The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-08-31

found the feeting favor Of the public. "Estee,
My Prairie Belle" it and as its stereotyped
strains filtered through the thick smoke of the
room, the property man seated across from me-
gazed in sad, pensiyeness into his beer and,
with the final chord that signfed that the orches-
ira had at last done its worst, he gave vent to
deep deep sigh and murmured, in distracted
pathos 'Estelle Estelle!" and then relapsed into
another staring interval.
l. wisely, forebore to interrupt him; and at
length he came to himself and to me.
.Oh" he said, with a little start Il guess
must have been thinking, wasn't ~
/ nodded
you had all the symptoms" returned.
''Ain't it funny" he began then, in abrupt tran
sition: THAT tune always sets me thinking of an
EstelIe knowed And when j gets to think
ing that way, | goes phiandering off into the
mazes of mem'ry until don't know where I'm at
never told you about Estele, did ~
/ shook my head and pretended only perfume
tory interest in the sad tale of bghted love that
/ felt to come. Some people, you know.
will tell you things only when they think you don't
care much about hearing them; and the property
that kind.
WELL" he said, at length, reminiscently, 1t was
this way. In eighteen ninety-seyen l was out with
The Queen of the Hayrem' company. That was
great show. 1t about English girl VINO gets
kidnapped by Turk and put into his harem She
has sweetheart, and he climbs over the wall IN
the second act to rescue her.
1.-The guy that owns the harem catches him there,
and he says his slaves (coons they were that we
would pick UP in every town that we played), he
says, Seize him. and the coons grabs the leading
man and ties him hand and foot while the leading
lady looks on, weeping and wailing and wringing
her hands and telling the out of the side of
her face that turned away from the audience
to be careful not to walk her train she'd tell
the manager and they'd lose their jobs
I'm the next act for revenge, the Turk guy puts
dan andf thp 1nah
ing woman with log chain where she can get a
good view while the lion eats up her lover. But
just the lion is about to make good, the leading
woman bursts her chain and runs into the den and
charms the lion with her gaze long enough to unite
the leading Then they both beat it while
the lions coming out of the Trilby that she has
nut him into hot situation, eh?"
l NODDED Very agreed.
WELL" went the property man. 1--WE is book
ed to open in Hoboken. The manager has bought
a ex-circus lion for the big scene; and of course
he is in my charge.
"They come driving him over from New York
In cage which is loaded onto truck. They
makes almighty good time. too, for the horses can
smell him land 1 don't wonder). and it stimulates
them to such extent that they tries seven times
to get off the ferry boat between docks; and when
finally they do get ashore they yank the wheels
of from three cabs and mail wagon and come up
to the theayter like they pulling Steamer Ten
to general alarm fire. Tame animals is always
afraid of wild ones that way. 1 knowed leopard
trainer to go out evening without changing his
clothes and hire cab against the wind. And then.
when the breeze changed SO the horse could smell
him-well, they was chunks of that cab all the
way from Forty-second Street to the Battery, and
then some. But that amt got nothing to do with
Estelle
when they gets in front of the theayter, they
sends in for and I goes out, not unperturbed
In mind; for it amt no joke to go chaperoning
/
lamps focused on the poor animal who's laying
back in of his cage looking tired and
discouraged and car-sick, don't feel other emo
ton but pity.
He sure amt beauty to look at. In the
beast deck he's more like dooce than king. He's
got bum eye and he's kind of moth eaten, and
faded around the edges and his whiskers looked
like they'd been trimmed by an Eyetalian barber
who's in a hurry to get away to street festival.
He is certainly pitiful-looking object.
I'VE gets him stored in corner of the stage
and goes out to buy him a slab of and some
dog biscuit.
when shoves this provender in through the
bars of his cage he don't like 1 naturally expects,
charging down on it with his mouth full of
growls and wild light in his windows. Instead,
he merely lays where he is, casting peevish and
disappointed gaze upon the sirloin and crackers,
Then, when he sees that am watching him, he
bats his eye up at me, grateful and appreciative,
and opens his mouth alphabetically you please
and l see the reason for his peculiar conduct,
which is that he amt got tooth in his head. His
jaws is bare of ornament unpaid for cerne-
terry site. So l exchanges the carnivora banquet
for a couple of gallons of milk and half dozen
loaves of bread.
The lion takes this Juvenile repast like he was
kitten, wagglng his tail gentle You please and
purrng like of them rivettng machines they
skyscrapers. And every in while he
blinks at in grateful thanks. Then, when at
last he's absorbed his feed, he comes to the
side of the cage and smiles his deep appre-
citation for what have did for him and then goes
to the corner of the cage, turns around three
or four times and lays down; and resting his head
between his paws, he goes off into a snooze that
makes the drops culver.
.Byme-bye, about o'clock, the members
of the company shows up. OF the first thins
they does to beat 1t over to the lions cage And