The times., 1899-05-07
PRESS AGENTS ROUND TABLE.

/
to retain it,
PRESS AGENTS ROUND TABLE.
One of the wittiest men in the theatrical
profession is Wilton Lackaye. and those of
his friends who have ever combated him
| verbally have excellent reason for remem
bering this fact. Perhaps a large portion
OF the actors brightness is in
herent. for the parents of the
erstwhile Svengali were born in Kill
kenny, and his ability in repartee is dis
| tinctly Irish. James 0'Neill is another
native of the Emerald Isle. and when Mr..
Lackaye was in his company the two cross
ed swords very frequently. The final bout
| OF this sort occurred shortly before
/ Charles o O'Malley'' was taken on the road
and the place selected was the festal board
at banquet given by orangemen in Mon
treal. During the course of the dinner Mr..
| Lackaye took advantage of decided lull
in the conversation to ask of his star:
Are you Irish, JIM"
Mr.. o'Neill glanced about him discreet
| ly. and then, with a slight frown, replied:
'Oh. no; l came originally from Jincin-
natl"
There was a laugh, and then having par
ried the question of his vis-a-vis, the for
mer Count of Monte Cristo enquired: Are
| you Irish, Will?"
"oh, no. said Mr.. Lackaye with broad
smile and a show of easy nonchalance; i
came from heaven"
! And only the fact that the Orangemen
were serving as hosts kept from Mr..
| O'Neill the necessity of running up small
bill at once.
| But one of the most laughable incidents
| that is told concerning mixtures in ma
tionalites concerns Manager 'Hughey"
| Herman. whose annual benefit occurs short
ly at the Lyceum Mr. Herman is not a
native of the old soil himself but he is
| of Irish extraction, and his name when
pronounced as it should be, fairly reeks
of shamrocks and other things of the sort
| So it was that the genial amusement ca
| terer was trife surprised the other day
| when he was introduced to man who i'm
mediately turned to him and remarked,
| '.Kernan-Kernan. From what country do
you Gomez"
The question was asked in a very broad
German dialect and when Mr.. Herman had
/! quite digested it he smilingly replied,
| why from France. I thought you might
have guessed that. By the way what did
! Mr.. Jones call you?"
The Teuton, who had lifted his eyebrows
incredulously when informed of the home
of his opposite, gave an imitation OF Mr..
| Keruan's smile on an extremely large
scale. Then he lifted glass of beer to his
lips and answered, my names Schmidt
tenbergenhoffer-Im a Swede.'
And no one ventured to doubt it.
There is a rather laughable story going
| the rounds of the local Rialto, and in it
Harry Corson Clarke figures as leading man
with Myron Calice as principal heavy. The
tale bears marks of having emanated from
the teeming brain of a press agent, and,
therefore, no one has been found who will
| vouch for ii, but the humor OF the Incl
dent Is sufficiently great to serve as an
excuse for its narration, and hence
| The comedian of the Frawley Company.
who is an exceedingly quiet man. has a
room at one of Washington's favorite
family hotels, and here he entertains those
of his friends whom he considers near
enough and dear enough to be taken into
his home. One of these fortunate persons
has been Mr.. Calice This actor had known
Mr.. Clarke well before the formation OF
the organization now at the Columbia,
and when he discovered that they were to
be companions he had practically estab-
lished his headquarters in the apartments
of his colleague. Many hours of the day
| were spent in Mr.. Clarke's cozy den, and
Mr.. Calice speedily outgrew the formality
of being announced before proceeding up
stairs, though this familiarity always caus-
ed him to be looked upon with suspicion
by the house employees.
| One afternoon, lust before dinner, the
heavy man In this little impromptu play
was walking through the hall of the hotel
in question when he passed Mr.. Clarke s
| room and through the open door noticed
that the entertainer had left his watch on
a table Now this form OF carelessness Is
| particularly unreasonable to MIR. Caiice,
who had warned his friend about it fire.
uuentiy, so that when he observed that
the tiInepiece had been left to anyone who
chose to take it he was inspired with the
idea of teaching the owner a lesson. He
| would pocket the article and would re-
turn 1t to its proprietor after that gentle
man had had time to be thoroughly fright
ened at his loss. The joke would be re-
membered and the reformation should be
complete. Accordingly Mr.. Calice looked
about to see that he was unobserved and
then stole into the chamber. He tiptoed
to the table and gathered in the jewelry
Then he turned about and started TO leave
To his intense surprise the door of the
room had been shut and locked.
A moments reasoning taught the anna
teur thief just what was the matter-he
had been seen in the act of lifting the
watch by someone who had quietly Sc
cured him and then gone for the police
The affair would be easily explained and
| a few glasses would settle II with those
who might be tempted to make fun OF
him. So Mr.. Calice determined to sit down
and await the arrival of the officer. But
In taking the chronometer from his pocket
the face was exposed and the actor dis
! covered TO his horror that within half an
hour the curtain would rise at the Column
bia. II he was not there the performance
could not proceed.
Upon thinking of this Mr.. Calice made
every effort to get out of the room. But
the window was dangerously far from the
ground the transom was small and the
most desperate punches at the bell went
unanswered Three or four times he made
the round of the apartment with
out avail. Minutes were begin
ming to seem hours, visions OF
heavy fines were commencing to float
before his eyes and he was becoming des-
perate when voices were heard in the hall
Then Mr.. Calice had an idea. Probably
the lad outside was unaware of what had
happened He would duplicate MIR. Clarke's
voice, have the door unlocked and then
force his way past at any cost. So he
waited an instant and then, softening his
tone as much as possible, ventured, "Oh,
boyi" There was a long silence and the
heavy man repeated his exclamation. Then
another soft voice asked frorn outside
''Helio Who's there?"
I've locked myself in said Mr. Calice
Will you turn that key?"
Who's there?" came the response Then
DIR. Calice resolved to take fearful chances
| With supreme effort to initiate Mr.
| Clarke he replied TITS Harry Carson