The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-08-19
The First Violin.
-.
BY }. K. Reeve.
How an Audience In n Thcater
Enjoyed a Courtsbip.

u HillSn Win u Didit duA bfAhk lii< hlu1E
the walls echo and the footlights dance,
for the patrons of the Frivolity theater
liked plenty of "go' in their music, as in
everything connected with the entertain
ment.
AS the music ceased, the gaudy curtain
rolled up and revealed a brilliantly set
stage scene--brilliant with papier mache
and tinsel and the many make believes of
the mimic world.
There was crowded house, and the
mixed assemblage gave good opportunity
for the study of types. But among the
hundreds were just two Of whom want
to tell you.
Minis was first violin in the Frivolity
orchestra. There was tradition to the
effect that his name had once been
Mines, but because some one had said
that he was ''mimsey looking" the name
had forthwith been contracted as above.
Minis was 200 years old. Perhaps you
think / do not mean this, but let us Sec
Minis was street boy. The urchin's
earliest recollections were of the crowd
ed thoroughfares about Drury lane, of
his terror of the big policeman and of
cold and hunger. His father was a thief
Ibis mother as bad. His fathers father
died upon the gallows. while his maternal
grandfather had taken up his permanent
residence at a convict prison. / have
not troubled to trace his genealogical tree
further. but make no doubt that should
find that for 200 years the heredity and
environment had heen such as TO concen-
trate and eliminate in poor little Minis
every wicked aud wretched trait to
which humanity is subject
His fare fold Won all this II was fha
face of little old man, and it had been
so always. | cannot think that Minis
had ever been q baby, soft and dimpled
and playful. 1t is not in nature that a
baby should have grown into such an
ettigy of manhood.
Minis had not been long In this world
before he had assimiiated perfectly all
the knowledge of good and evil which his
progenitors had been industriously accu-
mulating for him through so many gem
erations, and it does not require much
perspicuity to guess in which branch OF
this knowledge he had the greater inner
itance.
Now, you may think from this that
Minis was pretty bad, but he was not,
because he possessed one saving grace.
One day while he was yet small lad
Minis heard band playing in the street.
Possibly he had heard music before, but
only with the outer ear. 1t had never
reached and touched that micro organism
which we term the soul.
Minis followed the band long way.
The band marched fast, and poor Mims'
little feet grew very tired, until they
would carry him no farther. Then he
sat down upon the curb and cried.
But he arose from the curb with the
seeds of ambition firmly implanted with
in him. He would be a musician.
Henceforth Minis sold papers and
BACKED boots more industriously than
ever and boarded his pennies with all the
greed of miser. When he finally count
ed them and found there were enough TO
buy fife, it was the contamination of
the 6rst step in his career. From that
on he assembled by regular stages, the
first of which was hanging about an
East End concert hall and cultivating
the acquaintance of the musicians there,
and the last Of which was first violin at
the k'riyolity.
When the overture was over and the
curtain lifted, Minis leaned back in his
chair, closed his eyes and kept only wide
awake enough to know when any musical
accompaniment was needed. That part
of the show did not interest him. No
matter how many pretty girls were wav-
ing their shapely feet above the foot
lights, Minis thought it very foolish that
the audience should prefer that to the
numbers Of the orchestra.
But he was not permitted TO rest long
in peace. There was roar from the
audience, half of applause and half Of
derision, and he opened his eyes to look
around about for the cause.
On the stage was the usual thiRg-a
young singer giving serio comic song,
with interludes of dance steps and grace
full posturing. A new singer he saw at
once. And, to catch the audience, she
was singing to and making eyes at some
one in the orchestra, and that some one
was Minis Now, this had never hap
pened before. There were plenty OF
comely fellows in the orchestra. The
young man who played the bass yiol was
of a Byronic cast Of features, and the
cornet player was as round and rosy as a
big red apple, and these were the men at
whom the sylphs of the stage usually
made pretty mouths. That she should
have selected him, with his old weakened
face, to draw all eyes toward made him
boil with wrath.
As he sat up and glared about the girl
was just courtesying and throwing a kiss
to him. Minis flushed, and the people
howled at his discontinue, while the
girl, quick to see she had made hit by
chance, began to sing little love song.
This she accompanied with all manner Of
serio comic by play, with Minis still as
| its object.
As he could do nothing but sit quietly
and hear it he began to study the singer
And this Is what he saw:
A young girl not beyond her teens.
He was quite sure Of that, in spite of the
make up" of the stage, which the foot
lights and her nearness to them and to
him brought out so hideously. A girl
with fresh, bright face, yet unmarried
by the hard life of the theater. A pretty