The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-11-06
MANY HARD KNOCKS
LIFE OF AN ACTOR NOT ONE
ROUND OF FUN.
STRANDED OUT IN THE WEST
Artist Now in Butte Tells Of the Mis-
fortunes That Befell a Fellow
Stage Character.

after all, there are some advantages
in playing with a dramatic organization
which does not venture further from
New York than Jersey City," remarked
an actor now playing in Butte. while
talking with some friends after the per-
Torrance last evening.
lin case Of an accident it isn't so en-
barrassing for the actor to request
ferry ticket as 1t is to find transporta-
ton from Colorado to Broadway.
LEO Farnam, a song and dance come
dian, who ventured out last January with
the "Stowaway" company. was stranded
in Cripple Creek in February. and after
turning his hand to eight different oc-
equations in as many months, succeeded
last week in reaching New York and
telling crowd Of actor friends he found
there his adventures.
Does Many Things.
Among other things which he does not
came to mention this is what he did to
get back to Broadway:
II. Worked as bell boy in Cripple
Creek hotel.
"2. Worked as railroad brakeman.
49, Substituted for sick railroad fire.
man.
a. Went back to his original trade of
shoeing horses.
IS, Organized an amateur theatrical
company.
&c. Worked as hotel waiter.
~. Punched cattle in a stock yard.
'S. Watered horses on a cattle train
in lieu of railroad fare to Jersey City.
HE has now Joined the Ten Mile club
and will never again go further than
that away from Broadway without re-
%,,,, 1roo in1y a+ tn, r fc nlxnt
Sure of His Fare.
when he left New York last January
with the "Stowaway" company he left
as sure of his fare back to New York
as he would had he been with Sir Henry
Irving.
ut is one of the old burglar plays,
Immensely realistic and taking, and in
addition enjoys the distinction of having
furnished Norman Selby with the APP
pellation Of Kid Mccoy
but the show went to pieces in
Cripple Creek and the company was left
to drift for itself.
"Some of the members had cash, but
Tarnam had none and he was left at
the mercy of the winter weather.
1T was colder than the North sea
and Farnam was on the verge of join
ing the Cripple Creek Salvation Army
for the purpose of getting a warm place
to sleep, when he met Lew DOckstader,
the minstrel man, and borrowed S..
Before this was gone he had secured
opposition as bell boy in, a second-rate
hotel.
"The house changed hands two days
after he went to work, and the new
proprietor told the actor he could stay
few days and work for his bed and
board but he couldn't afford to pay him
because he didn't know his business.
Turned Out by Fire.
He decided that he would work for
his board until he could get something
else, but he was awakened in the middle
of the third night of the new administra-
ton by an alarm of fire and got out
without his clothes barely in time to
save his life.
"His home and only suit of clothes
were reduced to ashes. The cook, who
saved two old suits, gave him one.
"The next day, however, he struck a
great bit of luck and secured a job in
a free concert hall.
"He didn't get paid for singing and
dancing, but he had the privilege of act
ing as waiter in the place between his
turns, and in week or so he saved
enough from his tips to get to Leadville
where he made friends with the conduc.
tor of long coal train and worked as
brakeman to Denver.
"After trying everything in Denver
and failing to get anything, he worked
as fireman on a freight train in Omaha
where after two weeks he found posi-
ton as horse sheer, his old trade.
Next Organizes Amateur Show.
HE then went to Lincoln, where HI
got acquainted with some townspeople
and organized dramatic company
They gave a performance and he tool
the box office receipts, $12, and made To-
Chicago.
''He worked in restaurant where tn