all his am
hition and he Withered up SO, that when I
met him at q rehearsal two years later,
I hardly knew him. He was bent much
as you see him now, and was playing
character old men. Every year he
dropped down further. until they wouldn't
trust him with anything better than bits
and servants. Yes, sir, and that old man
has played Romeo with the best of them"
The story was finished, but the mando-
lin still tinkled. The leading mans face
was drawn, and jerks sat thinking. Per-
haps the former was thinking of his own
high tide of prosperity, and of what the
future had in store for him.
But sympathy and curiosity are closely
allied. and soon the two men were tip
toeing through the passageway. They
paused before the old actors room. A ray
of light filtered through a crack in the
thin pine door. Merriam was dressed and
made up for comedy servant. His
green livery coat hung Oh a peg on the
wall, and the red wig with which he COW
cred his own white hair lay on the dress
ing table before him. There too, was a
faded photograph of a pure-faced girl
in the dress of Juliet. The actor was
bent over his mandolin and the leading
man now caught the tune for the first
time, broken, but recognizable:
When other hearts and other lips
Their tales of love shall tell
Then you'll remember, you'll remember -
Twang! There was the sound of a
broken string.
First act! All up for the first actr'
The call boy came tumbling down the pas
sage and the listeners hurried up to the
stage. A few minutes later the call boy
came up, too, and he found the stage
manager Tuning.
Where's Merriam" he cried 81 can't
hold the curtain all night for that dodder-
ing old fool. Hurry him up, will you?"
The boy disappeared, and reappeared
almost instantly.
Mr. Merriam's-." The tears chozed
his voice and he got no further. The
stage manager made q rush for the stairs.
Ten minutes later he came up dressed for
the comedy servant, but the man whose
name was down on the bills for the part
| lay in his dressing room clutching an old
mandolin. with his eyes fixed on a faded
| DhOtOUra nh New York Herald