The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-22
CAUGHT IN THE CORRIDORS.

'I see that Miss Gertrude Coghlan
cancelled her engagement to appear
here last Tuesday night" said New
Yorker in the lobby of the De Soto
last night. well, Savannah theater
goers missed seeing an excellent lit
tie actress in a fine production. But
aside from her stage clevernesS," he
continued, zones interest in Miss
Coghlan naturally increases when the
story of her devotion to her mother
and her peculiar self-sacrihces for her
mothers sake is told. The Coghlans
are a family of actors, both Miss
Gertrude and her sister, Miss Rose,
having climbed very high in the pro-
fession, and there was also brother
who was an actor. Mrs. Coghlan, who
died recently at her home in little
town near New York, was devoted to
her son, and it was with reluctance
that she saw him leave her to go
on the stage. She was then very
old and almost blind and the son
was her youngest child. The three
Coghlans wSSe then in the same COM
pany, when George was taken sudden
ly Ill and died. Knowing that the
shock of the news would probably kill
Mrs. Coghlan, Rose and Gertrude re-
solved over their brothers dead body
never to let her learn Of it, and for
years until Mrs. Coghlan's death
they received Georges letters and
answered them, in Georges name and
in a disguised handwriting, sending
the letters to their mother and keep
ing the secret from her. The mother
died believing that her son was still
entertaining his audiences before the
footlights, and on her death-bed wrote
him a long. pathetic letter through
which she breathed a mothers indy
ing love-"
Savannah hotel men contend that
Savannah must certainly hold some
unusual attraction for the newly mar
ried as during the past week both the
De Soto and the Pulaski House have
entertained more than a dozen couples
who spent portions of their honey
moons here. Eight bridal couples were
in Savannah at one time during the
week. IF this particular class of bus
mess keeps up" said a hotel proprie-
tor last night, "it will soon be neces-
sary to provide additional bridal
suites, for as it is now, it's first come,
first served and when others roll in
on later trains they are disappoint-
ed because they find themselves de-
prived of this particular accommoda-
tion."
II saw an originally genuine scene
from Opie Reads character novels
down in a country town in Southwest
Georgia the other day." remarked, T.
J. Bryan, an Atlanta drummer in the
course of conversation in the lobby
of the Pulaski House last night" 1t
was one of those towns where the
tumbledown stores are huddled around
the Court House, with hardly a thing
to denote life, as the whole place SEEM
ed as dead as business was with me
that day. / was walking from one
store to another with my satchel in
my hand, when I noticed a long, lean
fellow in his shirt sleeves sitting on a
cracker box in front of a grocery
store whiting on a piece of white
pine wood. He was the only human
being in sight except another coat
less fellow, who was lounging on the
Court House steps, apparently
asleep, and 1 was not aware of the
fact that there was any communica-
ton between the two until just be-
fore / reached the grocery store, the
fellow who was whiting sung out in
a lazy drawl: Say, Bill, I'll bet chu
my SOW an litter gin you Jersey
heifer that cotton IL go up two
points afo' Sadday.' The fellow adj
dressed as Bill sung out that he'd
take him up."