The San Francisco call., 1910-07-06
YEGGS And DIPS
CAPTURE CROWD
Train Robbers, StrOngarms and
Crackers Hold Audience
in Seats

A vaudeville program was performed
by the sojourners at a quiet resort on
the Marin bay shore on the evening of
the fourth of July. the excellence of
which was rated by the 500 invited
guests as SURPRISING most current en-
tertainments of the kind. Give me
these performers in San Francisco"
exclaimed theatrical man who was
. present. "and I'll take the audiences
away from most of the vaudeville
houses doing business there. This show
woul5 go anywhere"
> Local managers, however, need not
. prepare for the stiff competition. That
excellent show at the quiet resort on
the Marin shore will not go" any
=. where else The performers are deaf
TO the dictates OF ambition, callous to
the spur OF financial opportunity They
: know how clever they are. yet without
exception they shall remain where they
are-some for one year, SOME for ten,
some for keeps. The great, unquiet
p world may not entice them, for the
gentle dictator who rules their close
community surrounds them with gram
lite walls by day and padlocks their
steel bedchsmbers by night. Isolated
and insulated, here is a company Of
actors that nothing whatsoever might
disrupt except the heat of internal
=: jealousy and il is commonly believed
? that they have a cooler" there TO
provide against that
LONG on TIME
The performance lasted five hours,
but this is not strange when one un-
oerstands that the people composing
this tight little town are longer on
time" than anything else.
The grand first part was minstrelsy.
Uncle Sam appeared upon an elabor-
atsly set stage and announced the
coming Of ENJOYS and ministers -.peni-
tentiary" from the civilized nations to
join him in celebrating the glorious
fourth. Then arrived radiantly robed
representatives from England, France,
Germany, Turkey, Greece, Mexico,
Spain, Italy ana darkest Africa. The
songs and jokes kept the audience
appiauding and shouting through the
long session. The performers having
temporarily swapped their names for
numbers, they viii be designated here
by their previous-not present-occu-
patiens Tie Your Little Bull Out
side" was sung by a bad check artist;
MY Old Girl by a forger; Girls,
Girls, Girls" by a misdirected penman;
I'd Like to be the Fellow that Girl
IS Waiting For by a burglar; You'll
Come Back" by a man whose checks
put him into stripes; For Killarney
and You" by highwayman; "Ogalalla"
by a kidnaper, and Roses Bring
Dreams Of You" by a gifted false pre-
tender-that is. gifted as a singer. The
spectacular patriotic finale was called
When Teddy Comes Marching Home"
Colonel Roosevelt appeared and the ap-
q, partition was so startling that the au-
dience rose out of the seats at the
word -'Dee-lighted." and a fash Of
f1f that real
Roosevelt, he who upheld the Monroe
@doctrina, but an imitation Roosevelt
xho had merely held up a train.
While Girls, Girls. Girls" was be-
ing sung, the splendid orchestra was
led by two time loser" who came
70 prison the first time because he
did not marry the girl in the case
and the second time because he did.
The singer who'd like TO be the fellow
that girl is waiting for" would have to
keep her waiting, if good behavior
saves his copper, only 27 years.
The olio contained IA numbers, ev-
cry one Of which were creditable. There
were playiets, acrobatics. song and
dance turns, ventriloquism, burlesques,
racterizing and charcoal sketching.
The performers were "yeggs," dips"
"hops," s'crackers," strong arms"
stick ups" soups" makers and SHOW
e~s Of the queer ssAIormons'' fences"
dsrkened the countenances of more
than few Of the blackface performers.
The female impersonations showed an
unusual degree Of eleverness. All the
vomens parts were taken by men ex-
cept one--a lady burglar sang illus
trated songs IL a way that made
hundred influential men in the audi
ence want 10 sign an application for
her parole. The parole is unnecessary.
as her sentence expires in a few days.
Her beauty and unmistakable refine
ment created a sensation in the audi
encs.
jokes WERE LOCAL
Many Of the jokes were original and
local A comedian told of visiting
manufacturing plant SO large that it
: took all day TO go through ii. That's
nothing" flashed another fellow; I'VE
have plants here in San Quentin that
the guards never have been able to
20 through" The pot of beans forever
on the IA BILE at an extra" in "Shaw's
cafe" CShaw runs the prison dining
roon) must have cracked with the shots
fred at II. A blackfsce fellow. upon
being substituted in the program, eX-
plsined that he was like that pot OF
beans-there TO fill a vacancy. An
other told in song how. IF the warden
were a cousin of mine" he would never
look another bean in the face as long
as he lived
In the opinion of Warden John E.
Hoyle, who is responsible for its de-
velopment. the semiannual vaudeville
performance by the prisoners has be-
come a powerful factor for good in
San Quentin. Men are careful of their
behavior for months in order to be en-
titled TO a tryout for place in the
show.
The first three performances of the
show are attended exclusively by re-
lays of the convicts themselves. Each
values his seat in the chapel theater
more than any outsider values seat at
a heavy weight prize fight And the
show enables the prison inmates to give
visible expression TO their celebration
Of the fourth Of July, for where, sup
pose you, is keener value placed upon
the boon of liberty?
A negro singing among plantation
singers was repeatedly encored, and
was proud OF the applause he so fully
won. The privilege of appearing means
more than gold to him. He has become
q model prisoner. Before his arrival
az San Quentin he was the most des-
perate prisoner ever confined in the
Fresno county Jail. where il was neces-
sary 10 squirt chloroform into his cell
before II was possible to bind him and
drag him away 20 his trial
CEzTT nDENT,C EECTTxyAT