Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-08-15

then, as only part or IL was visible
from where they stood they followed
it along.
Mr. Owens and were on the stage.
Suddenly his eyes distended. What
in the DEVIL" he whispered. l
looked behind me and at the same mo-
ment the audience burst into shouts
of laughter-for right into the center
Of the stage had walked, with backs
toward the audience, two tall gentle
men, each with a shining bald head,
each tightly buttoned in a long black
oyercoat and each gesticulating with
a heavy cane.
| whispered to Mr.. Owens: The
two Dromios," but he snapped out
Two blind old bats"
When they heard the roar behind
them they turned their heads and then
a funnier, wilder exit | never saw
than was made by these two dignifed
old conference.-the Owens added to
the laughter by taking me by the
hand, and, when we had assumed their
exact attitude, singing Two Wander
ing Boys From Switzerland"
l am reminded that the first per-
Torrance l ever saw in my life had
one of the most grotesque Interrupt
lions imaginable. At sort of coun-
try hotel, much frequented by driving
parties and sleighing parties, a com
pany of players were strapped" to
use the theatrical term-stranded, I'M
able either to pay their bills or to
move on. There was a ballroom in
the house and the proprietor allowed
them to erect temporary stage there
and give a performance, the guests at
the house promising to attend in a
body
One Of the plays was an old French
farce, known to English audiences as
"The Hole in the Wall" The princi-
pal comedy part was a clerk to two
old misers who starved him outra-
geously.
l was little stifly starched person,
and | remember that | sat on some
ones silk lap and slipped and slipped
and was hitched up and Immediately
slipped again-until l wished | might
fall off and be done with it. Nearer
me sat a little old maiden lady, who
who had come in from her village shop
to see the "show" She wore two
small sausage curls either size of her
wrinkled cheeks, large glasses, broad
lace collar, while three members of
her departed family gathered together
in one fell group on a mighty pin upon
her tired chest. She held a small bag
on her knee and from it she now and
tLen slid a bit of cake which, as she
nibbled it, gave off a strong odor of
caraway seed.
Now the actor was clever in his
makeup" and each time he appeared
he looked thinner than he was in the
scene before. Instead of laughing,
however, the old woman took it Sc
riously, and she had to wipe her glass
es with her carefully folded handker-
chief several times before the last
scene, when she was quite overcome.
His catch phrase had been "O-h-h!
how hungry | ami" and every time he
said it she gave a little involuntary
groan; but as he staggered on at the
last, thin as a bit of paper, hollow
checked, white-faced, she Indignantly
exclaimed, We'll, now, that's a
sname!"
The people laughed aloud, the come
dian fixed his eyes upon her face, and,
with hands pressed against his
stomach, ~roaned "O-h-h! how hungry
I am"-and then she opened that bag
and drew forth two long, twisted fried
cakes, rose, stood on her tip-toes and,
reaching them up to him tearfully re-
marked:
Here you poor soul! take these;
they are awful dry, but it's all I've got
with me-"
The audience fairly screamed, but,
poor and stranded as that company
was, the comedian was an artist for
he accepted the fried cakes, ate them
ravenously to the last cTumb and so
kept well within the character he was
playing, without hurting the feelings
of the kind-hearted old woman.
1t is pleasant to know that that
clever bit of acting attracted the at
tention and gained the interest of a
well-to-do gentleman who was present
and who next day helped the actors
on their way to the city.
A certain foreign actor once smiling
ly told me | was "a crank about my
American public" I took his little
gibe in good part for while he knew
foreign audiences, he certainly did not
know American ones as well as l, who
have faced them from ocean to ocean,
from British Columbia to Florida
Two characteristics they all share
in common-intelligenC and fairness,
otherwise they vary as widely, have as
many marked peculiarities as so many
New York and Boston
are the authorities this side of the
Great Divide" while San Francisco
sits in judgment by the blue Pacific.
One o-be-forgotten night went
to a fashionable theater in New York
city to see a certain English actress
mako hpr dphut before an American