The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-29
AMBITIOUS AMATEURS
THEY PLAY FOR PRIZE AT BIJoU
 THEATRE. st
Medal offered by Manager Arnold of Stock Company Was Won by Two Montgomery Little
 Girls.

HereS where get It Tn the solar plexus." thought Chauncey Southern. leading man of the Arnold Stock Com- pany at the Bijou Theatre. as J. F Arnold. manager of the company, an- | nounced that his weekly contest for local amateurs would take place last night and a gold medal would be awarded to the performer whose work received the most applause. The audience had just witnessed four acts of melodrama. The melodrama l was a thriller. Chauncey Southern l had uttered a score of high moraled sentiments. George Lewellyn, playing Hebrew comedy, had caused the usual | plethora of Saturday night laughter. There were safe robberies. burning
 buildings and an Irish policeman. The | audience was typical of Saturday night and had enjoyed the sensational melo- drama.
 When the announcement was made by | MT. Arnold that the amateur contest | was about to be pulled off, the audience | was ready for anything.
 burst of applause swept through the playhouse as George Hoffman beat the long roll, Red Mitchell sounded
 fanfare of trumpets. and a young man | in black face, J. A. Rogers, entered on
 the stage pulling a small dog with | big rope. s When this little piece of business was done by Dan Emmett before he wrote | Dixie" it was very funny. But it was never so funny as it was last night. The | audience howled
 Thus encouraged. Rogers told two jokes. carefully :ulled from the parlor entertainment book, and he received applause.
 He then sang a coon song, and was l likewise applauded.
 He played on a mandolin, but the l applause was not so vociferous. If the audience had continued to applaud.
 Sunday morning would have found
 Rogers still on the stage
 This young man has qualifications for the stage. He has self-possession and | is we'll pleased with his own work. His great fault is that he too keenly rec ognizes his talent and takes it for granted his audience does. too. T. J. Parrish a young man, was in- ftroduced to sing Way Down in My Heart, I've a Feeling For You" Some
 one in the audience cried Keep it there. but Parrish was unabashed. Parrish had seen Ollie Mack come on the stage with his cheeks painted car
 mine and his eyes ringed with white
 powder. He had seen Ollie Mack make | a hit and he thought it was the carmine cheeks and the whitened eyes. As Parrish sang he swung his arms
 much after the manner of Kitty Tip toes, the Singing Soubrette. Audiences
 stand for this from Kitty if Kitty is good looking but 1t didn't make
 great hit when executed by a youth
 with whitened eyes and carmine cheeks.
 MT. Arnold then introduced Hannah Cheatham and Rosa Simpson, two dainty little misses of about 13 years. They sang in childish voices some bal lad of green fields and dear old coun- try homes, but the simplicity of their faces, their childish calmness and sweet voices drew the audience to them.
 Once or twice there was a break in
 the child voices but they were given very respectful hearing and uproarous applause.
 Henry Austin and Claude Dickson were introduced to do an acrobatic act. The only thing amateurish about these
 two chaps was their bow. As far as tumblIng was concerned they were top liners and the audience insisted on more from them when they retired.
 Robert Hayden, young man, es- saved a black face turin He entered
 the stage with a quart bottle of liquor
 in his hand. No one ever knew what the liquor was for. Just as soon as Hayden motioned to the orchestra to play the prelude to his song, he forgot the words and when the prelude was completed and the orchestra started on
 the accompaniment Hayden didn't sing. The orchestra played the song through and Hayden washed the cork off his face in the dressing room. w. D. Simpson was introduced tu lecture on patent medicines. Simpson
 evidently thought the lecture was very funny. The audience had no opportu-
 nity to discover whether 1t was or not.
 Simpson persisted in refusing to ai- low the audience to hear his humorous
 spiel and talked 1t in a tone that none but Simpson could hear.
 The audience finally began laughing and then cat-callIng. Simpson looks like a preacher and with a ministerial
 wave of the hand he silenced the au- dience. The audience thought they would hear something and quit cat calling. But they heard nothing as
 Sampson was decidedly uncommunica-
 tive. When he retired he bowed and
 the audience applauded. He thought he made hit.
 Richard Cheatham was introduced to sing I'm Wearing My Heart Away for
 You" The audience was prepared to laugh some more and did laugh, when
 little boy. with "smutty" face and a black sweater appeared on the stage.
 but their laugh stopped when, with
 tone as mellow and as full of feeling as the tone of a cello played by d mas ter musician the youngster filled the
 theatre with melody.
 He sang ~his song through and the applause did not break forth until his last note had died away.
 MT. Arnold then awarded the medal to the little girl team Misses Cheat ham and Simpson, and resplendent in pink ribbons and happy smiles, they bowed to the departing audience.