Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-03-15
PLAYED MEAN TRICK
Z LITTLE affair of theatrical trunk at

The old man seemd retlcent about relat-
ing the yarn after he had gone so far as
to intimate it. presume he was still rath
er ashamed of his part in it, although | can
not see why he should attach any blame to
himself, as he was not the manager of the
company, and had nothing to do with pay
ing the bills, or rather the not paying of
them, as was the case. 1t was not until we
had withdrawn to a quiet retreat that /
succeeded in getting the full story out Of
him, and then this is what he told me:
I'VE were repertoire outfit" he said,
"and for some time previous to our strlk-
ing Washington, year before the incident
happened that I'm going to tell you about,
we'd been having some pretty savage i'll
luck When we came along to Washington
we all put up at one Of the Pennsylvania
avenue hotels and deposited the baggage
containing our everyday street clothes there.
Our costume trunks, of course, went to the
theater. From the first night we could see
that we were going to have bad week Of it,
and that there would probably be no money
to pay the hotel biHs on Saturday night
Well we needed the clothes that we had
packed in the trunks in the hotel, and so,
every time we went to the theater, we took
some Of EN- away in bundles and packed
them in our costume trunks. BY the time
Saturday came around there wasn't a rag
belonging to any of us in our trunks at the
hotel. Our buds were safely tucked away
in our costume trunks. We stood to lose our
empty trunks and grips, left behind at the
hotel, OF course, but that was a small loss
compared with what the loss Of all our
street garments would have been. The
landlord Of the hotel was unsuspicious, but
the manager of the show wasn't taking any
chances. by six o'clock on Saturday night
all of our trunks, as well as all OF the scenery
and props we carried, were on the
baggage car, on their way to Pittsburgh,
our next stop. On Saturday night we gave
a play that required only street clothes and
we wore the clothes that we were going to
get out Of town in. We got out of town
all right without laying our hotel bills. 1t
wasn't nice tlang to do, of course, but we
couldn't help it, We didn't have the money
and we had to get on to the next stand.
The next stand was about the same
as all the others had been Small houses
and any number Of comps were the rule
We did manage to get enough together to
pay hotel bills at that place, although we
did not receive our salaries as a result Of
o'i ioIostA' loih to"H ~ Town the re-
SUIT was ihucn me same ana we were work
ing LOT our poafd ana ciotnes almost but
alter ihdt eNPer,ehee a. washington we
always Pdlu notel DIES as we went aionS'
cohtriNeu 70 noid loselhef' ana we
WY pooNeu ior " "sns"sloh iate III tue iol-
io" ing sedsoH' an oi US hoC executing
tne manager came on mere With some lear
ana 'reilioIlhg' we remembered very VlVldiy
or Preclpl'ous oeparture from the capilal
~ Tue year pelore' we put up at aflother
81 "'iia "Ne"ue nolei' puO We ulQ ~
Se"u F." siiisie piece ~ our baggage thefe' we
"''.'''' - ~ ray 'ng ~ "oNSufe
80 ''''F' ''i.'' IN rs wees = = our Dag
t'sF "'a' y" '"t '"e"'ff' ne manager
NiH'N "a lHt h"lfi h''h W" hdd bert
"''e y " thr sra'"n nrl"tr' hrder CIR
'"''', ,'''''' 1NFr M"''" We h@d ho '""lto''
"ou.' '''f 'nt l''I'e'S ~ fe'ui 'o "i' 1'n "
on '"i Jay nienl' anu mere WASH enough
,io"eS = 'ne ne, treasury = pay thdI ueau-
no ", ~ io'e' JIM
Is ,i"n'sel 0ouluh go - 'iie pre-
Nlous scheihe u seHulhs the baggage anu
props out Oh Town carry on 0dturud! even
ing, 1or we were 70 give costume pay on
that night, ana we had 10 nave our gear
Dut rs was Pt@tty ingenious HlaHaseI'
ABOUT zen CLOCK OIL SATURDAY nIeht' v Hlle
the SNOW was III progress huee wagon
drew up back OF the theater, ana tne man
ager had II loadeu up 10 the gun IS Win
big dry goods boxes, big abandoned props,
that weren worth burning up, CASTOR
trunks that were out at bottom, and SO on
When several tarpaulns were stretched
over the WagonIoad OF Junk, IL .ooked
enough like a bona fde truckiull OF the
atrlcal baggage and gear to be the real thing.
As we anticipated, the man with the at
tachment papers was IN waiting at the end OF
the alley. The wagonoad OF iiotsam and
jetsam Gathered out OF the alley with
all kinds Of noise along toward ll:3O and
it was promptly seized. The manager was
OF hand to witness the seizure lie was
pretty good actor himself, and he stormed
and raved. The man with the papers was
only doing his duty, however, and the man
ogers dssembled wrath did no good, as, OF
course he knew would be the case. Finally
he hoped onto the wagon with the man
who had the attachment papers, and told
the driver to go TO the hotel where the oil
was owing from the year before. mat looked
all rlght TO the man with the papers, ana
TO the hotel the Wagohload OF drlltWood
was driven. The manager jumped oil the
wagon and went in to see the proprietor.
The proprietor was granite The manager
pleaded, eXpostulated, lmplored, ragged
made all sorts Of promises, but nothing
went with the motel proprietor. lie wanted
every soumarque OF the money owing HIM
for year, or the baggage and props on the
wagon were his y. The manager put IN
good hour trying to reason with the hotel
man, and his eloquence was enough to move
stone, but the boniiace dldn turn a
halr. Inc ehd OF II al was that the motel
man remarked, calmly: 40 ker-tlsh, no
baggage. ! on re wasting your breath.
Wen sald me manager When ms voice
was hoafse with taking, pose 1 II nave
to go out and see II can make dig some
where.
That an right sad the hotel man.
Meanwhile, i Just have that wagon Load
fulIv ouarded You're foxy nronosition
; s@ ; s:5 q: !, :: : g; Of the times when YOU'RE