Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-12-27
AN ACTORS GOOD JOKE.
How "Fritz" Enmet Played It on an Audience That Thought He
 Was Drunk.

It's a bad thing for an actor to carr name for conyiviality, said one o. them, according to an exchange. "A man who once gets a reputation, in thu theatrical profession as an occasiona roisterer and date breaker is never able ot retrieve that reputation, no matte, how many years of sobriety he puts in 1T the effort to live down his record
 Some actors suffer great deal from this sort of thing No man in the busi. ness, however, ever got 1t coming anc going so badly as did Fritz Emmet or account of his jamboree record
 T was member of Emmet's company for a number of years, and know thai there were many times when, without having taken 8 drop for months, he wal too ill to go on, from natural causes, bul did go on, for the sake of preventing thA that Joe Emmet was on another drunk.
 "One night, nearly 20 years ago-ii was on March 31-Emmet was booked for Kansas City. He'd been on the wa. ter wagon for many months, but he was III that night from an attack of malariai fever and he positively couldn't raise his head. It was out of the question for him to go on. He wanted to in spite oi his wretched feeling, but even his man ager wouldn't stand for it.
 Fritz went to bed, took hot lemon. ade, swaddled himself up in the bed GOV. erings and slept off his mean feeling.
 When he got the papers the next morning he found that he had been Sc tumultuously drunk the night before that he hadn't been able to keep his en- gagement It wasn't the newspapers fault that this story appeared. The story had been given out that way from the theater.
 'Emmet's feelings were a lot bruised up by that story, and we all figured that he'd go on a bat then, anyway.
 "But he didn't. He got on the train with us and went up to Leavenworth where we were booked to play that night-April 1.
 The manager of the theater where we were to play was surprised to see Emmet in first rate trim, so far as sobrl- ety went, and he sent out handbflhs that Emmet would positively appear, despite the story that had come from Kansas City. There was an overflow audience. yet don't suppose that half the people in the audience really expected Emmet to show up.
 They were skeptical and silent until the rise of the curtain. You remember how Emmet used to make his first ap- pearance in Fritz, with lot of littIa children tagging after him?
 Well, the moment for his cue arrived, the orchestra struck up the opening mu- sic for his entrance-and on came Elm met, reeling and apparently spificat- ed and googley eyed and pickled to the gunI. He seemed to be barely able to keep his feet. Instantly the long hiss ran around the theater from the orches- tra to the pit.
 Fritz essayed to sing his opening song, but the words died in. his throat drunkenly, as it certainly seemed. At this the hiss became like the music of 10000 cobras
 Suddenly Fritz strengthened himself. and became as erect as 8 spear. The Dutch grin spread over his features and he made a gesture with his arm for quiet. The house instantly obeyed.
 |" We'll said Emmet, supporting his chin with his left hand in his character istic fashion, I fought ve could soma April Fools haf alreatty yet, nod?' and then he leaped into the vortex of hia singing and dancing with a charm and enthusiasm such as his company had never seen him display before.
 .I'll bet you couN have heard the cheers that rang around the house for half a mile every time Emmet made his entrance or exit after that"