The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-18
JUNGLE TOM" IS STILL IN DANGER Adventures of Those Who Give
 Show In Tents OPERA HOUSES CUT IT OUT Trouble Made by Whisky, Tomatoes, I Law Suits and Prejudice in Towns
 of the southwest-Is Good B Money Maker.

Guthrie, (Okla.,) Cor. Omaha Bee.
 Simon Legree, villain, stood on lad der with a paint brush in his hand swip- ing the side of his private car From a nearby window Eliza beamed upon him amiably, even with affection, 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 win ter quarters and lead the nomadic life of tent show until frost and the chill rains should forbid further exposure of little Eva, the dear child, to the dangers of pneumonia.
 The genuine ferocious Siberian blood hounds seemed to divine the approaching hour of departure and were tugging at their chains A bunch of marble-eyed pickaninnies stood leaning over a fence at safe distance speculating upon the awful powers of destruction possessed by the bloodhounds.
 Yes" said Legree, a mild hammered man, who had accumulated $75,000 in good hard cash in the 15 years he had owned From" 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 perilous adventure. Storm Zone Is Marked. "There isn't much trouble way up north nor way down south,. but when you approach Mason and Dixon's line get ready for storms. It's where the fraz- zled 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 removed from the bloody field of Shiloh
 Never heard about what happened to us in the spring of 1908? Well, you should have been there. Good crowd at the show and Legree just in the act of larrupin old Tom when in comes deputy sheriff with five or six partners, all loaded with squirrel whisky and each with a six shooter 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 it. Everybody fell off 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 bottle of whisky and waded into 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 bullet might come through the side of the car into our hunks.
 Minister Makes Trouble. ''At another place a minister circulated a nptiti0n mayor to revoke our license We had dandy band that played selections from
 Faust William Tel.' Martha II Trovatore' and all that kind of stuff, yet the crowd stood in the street and jeered and said that the musicians played like lot of scared niggers That mads 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 treat ment was an outrage, and got into bully fight with gun play for saying it.
 ''ract often quiets trouble When I sec something getting ready to start I 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 belong to the show and invite him to go in with me, paying for the tickets as if were a stranger Once inside, the bully becomes interested in the perform ance and the vaudeville and acrobatic 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 I kept my negro singers secreted in a car, took them la closed carriages to the tent at 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 gre 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 250 men and boys. We cancelled the performance and pulled out of town. Never get into fight in such places; you'll get licked to dead certainty, and maybe killed.
 We call another place Six-Shooter Junction, after having had all the win dows 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.
 'Theres $20,000 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 au- dience usually ceases its hostile demon- strations 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 go- ing 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 Bar Room There was intense bitterness between the opposing partisans, and to show their contempt of their enemies .anti-prohibi- tionists often came to a show with a quart of whisky, drinking publicly when ever thirsty.
 "At the performance I refer to, Joe Morgan had entered the barroom of Si- mon Slade and asked for drink, only to be refused by Slade, in whose place Nor gan's life had been ruined. Joe was com plaining of his misery and the cruelty of Slade when a great, big Texan stood up with a quart bottle of whisky in his hand and exclaimed:
 "'Here, Joe, damn it, take drink with mel
 "And the rascal walked up the runway and onto the stage. The man playing Joe Morgan was a teetotaler. But the sight of the advancing Texan, deep in his cups. unnerved him so that he took several swallows from the bottle at the urgent