The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-07
STORIES0F MAJOR POND
His Experiences as a Manager
of Celebrities.
TWICE ACTED PARTOF GOOD ANGEL

TWICE ACTED OF GOOD ANGEL
How He BacaIn ~ Cali Coy In ia St.
Louis Thcate and Helped Char
lOtte Cusaania.a. the Actres@-puslaeh
Mark Twain I'm n Barrow to Keep
Him MevlE.@'- Novel ls;terience
With Ian aitelaren.
The late Major james Burton Pond,
author, soldier. editor ana the most re-
.markable manager Of celebrities the
world has ever known. as il boy assist
ed his father in aiding slaves to escape
nOrthWard, their house being a station
for slaves. says the New York Ameri-
can.
After serving his apprenticeship in
Fond du Lac. Wis, Major Pond began
to set type on the Herald of Freedom
at Lawrence, Kan. There the 'call'
came to him as it had come to John
Brown. and he became one of those
who made history that will live to the
end of time as a raider in the little
frontier town of Kansas. This was in
1856. AS a member Of Browns band
he carried one of the Sharp's rifles
known as the Beecher Bible for the
reason that the guns were shipped
west by abolitionists as Bibles.
Major Pond was one of the pioneers
to Denver and Pixies peak in 1859.
When the civil war broke out he en-
listed, rose from the ranks until he
was made a major, and in 1868 was
M Of the seventeen survivors Of a
band Of 118 Union cavalrymen who
were attacked by Quantrell in the Bax-
ter Springs massacre. Next we see
him in Utah. the proprietor of the first
gentle paper there. the Salt Lake Trib-
une.
When Ann Eliza Young apostatized,
Major Pond was delegated to go with
her to Washington. where h told her
story of Mormonism to congress-. Then
the genius Of the major as a manager
became apparent. He at nee saw the
possibilities Of making money with
Ann Eliza Young as a lecturer. He
yielded to the wishes of Denver and
let her speak there first. OF this ex-
p%erience he said: II got the school
room, charged $1.50 a ticket. sold 400
tickets and took in 5000 that evening.
I remember when she was to appear
in Denver l went to the house and did
not know her. She was dressed up
and-well, she looked pretty. The lead
ing Methodist minister-she had been
converted by a Methodist. and SO they
claimed her-introduced her to one of
the largest audiences ever seen in Den
yer.
II have never found so earnest a
talker," the major said afterward. 81
have heard a great many too. She
had a cause. She was in dead earnest.
She vas able in two years from that
time to leave Utah with her children
and her family, and she never re-
turned"
Major Pond was a good angel on two
notable occasions in the life of Char
lotte Cushman. the great actress. The
first was when from a tramp printer
he became a call boy in a st. Louis
theater at 81 a week. He began the
night Charlotte Cushman opened her
engagement as Lady Macbeth. She
had complained that the boy who car
ried the basket containing her jewels
had loitered. She needed some one she
could rely upon. who would walk faith
fully by her side with that precious
basket. To the little lad Pond fell the
honor.
$50 that night l walked home with
Charlotte Cushman. the great actress"
he writes. carrying her basket to her
room in the Planters House. l did
this until l became i'll and was obliged
to send a substitute, who brought the
basket on Saturday night. After the
play, when the lights were turned off
with the exception of the dressing
room. | heard Miss Cushman asking
for NE. l replied. and she came across
the stage to me, hoped l would not be
i'll and put a coin in my hands. l
scratched about and got to where there
was sufficient light to discover that l
was the owner of a twenty dollar gold
piece. I changed my lodging that
night"
Years passed before the call boy and
the actress again met. He was giving
entertainments in the Boston theater,
and they We're meeting with great sue
cess. Suddenly he thought of Char
lotte Cushman and offered her $1,000
il she would give a reading there.
When he gave her the certified check
for the amount it was with the re-
mark. Miss Cushnran. that $1,000 is
the interest on $40 hat you invested
with Inc in 1857" Then he told her of
the incident.
OF Mark Twain he always had de-
lightful "reminiscences. He had pushed
the humorist in a wheelbarrow when
the latter insisted that his contract
with Major Pond expressly stipulated