Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-27


for the sale of drove of beeves in the East (that
accounts for the prices we pay for steak) The
cash disappears at the same time Jack Valentine
was the only person with the ranchman when he
made his alleged croak
"Gawd knows l love him; but If he has done this
deed" you sabe, don't you? And then there are
things said about the Fifth Avenue
Girl--who doesn't the stage-and can we
blame her, with the vaudeville trust holding down
prices until one actually must be buttoned in the
back by call boy, maids cost much?
But, wait Here's the climax. Helen Grimes,
chaparralish she be, is goaded beyond i'm
prudencei She convinces herself that Jack valen-
tine is not only falsetto but fnancer To lose
at one full sweep $647 900 and lover in riding
trousers with angles in the sides like the variations
on the chart of typhoid fever patient is enough
to make any perfect lady mad. So, then
They stand in the (ranch) library which is fur
nished with mounted elk heads didn't the elks
have fish fry in Amagansett once?), and the de-
nouement begins. 1 know of interesting
time in the of a play unless it be when the
prologue ends.
Goaded beyond imprudence (as before said) +,
Helen says to Jack Valentine: "Robber and thief
and yet, stealer of trusting hearts, this
should be your fate!"
32-caliber
but will be merciful," goes on Helen. You
shall live-that will be you punishment. I will
show you how easily could have sent you to the
death that you deserve. There is her picture on
the mantel. l will send through her more beauti-
full face the bullet that should have pierced your
craven heart"
And she does it. And there's no fake blank cart
ridges or assistants pulling strings. Helen fres
The bullet-the actual bullet-goes through the
face of the photograph-and then strikes the hid
den spring of the sliding panel on the wall-and
10! the panel slides, and there is the missing s647
600 in convincing stacks of currency and bags of
gold It's great You know how 1t is. Cherry
practiced for two months at target on the roof of
her boarding house. 1t took good shooting. In
the sketch she had to hit a brass disk only three
inches in diameter, covered by wall paper in the
panel; and she had to stand in exactly the same
spot every night and the photo had to be in exactly
the same spot, and she had to shoot steady and
true every time.
After the show the booking agents signed blank
checks and pressed fountain pens upon Hart and
Cherry Five hundred dollars week what it
panned out.
That night at 11.3O Bob Hart took off his hat
and bade Cherry good night at her boarding house
door.
"Mr Hart said she thoughtfully, "come inside
just few minutes We've got our chance now to
make good and to make money. What we want to
do is to cut expenses every cent can, and save
all can"
Right" said Bob tits business with me-
You've got your scheme for banking yours; and
dream every night of that bungalow with the Jap
cook and nobody around to raise trouble. Any
thing to enlarge the aet receipts will engage my
attention"
Come inside Just few minutes" repeated Cher
ry, deeply thoughtful I've got proposition to
make to you that Will reduce expenses a lot
and help you work out your own future and help
me work out mine-and all on business princi-
pies"
Mice VIII Play" had a tremendously successful
run in New York for ten weeks-rather neat for a
vaudeville sketch-and then 1t started on the cir
cults Without following it, 1t may be said that
1t was solid drawing card for two years without
a sign of abated popularity.
Sam Packard, manager of one of Keetor's New
York houses, said of Hart & Cherry:
las square and high-toned little team as ever
came the circuit. It's pleasure to read their
names the booking list Quiet, hard workers,
no Johnny and Mabel nonsense, the job to the
minute, straight home after the act, and each of
'em gentlemanlike as lady. don't expect to
handle any attractions that give less trouble or
more respect for their profession
And now after so much cracking of nutshell,
here is the kernel of the story.
At the end of it's second season mice VIII Play
came back to New York for another at the roof
gardens and summer theaters. There was never
any trouble in booking 1t at the topnoch price Bob
Hart had his bungalow nearly paid for, and Cherry
had so many savings-deposit bank books that she
had begun to buy sectional bookcases the install
uent nIan @ hold them.
tell you these things to assure you, even II you
can't believe it, that many very many of the stage
people are workers with abiding ambitions-just
the same as the who wants to be president, or
the grocery clerIn who wants home inFlatbush, or
lady who wants to flop out of the Count-pan into
the Prnce-tre And I hope may be allowed to
say without chipping into the contribution basket,
that they often move in q mysterious way, their
wonders to perform.
But listen.
At the first performance of Mice VIII Play in
New York at the Westphalia (no hams alluded
toy Theater, Winona Cherry nervous. When
she fired at the photograph of the Eastern beauty
tha h,,IIa ~ fho