The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-09
MINISTER'S WIFE
IN STAGE DEBUT
chubby" Didn't Witness 1t
But Her Boy Was
There.

NEW YORK, Feb. S.-Sandwiched
between a troupe of performing dogs
and a musical farce, Mrs. Charles S.
Brown, wife of the chaplain of TIE
Episcopal City Mission, yesterday made
her debut in vaudeville in the Orphe-
UNI theater, Brooklyn, with a success
that savored little of the parsonage
and much of the stage.
The shadow of her mother in laws
death and the absence of her husband
from the performance lent the minis
ter'S wife no nervous terrors. In the
mezZanine box to the left of the stage
was one little face that served as in
spiration. Florence Halliday Gas she
was billed) sang to the fair haired six
year-old laddie who calls her mother"
and his delight soon attracted the SYM
pathy of the whole house. A hearty
encore was followed by another. The
child tossed a bunch of pink roses
to the woman smiling at him from the
footlights. 1t missed fire, but a man
in the audience, seeing the little ones
distress, picked it up and threw it on
the stage amid a burst of applause.
Florence Halliday's motherhood was
literally her saving grace.
The debut was q modest one. In
Difference to criticisms the singer gave
up the Spanish song and dance orig
inally intended for her first appear
ance. The Sweet Home of the An
gels" her opening song, was given in
black, academic gown. In this the
debutante made little impression. She
was not yet in touch with her audi
ence. When she emerged a second
time in a decollete and Short-sleeved
pink satin frock, with applique of sill
yer, she was accorded a cordial greet
ing. Her chiffon fiounces were five
inches from the floor, and the span
gled black you've jacket she wore was
a CT fn hn aNT0fN
of vaudeville. She did not dance, but
tripped an involuntary step or two. In
her encore the ViVacity increased, and
In her second recall she dropped into
a spicy little song, Just Like YOU"
which lost nothing of it's meaning from
her rendition.
The report that my mother in-law
was shocked and grieved by my going
on the stage said Miss Halliday, when
seen in her dressing room, is entirely
false. The warmest feeling existed be-
tween Mrs. Brown and myself, and she
was deeply interested in my venture.
Her death, at her advanced age, had,
of course, been looked for long time,
and it seemed to We no disrespect to
fulfill my engagement at this time"
1t was in the intervals of applying
her make-up-a process new and baf-
fling to the clergyman's wife-that the
story of her life crept out.
You see, 1 never knew my own
mother. She died when 1 was three
weeks old. do you think this rouge
and stuff will ruin my skin? l have
always taken pride in the fact that
my skin was good.) Yes, my voice
was inherited. My mother, Amelia
Packer, was at sixteen sufficient of a
prodigy for my grandfather to take
Marylebone theater, in London, for her
debut in grand opera. She was to ap-
pear as Siebel, in Faust But on the
opening night she eloped with the first
violin. No, they never forgave her.
"a trifle too much black on the eyes,
don't you think? No? But one looks
such a fright in here.)"
All that was nine years ago'-she
was slipping a series of billoWy pink
skirts over her head. "(You find it
pretty? My own design 1 have had
offers in opera before, but that would
have meant leaving home. 1t was a
song writer who first suggested Vaude-
vile to me. My husband finally gave
his consent. He thinks this is much
better than opera, because l go on
alone as if it were in concert. The
stage has no fascination for me. l am
doing it simply to add to my income.
Ah!"-her animation suddenly return
1ng-"there's the call. Are my tootsies
all right?" and snatching up cap and
gown she vanished.
My mother" said the Rev. Charles
Brown, so far from objecting to my
wife's course, had all her professional
pictures sent her, and asked about
every detail of her appearance To
assert that my wife's action in any
way FASTENED my mothers death is
as cruel as it is untrue