Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-04-08

Frank +. McNish. who will be pleas
antly remembered as having directed
the last minstrel performance of the
Rock Island Club. and also contribut-
ed an important part of the enter
tainment, is this season with the
frankie Stock company, playing
through the east. The six men ia
nous i'm dance and song who have
passed away in the last few months
were ALI personal friends of McNish.
All were minstrel men of the front
rank-two middlemen and four end
men-Vvith whom Mr.. McNiSh had
spent many a pleasant hour during
his years of work before the public
i'm blackface. Having been personal
" acquainted with all of them he is
deeply grieved on account of their
death. This wholesome death rate
i'm the ranks of the Ministries led Mr..
McNish to become reminiscent.
Billy West. Billy Emerson, Bill
ly' Rice. John Queen. +. NJ. Kean and
Neil Bryant. all gone! Have ended
their DAYS on this earth. IT'S indeed
sad. but we must all face it" said
Mr.. McNish. Il was personally ac-
quainted with all of them. and spent
many happy hour with them. West
and Kean were middlemen. the first
acting in'that capacity with his own
companies. and the latter working in
Haveriev's and other minstrel or
CARNATIONS. The other four men
were famous endmen, whose familiar
faces will be missed by the public in
general.
1t was back in 1879 that | began
my silence and fun act, and the first
minstrel company that / was with
was the then famous Barlow. Wilson,
Primrose and lest. Of that quartet
West was the first to die. He was
good fellow. and successful bust
ness man. He made several fortunes
during his years of public life. Rice.
Eean. Bryant and Queen. all artists.
have gone. The saddest death of all
was that of Billy Emerson. whose
reputation was worldwide. There
was none finer than he, and none
made more money than Billy and
then to think that he should. pass his
last days in cheap lodging house in
Boston. where death removed him
from his SufferingS. He was penni-
less. and report had r. that ne died
food. know positively that
Billy Eme rson earned $500 a week.
and it may he that he received more
than $1,000 a week for his services.
lie made lots of money and he spent
it as rapidly as he earned it. When
death came he did not have funeral
expenses. but his wife. who lives i'm
and the funeral there was Il mag
nificent one. While Emerson was not
an Elk. the members of that order
took charge of the remains. and the
exercises wire elaborate. Billy
should have died wealthy man, but
he lacked ability to hold his money.
He was the originator of the vest
dance. and first presented ii at Alex
andria. Va. in 1865.
Money in the minstrel business?
Well. yes, Many of the managers of
old time organizations have grown
weaIthy-some few of them have
saved well onto the 81 100000 mark.
Now. there is Hi Henry. He is about
the wealthiest man in the business,
and | am safe in saying that his for
tune is about $1.OOO.OO0. As a bust
ness man there is none better. and TO
this dav he has one of the best or
in the business. George
Primrose. whose home is at Mt. Yer
non. y. ". is today rated at 100000.
He started i'm the minstrel business in
1865. As a lad Primrose was a bell
boy at hotel in Canadian town.
Iii Henry is the son of n druggist of
Gowanda, y. y.
Birch. Wambold & Backus' San
Francisco minstrels of years ago was
a money maker. All of these men are
dead. and Backus left about SljO.O0O
to his family. OF the organizations
At present doing business Al Field,
Gus Sun and the Gortons are making
money. While George Primrose has
a big bank account. and Billy West
left a fortune 10 his family. the other
two members of the once famous
minstrel company did not fare so
we'll NIilt Barlow and George Wilson
have no fortunes. True. they made
but like many others they did
not keep il. Both are yet living.
.'The first minstrel organization
that have any recollection of was