The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-09-12
RECALLS OLDFN TIMES
G. A. Wood Hears "PinafOre" at
Washington City and it brings
back Old Leon Memories.

1t has been some time since Reporter
readers have had the pleasure of perus-
ing an etiusion from the fertile brain of
q. A. Wood as he grinds it out on his
typewriter in Washington City, where
he is employed as government steno-
grapher. Recently Mr.. Wood attended
a production of "Pinafore' by the
Aborn Opera Co. at the New National
theatre in that city, and it brought him
back to the good old days in Leon years
ago, so he let his thoughts wander and
penned the following interesting rem
iniscence, which will be read with
considerable interest by many of the
old boys and girls IN Leon and scatter
ed all over this big country in many
states:
| The orchestra rends the overture and
as settle back in my gallery chair and
watch the curtain rise to revival of
the perennial favorite, II. NJ. S. Pima
fore, time seems to have slipped cog,
and once again am back in the opera
house at Leon, listening to the melod-
ious gang that sailed the ocean blue in
eighteen hundred ninety two.
And in fancy the listless profession
ais assume the forms and are imbued
with the vim and go of the all-star ag-
gregation that made Pinafore famous in
Iowa in years gone by and created a
yearning for better music in the Mis-
souri, bosom.
Yes, there, just as plain as calcium
can make them, are the same old crew
on the same old deck, Fritz James,
Frank jerks, Sam Bowman, Gene and
Charley Hebener, Charley Sullivan,
Elmer Harris, John Parrish, Floyd Har-
yey, Frank Craigo, Sam Lands. "Uncle
john Clark, George Hamilton; and,
sure, that fellow on the end could in
deed be none but Virgil, he the sweet
est singer of them all! l can even see
Lark Bobbitt, the stage manager, using
club to keep John Parrish and George
Hamilton off the center of the stage.
There's Calvin Smith, the greatest
Dick Deadeye that ever faced the foot
lights or felt the cat, and there's good
old Jud Edwards, the warbling boats
swain, and Dick Ledgerwood, the
bo's'n's mate.
ALI, now hear the gentle voice of
Buttercup, dear little Buttercup But
goodness me! that can't be Name Penni-
we'll. Sure, it pulls the Imagination
taut to see in this person the dainty
Bnttercup that mixed the children up
in our show so many years ago.
It's funny can't remember who play
ed the part of the Captain in the Gard
ner presentation, but he's gotten away,
from me. know very we'll that some
body bayed the moon and loved little
Buttercup, though she could never tell
why.
You bet l remember who the little
midshipmite was, though. But I'm not
tellin '-Huh-uh! Let's see, fifteen
years added to eleven would be twenty
six. No, guess I'd better keep still.
Here comes Sir Joseph Porter,
K. G. B., with his sisters and his cousins
and his aunts. Whoever gazed on those
magnificent calves of Charley Edwards
that didn't long to gaze and gaze again?
Please notice that l make reference
only to Charley, not to the cousins and
the sisters and the aunts. And that
voice! | can see the roof rise and fall
with the rhythm Of it as he tells how
he and Sapolio polished up the handle
of the big front door.
Again is the fancy stretched to make
of the decrepit ballet the bunch of
beauty that graced the decks of "our"
Pinafore. But, as far as that goes, isn't
Imagination to be excused? for where in
all the world could you find the equal
of the galaxy of stars that echoed the
lovely Hebe at Leon and Bethany? Yes,
where, indeed! Certainly not at the
Hippodrome nor in the Florodora Sex
tet! | tell you it was worth the price
of admission and then some when the
two Hoffhines girls, Kate Sankey, Min
Carroll, Edo Craigo, the two Biggs girls,
Nelles Ledgerwood and Woodland, Dell
Merwin, Stella Allen, Lillian Craig, Pearl
Osborn, and Mrs. Horner tripped light
ly across the boards and up with that
jolly about the politeness of the roughs
on the other side of the stage!
There on the left of the Admiral is
Ora Pitman singing the Hebe part. She
certainly missed her vocation when she
turned her back on opera and took to
the farm. But, hold. maybe this is
Bethany and that is Lou Craigo. I'm
somewhat hazy on that, and the paints
on mighty thick. mean on the real
Hebe here, not the supposititious one. i
Shall we ever forget the prima donna
and the tenor? Don't we remember the
b-e-e-youtiful singer imported from
Chicago or Kansas City or Des Moines
1 w oA6h 1eoAPA ANAShoUIdWs DAY,
couldn't he get higher up in G without
falling off than anybody you ever heard?
Caruso wasn't in his class. And when
he and Mrs. Gardner got out in the CEN
ter of the stage and threw the love
songs at each other, now wasn't there
something doing? Well, I guess yes.
And when the jealous old Admiral
ordered Ralph to his dunjohn cell
wasn't there some irrigation in the
audience? And wasn't Mrs. Gardner
the bud of blushing beauty, though; and
couldn't she sing! That ancient dame
there can't take her place-it is really
too much for the Imagination. Things
are seldom what they seem, and certain
Iskimmed milk masquerades as cream in
this case.
1t is no trouble at all to shut one eye
and see John Penniwell and Reeder
Farquhar and Edgar McClelland and
Horny Long and Charley Gardner and
! Lizzie Hurst playing in the village
band and raising the stage dust in their
efforts to keep in sight Of the imported
tenor.
| Weren't those the good old days