The Jennings daily record., 1902-11-28

$50 bcEone dull care,
For the world is bright and gay:
And life Is too brief
To entertain grief;
So let joy rule night and day.
And with knowing wink, sug-
gestive smirk and wicked twlrl OF
that nimble toe the singer swung him.
self into the wings amid hurricane
of applause. There was no song and
dance man on the vaudeville stage
who set the people so wild as Billy
Pepsin and many times did he have
to come back and repeat the refrain Oh
his latest song before the audience
would permit the next act to he put
on. The song seemed particularly To
fit the singer. OF all the light hearted
apostles of careless gaiety, Billy Pep
sin was easily the most single hearted
and the great audience which sought
the theaters where he performed fair
ly reveled in his reckless merTiment |
and thorough abandon.
And on this night even more than |
usual he threw himself into the very |
spirit of his part and with the ne"
song which was as foolish as it was
adaptable to Billy's peculiar atmos-
phere, he sent the audience fairly in
to Mysteries. They applauded until
they were tired from the very physical
exercise and agreed to a man that
there never had been anything so
funny since the dawn of time and
that such a stunt could come only
from a man who knew no care ana
never had no more serious RESPONSE
bility than to ascertain how he could
get light for his cigarette.
| All, could that wildly cheering and
laughter -convulsed crowd have stepped
into Giacomo's Place an hour after the
| performance closed they would have
seen very different side of the pic
ture. Giacomo CAST name forever
lost to history, was smart little
Italian possessed of indefatigable per
sistence and wife who could cook
with that divine touch which is given
only now and then to the daughters of
Eve. 1t was shabby little place of
| an alley. never too clean and almost
impossible in wet weather. Almost, I
say advisedly, because it never was
impossible to the stage people of the
middle type who formed the principal
support of Giacomo. This partly be-
cause the cooking and the wines were
so good-and cheap, for your actor of
any class knows what is good and
wants it. and perforce his purse
strings forbid Sherry's or Rector's as
steady diet. And then the place
was always open-at least until the
last straggler was ready to retire. The
lights never went out before dawn
CSor
behind the little bar and his fat wife
" in chair in the cramped kitchen un-
. til full time to open again for the
days business.
y OF course the actors did not make
i, ! up the whole Of the patronage OF
@ Giacomo's Place. Many of the coun.
II trymen Of the proprietor, of the
v more prosperous class, found their
!. way there and reveled in the spaghetti
and the pure wine Of the land of theil
nativity. also. during the still watches
h of the night did many newspaper mer
O through with their protracted grind
20 pick their way through the grimy al
A ley for their early morning repast
IN And the place was not without q Ger
"a tain reputation to the more prosp0o,u:
NJ parties. with keen desire to beholt
Bohemia-parties who looked not n
the prices on the bill of fare at al
n but dined and wined and went bacl
into society.
q; Well. on the night of which W
spoke IN opening this sketch an hou
~ after the performance closed at tn
A. Lyceum. any one strolling into Gi;
nd comos might have seen nearly the Ell
y, tire party OF actors and actresses VIII
cd had entertained them so hilariousl.
,.e eating and drinking and quarrelin