The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-10-21

ing all of those miry years, 1 e exc
cuted a climb-out from a deep bog
without being put 10 the ruefuI necessi-
~ of doing the ~clambering to hard
ground myself" remarked Ex-Tank No.
i. the theatrical member of the Club
of Former Alcoholic Degenerates,
forms a memory taat will have a lodS-
ment in my conk long after the recoI-
lection of a whole baIe of the person
naIIy-conducted winOuts a become as
blurred as a twO-for-a quarter seaside
tintype. 1t was such an unusual exper-
fence. not to have to frame up a flying
wedge Of it myself in order to get on
: the next stop, that right yet 1 have
to give myself the close nudge nee in
a while 70 convince myself that it
wasn't all a hasheesh fantasy with the
accompaniment of tr2nce-chords on the
q. and D.. strings. Up to that occasion,
and after it, it was always me, only
me, to tOg out in magical quick clothes
for the purpose of ~wriggling to the main
path when 1 came to with just the price
Of one doughnut n no other negotia-
BILE assets except what remained Of my
health. But this time the genii-
However, the r~ep-uh-toah company
to which 1 was at this time attached
we did little things like 'Richelieu,'
Julius CaesOr,' Box and Cox Ticket
% Leave Man. Hamlet The Parlor
Match King Lear and such trifles-
a not been moving the Southland %
enough tears and laughter to enable
the company to dope out q vision of a
ham-and-egg breakfast more than
twelve hours from date. The skeptical
occupants of the Southland appeared to
decline to believe that we were direct
from Days Theater, New York, where,
according to the two-sheets, We had had
been playing for two straight years,
Winter and Summer. We didn't believe
1t ourselves, however. so that the inhab-
itantS Of the Southland should not be
pounded for their skepticism. We had
organized the rep-uh-tOah company in
New Orleans on a cooperative basis
along Oward the close of the winter
racing season in New Orleans. We me-
dated, in organizing the company, the
gradual working of our way back to
New York. But the residents of the
Southland a other meditatiOns. We
couldn't get them in with lariats.
If they'd only have come in to egg
us, or something, it wouldn't have been
so bad. Egg-marksmen have got to
make the dig at the box-office to get IN
with their passe hen-fruit. We'd will
Iingly have stood for the invalid ONE
lettes a they coughed for the privi-
lege Of shying the same at us. But
they didn't nave a lens big enough to
enable them to perceive us at ALL
Fourteen more or less bewildered cit
izens OF Montgomery, Alabama, stroll
ed in to look us over on the night We
were booked to open there with two
acts Of Cleopatra and one of Ten
Nights in a Hop Joint Our man IN
the front of the house made a cute little
speech to them after they'd all assem-
bled, gave them their money back. and
advised 'em to go and plunge on the
cotton market with it.
1T was decided to give Montgomery
the quick raj-a-ma-taj in consequence.
~whereupon 1T was up to the manager to
endeavor to hypnotic the Montgomery
hotel man.. The hotel bill for the
twelve of us was all of SIS, and we had
fully SAT worth of luggage cached in
the hotel, including scenery n props
for the entire r~ep-uh-toah. The font
gomery hotel person had never heard of
SVengali. He was q coarse individual,
and meSmeriSm wasn't his paStime.
The manage lii a wire-dig on the
New Orleans angela wholesale dealer
in pigs feet and things who had met
us at the New Orleans races n took
n fancy TO US because We were such
rakish, Bohemian. table-d'hote devils
and the $50 mira ulously came along.
With il. however, vas the angels mez-
sage. That's the last. / know when
I've got a-plenty.'
Thus. after the hotel man in Mont
gomery had been assuaged. and our
tickets purchased for BrewtOn, EScam-
bia County, Alabama. the next settle
ment on the route-book, the $50 looked
like a figure o with the rim torn off
there was about S2.55 left of the half
century. None of us had seen the hue
Of n fr-n-hit niono cfnPo we'd left New
Orleans. We were taking in u own
washing and ironing. But we all had
an abiding faith that New York must
be somewhere on the chart and thS
kept US alive.
TT was a very rainy and very raw
night when we drilled into Brewton.
Escambia county. Alabama. Il was
verging upon midnight. Even il there
had been any caloosheS at the station
for people that wanted to ride, they
wouldn't nave been for us. We hiked
through the muck and the darkness and
the rain for three-quarters of a mile 10
the weather-boarded hotel. the main
mn of Brewton, where the man ahead
of the outfit had ARRANGED for Us to
tarry. When We got there we all felt
K tour days on the Stag dump and no
handcar in sight. When we finally
stumbled into the hotel we found the
advance man engaged in YER earnest
II i@IC hoAS - ASNO--
The MOTEL p~oprietor looked ma
tural. He happened to be she
twin brother of the Montgomery hotel
man. and the after nae wired the
Brewton twin to keep his lamps out for
A bunch of he ms headed his way and
to hold them up for a preliminary die
before passing over food and ShE tel
unto them. The advance man was en-
~deavoring to convince the prcpr.H tor
of the Brewton tavern that the Mont
gomery twins telegram was the result
of temporary mental a~rberration. oI
something. when we fell In. cola, wet
weary, hungry-and. oh. no. : dor
suppose We were thirsty or anything
or tha a flagon of Tom and Jerry, run
ming over at the top, would have helped
to put any kind of an edge on US.
1.-The cracker hotel proprietor stooC
with his back to the red-hot baSe-burn-
err with his hands in his homeSpunS
grinning sardonically n wagging hi:
lid. No. sub. no SIGH convuhsation was
uh-goin' with him, sub; he had done
heearn fun his brothah UP in Mont.
gomuhy that we all was in fnancia