Arizona republican., 1904-06-18
HIsTRI0NIC cANTELoUPEs
And the Busy Life Led by a Song and
 Dance Farmer.

every day and odd and seemingly un- natural combinations are brought to light. Probably in no other country in the world could one man successfully devote his efforts to personally carry , ing on two enterprises as widely diff ferent in character as are the occupa- = tions of C. r. Berger.
 There are places where the same man can run drug store and practice med : tcine: where one can trade horses and belong to the church, work in bank and raise his own garden truck 1t is claimed that q man has been known to run country newspaper and do the preaching for the village, but it couldn't have been much of newspa- per or religion was at a mighty low ebb. Bus where in the world, outside of Arizona, could man be found who could devote his daytimes to the man. ufacture of high class breakfast food canteloupes, and spend his nights con- 1 ducting a metropolitan amusement re- sort where Thespian spellhinders hold enraptured audiences by their psychic influence; where the gaunt and hag- gard ghosts of tragedy strut in sepul- chral splend0r, or where Dolly Nimble toes tickles the tapestry with her ten der touch, while her fairy figure fits
 in calcium flashes from footlights to Armament?
 If she were going to pay any atten- ton to the question at all. Echo would answer. "where?"
 Charlie Berger Is the new manager of the Doris theater. He is a first class comedy and speciality actor by profession, a farmer by trade and tfa,, ,..s1 his stage training by running against the rough places on a lot of down east theatrical paths, developed his man. agerial talent in some of the big park playhouses of the middle west, and as for farming, he was born with a gen ius for 1t that only needed the last two summers eperience in the Salt river valley to make him an authority on everything agricultural, from feeding the calves to stealing irrigation water. In two weeks he can grow whiskers that will leak like an cave spout and in two minutes he can cut them off and fit himself for a song and dance
 He hasn't made much of a showing yet with the Doris, fer he has only had it ten days, and that was since the season closed, but he is going to cut a little ice next winter if there is any 10 cut in these parts. He has already booked a couple of first class compan- ies and expects to have no other kind. He proposes to have the best shows obtainable even if there are fewer of them for if he isn't busy taking tick cts at the door he can find plenty to do on the farm, when the frost is on the pumpkin" etc. But though he didn't manage the Doris before, he did make something of a record there man. aging the Elks minstrels last spring, for anybody that can successfully manage an amateur show will have no trouble with professionals. for general ly the amateurs run the manager. And all the time he was managing the amateurs he was studying out a plan for the manufacture of canteloupes. After that. while he was devoutly en- gagged in producing that succulent sac charine breakfast food, he was apply ing his reserve energy to working out a plan to make the Doris a winner next winter. He found that in this country where the water runs in one ditch today and another tomorrow, that raising canteloupes was . pas toral rather than an agricultural em- ployment, and especially in dry year. It kept him pretty busy herdlng his melon vines and driving them to the nearest ditch for water, every morn ing, for he had ten acres of them and they were good husky vines too. There might have been danger of wearing his melons out dragging them over the ground, as the Californian did his pumpkins that grew so fast, only for the reason that the valley farms have been so thickly covered with soft vel vety, dust this season, that there was just friction enough to give the fruit fancy polish and bring out its good points.
 But MT. Berger is getting his reward. He had the honor of bringing to town on Thursday, the first home grown can- teloupes that ripened in sufficient quan- tity to be placed on the market. The California fruit has been here for week past-its future will be weaker. Mir Berger has also been supplying his own table for two weeks past, but he got so busy with his theater plans that he neglected to drive his melons to water regularly which set them back a few days.