Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-04
JUNGLE TOM IN PERIL YET
Adventures of Those Who Give the
Show in Tents.
TEXAS OPERA HOUSES SHUT TO IT
TrObIe Made by WHISKY, T~ornadoes,
Law Suits and Prejudice I'm Towns
of the sOuthwest-PIay the
biggest Money Maker.

Nhldlu' $1,000 on a ladder WIN n paint
brush in his hand swiping the side Of his
private car. From a nearby window Eliza
beamed upon him amiably, even with af-
~fection. showing her white teeth as she
smiled. The odor of ham and cabbage
came from the car kitchen.
Yellow dandelions had begun to show
themselves. the feeling Of spring was in
the air. heightened by the scent Of new
tent stakes. newly oiled harness and fresh
varnish. An Uncle Toms Cabin company
was preparing to abandon winter quarters
and lead the nomadic life Of a tent show
until frost and the chill fall rains should
forbid further exposure of little Eva, the
dear child. to the dangers of pneumonia.
The genuine feroclous Siberian blood
hounds seemed TO divine the approaching
hour Of departure and were Juggling at
their chains. A bunch of marble-eyed
pickaninnies stood leaning over a fence at
a safe distance Specializing upon the awful
powers of destruction possessed by the
bloc dhounds.
Yes" said Legree. a mild hammered
man, who had accumulated $4,000 in good
hard cash In the fifteen years he had owned
a Tom show, I'VE are getting ready to
go down the firing line and don't for a
minute imagine that we'll be able to dodge
everything. This Tom business is a life
Of p%eIilous adventure.
Storm Zone Is Marked.
There isn't much trouble way up north
nor way down south, but when you APP
proach Mason and Dixon's line get ready
for storms. It's where the frazzled edges
of secession and unionism flap together
that life is hardest for us. And the worst
place Of the bad places is south central
and southeastern Oklahoma. There are
'~nesters' In that region only an hour re-
moved from the bloody field OF Shiloh
Never heard about what happened to us
in the spring Of 1903? Well you should
have been there. Good crowd at the show
end Legree just in the act Of larrupin' old
Tom when in comes a deputy sheriff with
five or six partners, all loaded with squirrel
whisky and each with a sixshooter in his
paw.
Take to the brush, every damned one
of you spotted leopards, and go back where
you belong; you can't pull off this show
in this here country That's what they
said, and they meant II.
Everybody fell of the benches and
ducked under the tent walls and lit out
for home. The fellows with the guns hur-
rahed and cheered. Then each one opened
a bottle of whisky and waded into a nearby
lake. where they paraded back and forth
for hours, singing Turkey in the Straw
and shooting off their guns. Some OF us
slept on the floor of the car that night,
fearing that a bullet might come through
the side of the car into our hunks.
Minister Makes
90 -Iooo . xoipiotar cirrulafAd q
petition and got $50 signers asking the
mayor 10 revoke our license. We had a
dandy band that played selections from
| Faust William Tell Martha IN Trovs-
tore and all that kind of stuff, yet the
/ crowd stood in the street and Jeered and
said that the musicians played like a lot
of scared niggers.' That made us sore,
but we couldn't do anything.
The petition divided the town. The
mayor refused to revoke the license. A
local newspaper editor said our treatment
was an outrage, and got into a bully fight
with a gun play for saying 1t.
Tact often quiets trouble. When l see
something getting ready to start l stay
close around the ticket wagon and pick
out the biggest bully. I begin talking in a
free-and- easy-way, without his knowing
that 1 belong to the show and invite him
to go in with me, paying for the tickets
as IL l were a stranger. Once inside, the
bully becomes interested in the perform
ance and the vaudeville and acrobatc
! stunts between the acts and grows friendly.
The prejudice against negroes is fierce
in some parts of Oklahoma. A number of
towns will not permit a negro to get off
the train. At such towns l kept my negro
singers secreted in a car. took them in
- the sant af NIGHT and
opened the carriage door right against the
door of the tent. Once inside and on the
stage the audience couldn't tell whether
the negroes were genuine or imitation.
Some 'Pizen" Towns.
There are towns in Texas and Missis-
sippi that are simply pizen. In one Texas
town the town band came down the street
playing Dixie and followed by a mob of
$50 men and boys We cancelled the per-
Torrance and pulled out of town. Never
get into a fight In such places; you'll get
licked to a dead certainty, and maybe
killed.
I'VE call another place, Six-Shooter juno
ton, after having had all the windows of
our cars shot out there one night. In Texas
one theatrical circuit will not book a Tom
show in Its opera houses, being unwilling
to take chances, and no Tom show has
ever played the opera house Circuit in that
state.
There's $4,000 net for the man who
can get the bookings. Tom would draw
Just as heavily as THE Clansman,' which
sets Texas on fire about three times a year.
once inside a show a southern audience
usually ceases its hostile demonstrations
against a Tom performance, There is no
play more appealing In its pathos. and
when the story of Uncle Tom grips an
audience prejudice usually gives way to
tears. This season I'm going on the firing
line IN Arkansas; you may see my name In
the newspapers some day.
Prohibition In Texas.
Getting back to Texas, let me tell you
OF a fool thing that happened at one town.
Prohibition was a red hot issue in Texas at
the time, and we switched from Tom to
Ten Nights In a Barroom.' There was
intense bitterness between the opposing
partisans, and 10 show their contempt of
their enemies anti-prohibitionists often
came to a show with a quart OF whisky.
drinking publicly whenever thirsty.
AT the performance l refer to, Joe Nor
gan had entered the barroom OF Simon
Slade and asked for a drink, only to be
, refused by Slade. I'm whose place Morgan's
life had been ruined. Joe was containing