Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1899-05-04
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GRIT BEHIND THE SCENES.

GRIT BEHIND THE SCENES.
Actors Who Play When Ill and While
Suffering Great Pain.
The courage with which the injured
members of the "Cyrano de Bergerac''
company insisted upon playing their
roles after the Brooklyn accident is only
another proof Of the nerve with which
actors endure physical suffering rather
than disappoint the public and the
manager. One hears great deal about
stage folk and their eccentricities, but
their heroism isn't often exploited, and
they themselves have fashion of max
ing light of it.
Mrs. Brown Potter was recently
obliged to give up her work in Dumas
''Three Musketeers' on the first nights
Of the play, but she fought hard against
the illness, and even in the acute stage
of pleurisy, with her temperature at
104 degrees and her every breath an
agony, she insisted upon acting and
entirely concealed her suffering. Mrs.
Beerbohm Tree, who took up the part
Of Miladi on 10 hours notice. has a
reputation for etoicism and has ap-
peared on the stage when so racked by
rheumatic fever that every step was
torture and she could not walk from
one side of the stage to the other. Beer
bohm Tree himself. not to be downed
h%1 e. I~~ q
managers and is warranted to keep en-
gagements unless dead and buried An
attack of congestion of the lungs almost
got the better of him several seasons
ago, but he took room next door to
the theater, and every night, in spite of
the physicians orders and warnings,
he was wrapped up like mummy and
carried from his bed to the stage, where
he played his role in s'The Dancing
Girl" =
Ellen Terry's martyrdom is chronic,
for she suffers very frequently from the
most violent form of neuralgia, and
night after night will play, with the
utmost ease and grace, while enduring
pain that would make the average man
groan. Duse is another of neuralgia's
victims, and Rejane, with an abscess in
her side, never missed a nights per-
Torrance. Clara Morris acted regularly
during years when, on account of seri-
GUS spinal trouble, every movement Of
her body caused her excruciating pain.
She often said jestingly that scenes Of
agony came easily for her, for all she
needed to do was to drop the mask and
show her own suffering.
One of Sothern's plays came near fiz-
cling out on it's first night because Of
Virginia Harned's illness. She was seri-
ously ILL., The physicians said 1t would
be impossible for her to leave her bed
and that an attempt to do so might be
fatal. The manager was wild. Sothern
was worried. Explanations were pre-
pared for the public; but Miss Harmed
announced that she would play on the
opening night. When she says she will
do a thing, she does it. Commands and
entreaties had no effect on her. When the
night came, she had temperature and
pulse that made the doctors hair stand
on end, but she dressed, was carried to
the wings, and went on, while two doc
tors watched her from the wings and
poured restoratives down her throat
each time she left the stage. Half the
time she had no definite knowledge of
what she was doing, but went through
her part mechanically. At the end Of
the evening she was completely deliri-
Gus; but the play had scored hit, and
the audience knew nothing of the cost
Painful accidents often occur on the
stage and are borne with:such sang froid
by the sufferer that the audience has
no idea anything has happened. Booth.
one night, in falling, ran nail into
his side, but so completely ignored the
incident that even his fellow actors did
not know anything had happened until
after the act had ended. The great
Talma broke his arm in the second act
Of a play, finished the act, had his arm
pulled into place, and went on with
the play as though nothing had hap
pened. '.. IT,
1t was not long ago that Mantell
dashed his hand down upon table and
ran spindle clear through his palm
and out the back of his hand Without
even faltering in his lines he held the
spindle with his left hand, pulled his
right hand free, wound his kerchief
around it and went on with his part as
though his nerve had never been tried.
Evidently some members of the profess
sion are more convincingly heroic in
private character than in heroic roles,
and probably all of them count more or
less martyrdom in the years work.
New York Sun.
Niagara's Recession.
Speaking of Niagara falls, the Buff
falo Express says: "Men who have for
q long time made a study of the recess