Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-24
LOCATING Dan RICE

! There are some instances q fellow fig
! ures in of so remarkable, strange and al
/ most uncanny a character that he hates
| TO tell about them. even to his trusting
! friends for fear they will think that he is
permitting his Imagination to run riot at
the expense of the truth, said man who
writes for the magazines.
! Such an incident the singular out
| come of my hunt for Dan Rice. the most
i famous of American clowns of the older
| day. about thirteen years ago.
| The New York magazine for which /
| was then writing gave the assignment
to write an article about famous clowns
| of the past. The magazine had come into
| possession of fine bunch OF prints of the
| oid-ttrne clowns, including some OF the
! earliest who had their fieeting hour away
| back in the eighteenth century and the
| magazine editor wanted me to write an
article around these pictures-rather a
common practice In magazine offices. by
| the way. this thing of having articles
| written around pictures. One of the
| prints, made time in the fifties or
| sixties. was OF the renowned American
! clown. Dan Rice. The print represented
! MN with all his ma ke-up on | had never
| seen Dan Rice in the circus ring, or any
| where else. OF course. for his ciownish ac-
/ tiVities were passed III a period long pc
| fore mine.
1T took a lot of grubbng in libraries to
| get the material for the clown article, es
| pectally to dig up the stuff about the for
| elgn clowns, put 1 finally got the facts to-
| gether, and brought the article down to
| the time of Dan Rice, about whom. as the
| most celebrated OF the American clowns 1
| was to write considerable. And 1 didn't
| have any Dan kice material on hand /
| had heard that Dan Rice was living with
| ore of his daughters somewhere in New
1ork, but even Iody Hamilton, the press
agent for the one and only big show didn't
| be found. 1t was necessary, however, that
l should see Dan Rice. if such a thing were
| possible. to get some first-hand clown rem
| tniscences from him.
| so, L began to hunt around for Dan
Rice. | looked in the directory. and found
| that there were many Dan Esices in that
Dig book. Dan RiceS were as common as
blackblrds in cornfield-there even
a Dan Rice in the same fat building that
l occupied, as | had occasionally noticed
When gianclng at the names over the yes
ttbule mail boxes
Il ran lot of the Dan Rices down to
their addresses, always finding that L had
picked the wrong one.
The time for the turning in of the article
was at hand, and the magazine editor was
pressing inc for IT. And Yet ! couldn't pos
sibl5 turn it i'll without the Dan Rice stuff.
The magazine editor. a Saturday. finally
gave me until the following Tuesday to
produce the article, and | was considerably
worried over my inability to find Dan Rice
so, on the next morning, Sunday, l
started out from my fiat, determined to run
Dan Rice down If he really was living in
New York. as l had heard. l started out
about II o'clock that Sunday forenoon. I'd
had kind of a lively time OF it at Lambs
Club gambol on the night before, and, TO
sustain nre throughout the search for Dan
Rice that anticipated that day, I dropped
into the family entrance OF a cafe around
the corner from my flat for a bit of liquid
nourishment. / sat down at one of the
Darkroom tables to imbibe the Brace.
"On the other side of the table was g
whose
cudgeled my brain a bit to remember him,
and then recalled that I'd seen him coming
in and going out of the fat building in
which lived. He was an elderly man with
a rudy face and a white goatee, and 10
other hair on his face, and he wore a good
black frock coat and silk hat. He rec
ogniZed me- too, one of his neighborS.
and gave me a pleasant sort of a bow
when | sat down at the table on the other
side of him. Then he remarked, after my
drink was served, that he considered the
weather pretty fine. | thought so, too.
-" Too fine. by alf the pleasant elderly
man observed, with a quiet smile for an
back room of a saloon. applying hot and re-
bellious liquor to my blood'-he was taking
a highball. But lot of young reprobates
got me out and then seduced me into rem
iniscence last night, and l felt pretty bad
| this morning. even for an old man. Trying.
now. to get back to the normal
" Bad night, myself last night said L.
Was a-gamboling with the Indians at the
Lambs. Sad lot Hard to stay the dis
lance with them Il tried to, and here |
am also trying to get back to the normal
1.-THE Lambs, eh?' said the elderly man.
I'm an honorary member of that clever
outfit but I don't go to their high-jinks.
Too well along in years to try to keep up
with the lads
Now. ii seemed odd to me that this
ceedingly conservative looking old citizen,
who looked like the president of an uptown
bank and a Vestryman in combination,
should belong to so lively an organization
as the Lambs Club of New York. I'm not
of a rubbering disposition. but l couldn't
refrain from putting bit OF a question
that may have been somewhat inquiSitiye to
the Old gentleman.
you've had something to do with the
atricals In the course of your career then?
I said to him.
% oh. yes, In a way he replied, modestly,
II you'd call a clown a theatrical man.
"'CIownv said l. all but jumping out of
my chair. But my good sir, you were
never a clownr
oh. yes. 1 was, he replied. his eyes
twinkling L was clown for good many
years Clowned it all over the world. Fact
is | was rather a sensational sort of clown
in my day and epoch, IL do say so myself.
as shouldn't
But said I, almost bursting with the
idea that was beginning to joggle my wits
around, you're not
yes. son. l guess that's who 7 am re-
piled the old gentleman, even before I'd got
reckon you've heard your daddy talk. about
Dan Rice ehP and he produced a card case
and handed me his card, with plain Dan
Rice engraved on 1t.
well that's ALL. It was a stunning and
nurnbing sort of miracle, but that's exactly
how it happened And We presently went
around to his fiat, and he gave me material
galore and more fine prints OF hiuSef IN
the old-fashioned clownish makeup, and
had my article all written and trimmed up
with the best Dan Rice material ever pub
lished before midnight that night. And
ban Rice the clown. had been living in the
fat right underneath mine for two years,
and ia never known who he was.
''If II read anything like this little Gown
story of mine in a book Ia sniff incredu-
lously. as we all do over remarkably pat
happenings in works of fiction. But the
thing I've told you about happened just as
I've told II, all the same.
Pumping Life Back With the Tongue