The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-28
ZONE NIGHT STANDS'

Amy Leslie in the Chicago News.
 N OBODY knows the utter misery, U the casual joys, the exactions and unreenting hard work of playing one night towns except those who have been chained to a route made up of days on railroads and nights in strange habita tions, a route given to players for a season of 30 or more weeks without even respite of a Sunday
 This cunningly devised year of misad- ventures and theatrical calamtles has sent a caravan of gypsying celebrities out into the towns not on the map, the vll- lages of note. the places reached by a tram or trolley and the big, deep kind woods where the railroads carry no trunks. Large companies are the only ones exempt and the genial transporta- tion authorities have carefully planned enough interstate legislation to scare the bravest plungers on railroad tickets into counting noses twice before shipping a 2-year-old musical comedy out to grass with it's original phalanx of beauties, comedians and choral attachments. But the stars, especially the woman stars with small companies, go forth and find.
 Among the unexpected things they find is a kind of desultory amusement for themselves out of the despair settled about tramp over uncivilzed territory with even modern convenience an undis- covered novelty, with trundle beds and kerosene, with mosquito netting screens and lead spoons, with cold coffee and !. of courageous pleasure of the misery likes-company variety.
 Everybody starts out grudgingly on one of these long, undeeorated devourers of dramatic art. The star shivers and looks injured before she sees her week ahead, the ingenue blubbers, the soubrettes peel their eagle eyes for passing entertainments and the comedians grouch in strange lan- guage and many bibulous vows. They climb on a train in the most excited state of rebellion, not against their fate but against the promoters of the one-night show business in general and their own blessed angel of the ghost envelope in particular.
 Sometimes the star makes the whole journey picnic and never shows the white feather from September to June. Lillian Russell for the first time in her glittering life has this year been chased out into the tall timbers to carry on a kind of brilliant and smiling brigandage by which the beautiful Lillian is to loot the whole south and west of its hoarded wealth and make 1t feel in her debt after she is through She arises at or if necessary, ships aboard with the whole company, is not afraid to take her veil off or use her sweetest voice before sunrise and sets everybody such a canny ex- ample that the health average of the "Wildfre" troupe is recorded as unprece- dented. If she has been too cold she bustles around and circulates enough to warm up; if she is too warm she sits idly and starts breezy conversation and lolls and 50 does everybody else. She las proved an ideal one-night towner and all the railroad authorities want to divide stocks with her. for they are used to the stellar kick. Once this winter Russell discovered that her next town was sure of a doubtful $500 and @ certain 50-mile ride between midnight and dawn with no sleepers or chair cars The town was near St. Louis and Nordica was singing there. What did Russell do but pay the piper for deserting and charter car 10 take her whole company up to St. Louis