The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-02

wheel chair out Of the restrictedly re-
spectacle stretch or Atlantic City's
seven miles of board walk along the
edge of the ocean,. and into a portion
the Bowery, when the
means n groans. shrieks and yells,
~ a voice that was human, yet so
vastly as to remind me that mar is
but an animal after all, called my at
tention to a sideshow ~placarded THE
Wild Man of Borneo." The negro push
- err of my chair slowed his gait to a
mark-time and slowed me over close TO
the screened platform that held the
sideshow.
Mos gen'men stop heah 4 take a
look" he said; IAN it don cos but a
Nickel.
In a cage was a wild man, as ape
faced as the one that Barnum showed
in his museum forty years ago, n
making noises as hideous while mi
ing his chain. A glance at him was all
that my curiosity needed, and 1 re-
turned TO inertness in my perambula-
tor. The black pusher wheeZed in my
ear with a complaining tone. as he got
under way slowly: "Did'n yo' like lat
wild man, sah?"
He is a great actor" ! replied. care
less of what / said.
"Joyed to heah yo' express dat opin-
ion," was the ready response, he am
u friend Of mine. Used to push a roller
chair TO a nbin', but BON TO an actah.
Was tragedian fo' the Seaside Dramat-
ic society. OATS how he qualified to
play de Wild Man o. Borneo."
AS the chair rolled along 1 heard an
other series OF frightful outcries. hut
this time INV motorman was inclined to
speed me past a sideshow ~placarded
The Cannibal King" 1 alighted,
fbough. mounted a platform at a cost
OF 5 cents, and looked down into a pit
where a negro. with his natural uSh-
ness increased by a~rtiice, was bowling
like a dog, as he gnawed at some
bones.
Are they human bones?" / asked.
IF they was said the Snowman,
I'VE wouldn't have no performance, for
her he wouldn't be making no such
noisy kick"
In the chair again, my black pusher
wheezed in my ear: Il did'n' spec he'd
detain yo' long. He's I'm Vah-ginny,
so he say. an he lays claim to bein' an
actah. We roliahmen thinks ouah
Wild Man o. Borneo has got dat Can
nibal King beat to a standstill."
AS TO the personality of the two
tragedians. their culture N sociabil-
ity, he said I might see for myself by
dropping in at the Hole in the Wall
Apast midnight. as there they were apt
10 mingle in the dance after their pro-
f~essional days work was over; n as
likely as not get sight OF a right hot
scrap. too. ".'caus partisan feelin' an
runnin' swift, sah-very swift. Now,
as a dramatic recorder, ought | to sit
up late nights TO witness a repetition
OF the Forrest-Macready riot over the
Wild Man and the Cannibal?
X X X
A remarkable contest in acting. real
o.H aarpaS+ AVIAN hatafnI foo had
lasted a week here when 1 saw ii. The
antagonists were Mabel Hite and Ray
-mond Hitchcock. The causing condi-
lions had arisen from the singular ex-
perience of The Merry-Go-Round"
during it's three months in New York.
described that play. at its outset, as
among the best Tor, say, worst, If you
scale them lower the more sensuous
they are) of the spring and summers
big folly shows. The outlay of money
a been lavish, the exhibitions Of girls
In new aspects had been ~ingeniously
devised, and the payroll had been en-
larged by some high-pay specialists
along with many show girls. The play
itself? oh. yes. Well. its nonsense was
OF the sort that New York laughs at.
Why, then, wasn't the venture success
TIL altogether? Because II was used to
open a female minstrelsy house rebuilt
for a music hail., handsomely. to be
sure, and on Broadway. but a mile
away from the theatrical center. Resi-
dents were slow 10 learn of the change
to Justify the raise OF prices. tourists
a never heard of it. and there was a
plenty of similar entertainments GEN.
trally located. So the capitalist with
drew from both theatre and play after
thirteen weeks. I hardly ever write
about the commercial topics of the
stage, but the failure of a show hat
ought to be popular is unusual.
At the end of two months THE Mer-
ry-Go-Round" was whirling its fun and
beauty right merrily, but not enough
people were coming TO see IL. and some
thing needed TO be done TO make them
take notice. Raymond Hitchcock had
heen tried VIGOROUSLY on a criminal
cSarge. and a jury had pronounced him
not guilty; so he was a thoroughly ad-
vertised comedian IN he was engaged
to displace the actor playing the role
of q rustic genius in the show business.
I gave an account of Hitchcock's OPEN
ing night. He had stage fright pitiful-
"; for there in front We're several rows
of FOUNDERS, and who knew that they
hadn't come to bait him; and every
word In his part that could be applied
to his alleged fondness for girls raised
a knowing laugh. at which he seemed
to shrink in his clothes and lose one
OF scant hundred pounds leanness.
Flora Zabelle, his wife. had siumped
at the last hour n declined TO appear,
and a man was waiting at the stage
door 10 serve a m from the
manager whom he had quit for this
engagement. Besides those things to
scare him, the role had been written
for a wholly different comedian, and he
couldn't have hone much with ii if in
full control of his faculties. That per-
Torrance settled tie fate of The Mer-
r~y-Go-Round" in New York.
~ y X
The frontage of a theatre on the ia
nous board walk here at Atlantic City
caught my eye, on the evening of my
arrival. by the odd arrangement of it's
electric s~ignboards. There were the
usual places for two. one for the play.
where blaZed The Merry-Go-Round,"
and one for the star actor, where
Raymond Hitchcock was lighted up;
but a third had been hung underneath,
where shone forth "Mabe. Hite" in let
~.srs smaller than the others. but odder,
" a. ..--ft-- w-A4lt-@ .- a.