Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-07-07
IN THE PROPERTY ROOM.
A Varied Collection of Articles in the
Old Boston Museum.


Old Boston Museum.
Some idea Of the varied collection
of objects which accumulate in the
property room Of a theatre is to be OBJ
tanned from a description of The con
tents of the old Boston Museum prop
erty room. IN a general way the
public has learned to know that the
property man" of theatre is one
who looks after such details of the pro-
auctions as concern chairs and tables,
the bottles that the people pour their
liquor from, and the pen and ink used
by the heroine to indite her loving
messages.
The master of properties must still
be a resoHrceful person, but in the old
days, where the frequent changes of
bills necessitated additional props"
every. week or to, the ingenuity of this
functionary was often taxed to the ut
most.
The apothecary's shop in Romeo
and Juliet" wasn't circumstance to
the old property-manufacturing shop
in the cellar of the museum. where
may be seen the skulls and crossbones
stuffed animals of both wild and do
nestle species, wings for witches,
angels and devils. and other curious
things that can't be enumerated in a
column The animals, both real and
of papier mache, repose on shelves all
around the walls, wierd, grinning,
motley troupe Of once Indispensable
stage characters that would have
brought their possessor to the stake
in witchcraft days, and all destined for
the dirt heap within few days.
There are the wolves heads with
cleaning teeth, fangs and eyes, that
were wont to be thrust beneath the
door of the log cabin which the stout
arm Of Frank Mayo held in place in
the thrilling honeymoon scene in
"Davy Crockett" The big bellows
with which lilly Slowboy once blew
the fire in "The Cricket on the Hearth"
hangs upon the wall, and the cradle in
which she rocked the baby lies in the
corner. In another corne- are stack
ed old rusty muskets, including some
works in DR.. Jones' centennial drama,
'The Battle of Bunker HILL" twenty
eight years ago.
From the center of the ceiling sus-
pended by strings hang three NANCY
looking stuffed animals that were once
features in everything the moral les
sons taught by the waxwork tableaus,
sold more than a decade ago. For
sixty years these animals, a domestic
cat, dog and a monkey, have been
comrades, but they must now go the
way of all else identified with the mu-
scum.
The cat and dog, now half hairless
and showing repulsively their dried-up
gums and loosened teeth, used to be
pictures of ease and contentment when
representing the sole objects of the
affection of the old maid and the old
bach in wax tableau.
The monkey had his mission to fill
also, but what it was is now forgotten.
Of late years he has been hung by
movable string before the door of the
room in such a way that he would
drop with a dull thud on the breast
of any one entering the door, a start
ling experience for an unsuspecting
stranger, which mas contributed to the
enjoyment of the property mans life,
however.
In another part of the cellar is
stored a raft of stage furniture of
every kind There are seats of
Caesar and Brutus from the senate
house, the royal chairs of Macbeth and
mis- restless helpmate, the big. glitter
ing chair in which John Wilkes Booth
was crowned as Richard Ill, and the
gracefully formed mediaval chairs in
which Hamlet has oft pondered the
proposition, "To be or not to be-"
There are stacks of spears and nal
herds and Roman standards, and pa
thetic souvenir in the shape of rude
effigy Of burlap stuffed with excelsior,
which is recognized as the dummy
used in the burial of Ophelio, over
which the queen strews flowers and
weeps and says, Sweets to the sweet,
fair maid Boston Globe.