The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-03-20
NEWS AND GOSSIP
OF COMING PLAYS

Miss Beatriz Bronte. who assumes the
principal role in a Girl from Dixie, is
in reality a real Dixie" girl, having been
born in Tamarack Md, and passed most
of her life below the Mason-Dixon line
A peculiar coincidence happened when
Harry B. Smith, the author of the piece
selected Miss Bronte's home as the seat
of action for this play. Mr.. Smith spent
several weeks in Tamarack selecting data
and ideas to instll into his libretto. While
there he met Miss Bronte, and Immediate
~ became infatuated with the idea that
she would be a typical heroine around
which to write, SO all unknown to Miss
Bronte, he made survey of her ways
and actions as being a typical southern
girl.
The idea then forced itself upon him to
try and induce Miss Bronte to take part
in lie piece. One evening he preached
the subject to her, and to his surprise
and delight discovered that she had been
on the stage for three seasons, and was
simply spending her vacation al her old
home. Mr. Smith Immediately offered
her engagement as the Dixie Girl.
Miss Bronte accepted and when Mr..
Smith left for New York to commence
rehearsals, his ideal accompanied him.
There are four acts in Edward e. Roses
dramatization of Winston Churchills sue
cessful novel, Richard Carvel," two of
them being laid In this country and two
in England The first act of the play
takes place in June, 1774 in front of Car
vel Hail. a beautiful estate in Maryland.
Then the scene changes TO the Star and
Garter inn, in London, where the scene
of the second act is laid, the time being
= Ii. H. -.
house of the Duke of Chartersea, in Han
over square. London, in July of the same
year. The last act is placed in the in
terror of Carvel Hail. the action being
two years later and the war of the revo-
lution being well under way. The name
part in Richard Carver is being played
this year, as it has been for the past two
seasons, by Andrew Robson.
Several days ago Ezra Kendall was in
a hotel lobby and several travelling men
were telling their troubles. Mr. Kendall
finally got into the conversation and told
the following story of his experiences as
vinegar buyer.
Say, boys, just save your breath to
cool your soup for your troubles on the
road don't start with mine.
II don't care what you do for living,
where you do 1t or who you do it to,
your job beats mine.
Compared to what I have to do for a
living, why your labor is lay off,
You're all coasters you've got it Gown
hilF all the way, while I'm putting up
the pike all day.
"Peddling goods is a pudding, but buy
ing them in my line. Vinegar is different.
Did you ever canvass for vinegar? Did
you ever make the barn-yard circuit by
the cow-path route via the cross-lot line,
tasting and testing vinegar, and have to
carry a gallon of excess on an empty
stomach feed on wintergreens and sour
grass; and while you're resting pick the
Durdocks out of your breeches so you can
sit down without having TO get up right
away?
Did you ever hoof it over the hills on
a hot day in the boiling sun, with a boiled
shirt on, and while your shirt was boil
ing have the hot water run down your
back into your shoes and wet your feet?
did you ever live in a 60-cent oil-coth
valse, waterproof excepting in a show
er, and have to shine your own shoes
and cut your crop of chin weeds twice
a week with a dun razor?
Buying vinegar is a feast of discom-
fort and a famine of pleasure. It's a
bucolc job, with the accent on the collie;
one long internal wall, beyond the power
oil a prescription or a paregoric Would
any one of you fellows give your tongue
a coating of crab apple acid taste copper
all the year round and put your stomach
out of order to get an order? And de-
moralize your digestion to get your
dough?
Did you ever saturate the lining Of
your stomach with a sour saccharIne and
salivate your system for the sake Of
your salary?
Did you ever polish your palate with
sour cider until 1t was petrif1ed and you
| couldn't tell the difference in taste be-
tween a slice of raw squash and a piece
of cantaloupe?
Did you ever torment your tonsils with
this tincture of tree juice until your vocal
vibrations violated all the laws of sound,
and assassinated your articulation until
you had to filter your voice through your
rose and make a noise like a midway or
chestra playing music for a footless
dance?
ould any of YOU fellows give up your
garlic and gastronomy for a stomach full
of graduated apple cores? And you'd
you give up your Sunday poker game to
lay off and let your liver catch up to
your bile?"
He paused for few seconds, buttoned
his coat slowly, looked from one to the
other OF his listeners, and then said most
earnestly:
Now, would y'-for a pint of pepsn?'
No one answered as he walked leisurely
to the desk, where he woke up the clerk
and paid his bill. Then taking his oil
cloth valise, he bowed politely as he
passed out, closing the door softly behind
! him.
Then each copied from the register this
entry Joe Miller, Vinegar Buyer Bas-
combs Corners"
| Aid each one voted him the most
unique commercial traveller they had ever
met.
Clyde Fitch always stages his own
| plays, and in Her Own Way which
Maxine Elliott presents at the Jefferson
| theatre for one night only, Tuesday.
March %, Mr.. Fitch has supplied atmos-
phere of a realistic nature, by surround
| ing Miss Elliott with scenes in which
every detail of fashionable life is correct
| ly pictured. The furniture properties,
draperies and costumes show that Fitch
| is unequalled as a stage producer.
Musical Prodigies."
From the London Chronicle.
The accounts of Master Danewsh, who