The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-11-15
A THEATRICAL TRICK
1T FOOLED JOE JEFFERSON, AND IT
FOOLED THE PUBLIC TOO.

Occasion When He WINS Playing
Rip Van Wrinkle In Baltimore.
"The best story on Joe Jefferson was
never printed during his lifetime. aud
the kindly old gentleman himself went
to his reward without ever having
heard it," said the advance agent, "for
none of the people around him ever got
up nerve enough to tell him that he had
been taken in along with that dear pub
lie whose attention we heralds OF art
We're e~ndeavoring to catch.
at was years ago in Baltimore JEFF
fcrson opened Oh II Monday night In
RIP Van Winkle,' and, although he
was always a prime favorite with the
alter goers there, neither the attendance
that evening nor the advance sale of
seats for the week had been over good.
The folks in front OF the house cast
their eyes over the ticket rack and
came to the conclusion that unless
something unusual was done the receipts
would not be as large as they should
be. Well, when the business IL OF n
show reaches that point things are H.
able to be doing in the good old CON
line. within q very limited space of
time, and the boys on Jefferson's pay
roll, IL they were not the sniftlest at
that sort Of thing, were certainly not
the slowest in the profession. We put
our heads together and arrived Mt the
conclusion that what was needed for
good, fat press notices vas some re-
markable popular manifestation Of ap-
probation of genius. / don't mean the
clapping from the orchestra nor the cat
calls from the gallery. but something
that would set the town to talking. We
thought long over the various schemes
suggested, but none of them appeared
to be Just the proper II for the pur-
pose. Suddenly the office boy, who was
as retiring as the usual run OF Office
boys around n theater, butted In with,
Say, why don't YOU have him dragGedr
"'Dragged-what's thatT 1 asked.
"'Why, have him rushed after the
matinee this afternoon by n bowling
mob of admirers, Have them unhitch
his horses and drag him of to his hotel
with their own hands. And say, gee
whiz, I've got 1t! Let the bunch that
does 1t be Johns Hopkins boysr
"'That amt bad for the kid remark
ed the assistant treasurer patronizing-
ly, but where are you going to get
your Johns Hopkins boys? You don't
think they're lying around waiting to
turn themselves into a bevy Of Roman
chariot chasers, do your
"'Oh, say, you're dead slow replied
the Office boy, with every indication
OF disgust. Come with me down on
Marsh Market space, n In ten min
utes Ill have you the greatest bunch
Of students you ever saw
mot knowing the town very we'll
then, 1 was puzzled at how Hopkins
students were to be found on Marsh
Market space n said sc.
"'NVhy, they amt students at ALL
explained the all knowing Office boy.
They're buns, the worst lot Of can
chasers in the town, and there are
hundreds of them. For so cents n head
for the day you can get all OF them you
want. Get thirty or forty, dress them
up In store clothes that you can get ut
any old costumer's-baggy trousers all
turned up at the bottom, short coats
with n southwestern exposure, dinky
hats with colored bands, jaunty little
fried egg caps and sassy, %slap-on-the-
wrist sort of canes-and the rcst'll be
easy money
1--WE began to appreciate the feasibil-
ity OF the scheme and. soon were con-
verified to it. ] must admit, however,
that it was not with an altogether easy
feeling that l started on our work of
metamorphosing n lot of tramps into
blithesome college lads, but our task
turned out to be not so difficult after
all.
"Thc 80 cents was an alluring propo-
sition to most Of the gentlemen of
leisure whom we found c0nRregated
around the buDgholes of the beer bar
rcls most recently elected from the
dirty barroOms with which the neigh
borhood was infested. We got to.
gethcr thirty or forty and marched
them all to an institution called the
Workingmcn's Residential club and
had them washed and shaved and put
in apple pie order, so that some Of
them looked almost respectable by the
time VIC got through. One great hulk
ing fellow. whom we wanted as the
leader Of this gay and care free aggre-
CATION, refused absolutely for Il time
to part with his whiskers and only con-
scented to the sacrifice when we told
him we We're going to pay him SIS to
captain the bunch.
meanwhile u agents had been
busy getting together n suitable ward
robe for our little company. There
was a fitting on process for the e
hour, at the conclusion of which 1t
was voted that we had n crowd OF
seniors and freshmen that would have
faded the flower Of Yale, Harvard,
Princeton and Hopkins all rolled into
one. 1t required no little skill to make
some OF them ooh youthful enough
for their part, but we managed fairly
well, for all that. When we lined the
gang up we noticed that the trousers
Of n few hardly reached to the ankles
II caused one involuntarily ito think
that the tailor had lone better to have
turned them down instead Of UP, and
here and there q students toes would
seek to prove at first hand that his
shoes really contained feet. But we
consolcd ourselves by rejecting that
no one would be so heartless as to be
moved to audible reflection by this In
dlcation Of poverty on the part OF a
brave young man drinking deep at The
fountain OF knowledge. We further
congratulate ourselves, as We ran
our eyes up and down the lire, that
the ensemble was not so bad.