Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1903-05-07
EFFECT
OF THIRTY
SIDES
BY Richard Kann
CODTISht. 1902. BY the S. S. Mcclure Company
-Ox o%OTO%O@ oAoSoAo

was never produced. And about that
time Harrington began to come down.
His coming down had not been spas
mode. 1t had been certain and sure
as fate. He seemed, however, able to
hold a position as stage door keeper.
He could he scared into coming around
on time for successive weeks by the
threat that he would be assigned to the
billposter's forces
And he was only thirty-five Seine
times when he became very bad he
would humble something about Flea
nor" But mumblings about Eleanor"
didn't excuse his condition to Buscoe,
who believed that there was no reason
on earth good enough to keep man
away from the theater later than 7:30
and no trouble great enough to need an
extended stay along 4 bar rail to drown
it.
So Harrington, with all his bril-
liancy, all his artistic training and his
wonderful mind that could absorb thir-
ty sides in a night, got finally to be a
back door keeper. 1t was only because
he never attempted to excuse his con-
duct that Buscoe kept him at all. He
was merely penitent after one of his
periodical attacks.
And Harrington was the back door
keeper when the company moved into
New York for a run. He stood, book in
hand, checking the company as it ar
rived for a rehearsal a day before the
opening. Harrington got the note, with
a doctors certificate inclosed, telling
that Temple, the leading man, had
brain fever. He turned pale as he read
it. He was that kind of a back door
keeper.
Buscoe didn't turn pale, but every
one who heard what he said q minute
later did.
'Send a boy to the manager" he Or
derod. Tell him Temple can't possibly
so on tomorrow night. Tell him that
unless he wants me to use bad under
study Wen have to postpone the open.
ing"
Harrington came over to him. 81
haven't sent the boy yet" he said
''You know I can get up in that part
by tomorrow night. Maybe they
wouldn't know Temple wasn't play
ing it, If you'll let me- He looked
wistfully at Buscoe
you could, you know" said Bus
coe kindly. but it's too important |
They've been banking on this New
York opening. a set of good notices
will carry them the rest of the sea
son, and I'd rather postpone than take |
any chances"
Harrington went mechanically back |
to the door. Buscoe held the company
until he heard from headquarters |
Use the understudy," said the note |
Cant possibly postpone"
Buscoe walked over to the call board. |
company called for all day rehears-
al at S o'clock tomorrow" he wrote
"NOW, Harrington" he said kindly, |
''you take this part to my hotel anfT
begin on it. If you're letter perfect by
tomorrow morning, you go on in Tenn |
pies place. At 4 o'clock this after
noon I'll come over. Wen work on it
all night
The hotel people wondered next
morning what had been going on in
90 during the night. Two men had
left at I 80 in the morning with a bar
bill of 50 for black coffee 1t had gone
up regularly every thirty minutes
since o'clock. Around on the walls
were pinned strips of paper with mean
ingless sentences written upon them
They took them down and read them
curiOusly. They seemed to be pas
sages chosen broadcast from a book !
They would have understood if they
had known that the process of cram
ming thirty sides of typewriter man
uscript into the brain of a man means
that the brain must be stimulated with |
something and that strong coffee is
the only harmless thing that will do it. |
They didn't know that a mans brain
sometimes refuses to memorize past a
certain amount, but that it will receive
impressions of things seen. That was
why some of the speeches Harring- |
ton couldn't get, although they were
repeated to him endlessly, were writ |
ten on strips of paper, pinned on the
walls and stared at him through the
night until they sank into his mind.
Buscoe had been cruelty insistent,
but his methods had won out. Har-
rington, haggard and brain weary,
went through the o'clock rehearsal
with but few bitches. Then Buscoe
ran them through again and dismissed
them at 1870 with orders to report at
4 for a dress rehearsal. He dragged
Harrington back to the hotel and again
sent him over the part, this time with
the business included
He went on that night almost craZed.
Forty eight hours without sleep and
not much nourishment but black cof-
fee did it, but in his brain were the
thirty sides.
He played the three acts without a
break, and he played them as Har-
rington could when he wanted to. But
his big scene didn't come until the
fourth. 1t was strongly written and
intensely emotional. 1t depicted a final
parting from the woman he loved, in
a set lighted by blue borders. with the
foots low. The exit of the leading