Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-27
THE PROMPTER.

He was only a prompter in one of the lit
tie German theaters which one finds in up
stairs halls and rickety places of amuse-
ment along Third avenue in New York.
If any one had told him five years before
he began his career by prompting a com
pany of German comedians in ''Die Fle-
dermaus'' hat he should have to earn his
bread and butter in such a lowly way he
would have thrown bricks at him.
A prompter! He started out in life as
afirst lieutenant in a regiment of Prussian
cheveaux- legers. With influence which
his family had at its command he might
have become a general, when the unfor-
tunate outcome of a duel drove him from
home to foreign shores. A woman had
been the cause of it-a cold, heartless CO.
quette, who threw him aside as she would
cast off an old glove when he had no lon.
ger position and the expectation of wealth.
In New York he had tried to obtain a
position commensurate with his social
standing and his education. Like thou
sands of Others, he failed. From q waiter
in a Bowery c%hophouse he became a come
dian in a shack of a playhouse, where the
price of admission was 20 cents on Satur-
days and Sundays and 5 cents during the
rest of the week. Fate had been unkind
to him by throwing him into the clutches
of a rascally manager, who was always in
arrears with the salaries, that at best were
small and insufficient for anything beyond
the merest necessities. A few weeks suf-
feed to cure him of the footlight fever,
and the erstwhile lieutenant gladly accept
oI tho nffor. cf a cfoaIu ipJ, nc ,,pc,,,ytor ~,
a little theater a few shades better than
the one he had just left.
The proprietor ran an eating house in
conjunction with his temple of the muses.
and was always prompt in the payment
of his dues. Hans Karl Lemkin became a
prompter, and because he did not have to
hunger and thirst any longer, eating his
meals at his employers table, he remained
aprompter all his life. 1t ism very strange
that the terrible shock to his brilliant ex-
pectations should have crushed all the
spirit out of him. The meager comforts
of his existence satisfied him. If he had
any ambitions to soar beyond the narrow
confines of his box nobody ever heard of
them-yes, one.
She was a woman of course. Like him
self, she had come from the fatherland.
She was a child prodigy in the old coun-
try, and when she grew older some man
ager picked her up and brought her to
America. The company, of which she
was the leading woman, became stranded
on a barn storming tour in Canada, and
naturally the girl drifted to New York.
Her first metropolitan engagement was OBJ
tanned in the little house in which Lemkin
did the prompting. The girl was young
and pretty and might have been a sister to
the woman who had forsaken the poor
prompter in his trouble, so strong was her
resemblance to that highborn lady who
was his first love. At first Karl was in
terested; then he abhorred her for that
uncanny likeness, and then, poor fellow,
he fell head over heels in love with her.
She returned his love in a way-her way
which was shallow and insincere. Karl
was poor; others who paid homage at her
shrine were well provided with this worlds
goods. She needed their money for her
advancement, and she also needed Karl's
good will while she played in the little
German company in the Third avenue
playhouse.
The prompter watched over her with the
fidelity of a dog. He carried her basket
with the togs back and forth between her
home and the theater, he took her homo
ut night and he discreetly got out of the
way when others more favored sought to
entertain her.
1t was a sorry lovemaking on his part-a
sort Of comfortable exchange Of affections
as far as the m was concerned. She
had promised to marry him at the end of
the season, and that satisfied the poor fell
low and filled him with happiness, which
he never expected to feel again. He had
been frugal and economical and saved a
little out of his scanty earnings. AS soon
as they were married he would 60 into
some business and earn a fortune for her.
Yes, there was the new incentive that
would bind him to life with stronger links
than heretofore.
The season neared it's end, and Karl's
happiness grew In proportion. Magda be-
came more loving and thoughtful of her
betrothed's feelings, and he had not a mo-
ment's II that she vas faithful to him.
One day he was called away from his usual
haunts by q letter from his home, wherein
he received the welcome information that
a distant relative had died and left him a
comfortable bequest. He had no time to
communicate this stroke of good luck,
which came at such an opportune time, to
his sweetheart, but fastened off to be
identified with some lawyer and obtain a
power of attorney to send abroad that the
money might be collected for him.
Being unacquainted with the people and
methods Of SO large a city at New York, it
took young Lemkin many hours before he
accomplished his purpose. When every
thing was arranged satisfactorily he set
out for home. On the way he would call
at Magda's home and communicate to her
the happy news. He pictured to himself
their wedding, their happy life in some
pretty cottage in Harlem or across the riv-
er ON Hoboken heights. Way into the fu-
ture the young man sent his dreams, and
all seemed fair and bright once more.
When he arrived at Magda's lodgings,
there was no response to his repeated
knocks. She may be out, he said to him
self, and proceeded to make himself COM
Portable on the stairs to await her coming.
He might have been sitting in the shadow
of the stairway for an hour or more, lost
in idle thoughts, when the front door was
thrown open and Magda's landlady en-
tered.
you, Mr.. Lemkin?" she said: II did
not expect you till tomorrow. Miss Magda
thought you might colne then, and In that
case she told me to give you this note
The woman took from the pocket Of her