Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-02

SCARED theatrical manager of
0 one-night-stand companies told
"A me Of an experience lie once
had with an itinerant philan-
hropist I'm the southland.
IF 1t hadn't been for that benevolent
person." he said. II reckon we'd all be
Town In Brewton, Escambia county, Ala.
yet.
I'VE got into Brewton from Montgom-
Try. If they'd only egged us or some
hing in Montgomery it wouldn't have
been so bad. for egg throwers have got
% pay to get In with their hen fruit. and
we'd have been that much to the good.
anyhow
But they wouldn't play come-to-see
With us at all In Montgomery. There
we're thirty-one In the house at both per-
'ormances, afternoon and evening; and
he man in front gave 'em back their
gold and told 'em to go play the cotton
market with it.
Il tried the Svengali stuff on the hotel
man, but there wasn't a chance for me
10 get that across. The bill for the
twelve of us was eighteen bucks, and
We had all of forty-seven simoleons'
worth OF luggage sewed up in the hotel.
The hotel man wouldn't let me hand him
he hypnosis thing, and SO had to make
4 wire-dig on the Chicago angel for fifty
IRON men. Along with the fifty came
me angels message:
% 'That'n be about all. know when
I've had sufficiency'
Il settled with the Montgomery hotel
man and bought. the tickets for the
troupers to Brewton. When that was
done the fifty looked like a zero with
the rim denuded; think there was $3.50
eft Of the half-century parchment.
Xxx
My man ahead had wired that there
was liable to be pretty fairish house
at Brewton, which encouraged US some.
We needed encouragement, for none OF
the company had seen the color of
much as a shinplaster for six weeks. We
were taking in our own washing, and glad
10 have our gear left to wash, at that.
I'VE reached Brewton, Escambia coun-
ty, Alabama, on a rainy night in Janu-
airy. 1t was after midnight. and even if
there'd been caloosheS at the railroad
station they wouldn't have been for us.
So we tramped. about quarter Of
mile through the muck and the dark and
the rain to the weather-boarded hotel,
where the man ahead had dickered for
us to put up. We all were feeling like
rained-on birds nests.
when We finally stumbled into the
hotel shack We found the advance man
engaged in eloquent converse with the
hotel person. The hotel man looked right
natural to us. He was twin brother of
the hotel man in Montgomery, the one
upon whom had wasted my forensic elo-
quence. and the Montgomery twin had
wired his Brewton brother to look out
for bunch of hams headed his way,
and to make them do that beforehand
dig thing.
Our advance man was trying to con-
vince the proprietor of the Brewton
hospice that the Montgomery twins tele-
gram was the result of temporary aberra-
ton or something when We fell in, cold,
wet. thirsty and hungry.
The hotel man stood with his back
to the red-hot baseburner. his hands in
his pockets. and grinned amusedly at
upon him. No, sub, no such convuhsa-
ton was uh-goin' with him; he had done
heearn from his brothuh UP in Mont
that we all was in financial
stress. sub, and, while he was vehy
soh'y, he want runnin no hotel TO- his
one day. 'mountin' to So TO the twelve
Of us, would have tub be paid in adj
vance, or he couldn't see his way tub
'commodate us, sub. and that was all
they was about it, and all like that.
X
cit looked like some mess. The ad-
vance man passed it along to me as soon
as we showed up; but couldn't make it
stick any better than he could. I tried
entreaty, impioration,
wrath, up-stageness and all
the rest Of the repertoire; but the Brew
ton twin only snapped the efastics on his
shirt sleeves and poked at the fire and
grinned, and said NO. subj which is the
Brewton, Ala, equivalent for the paleo-
ithic heart.
Meanwhile we stood on one leg and
then on the other, our clothes steaming
from the heat of the smeary little hotel
exchange. and wondered why cholera in
fantum hadn't ragged in our native ham,
let's when We were nine months old.
THE five women Of the company were
in great distress. They were a nice lot
been getting more jolts than were really
coming to us. and SO it's no wonder they
looked limp and ready to pass it all up
and go into the discard.
Finally I made a take-your-gold grand
stand play. I pulled a four-karat phony
Kimberly from one OF my digits. a ring
that 1 carried around to make the nee
essary flash, and I extended it to the ho-
lei man with great grandeur of manner.
Here said l, Just take this rock
It's worth eight hundred easy-and lock
It up in your safe as security for my
people, and I'll redeem it after the show
tomorrow night. l take 1t burned hard,
though, that you should be SO callous-
souled as to insist upon such a thing
1.-The fat-faced twin person reached out
l mitt, took the ring, gave one brief peek
1t it, and passed it back to me.
"'Ah TUX uh piece O. beer bottle like
.hat-all once befo' FUN a theayter man
ike you, and All don't intend to be fooled
10 second time, suh.' he said with as
lerity, he slipped me back the punk
'ock. 'Whut's mo-, sub, Ah'm uh-goin'
uh bald, and All want tub close up this
leah Office.
"Then It did look like the real thing.
But I went at him once more, and while
was eloquizing the philanthropist stroll
ID in with fine alligator-skin grip In one
land and large. fat. expensive cigar in
he corner Of his chart.
III d come in on the Southern train.
The philanthropist was a huge. bald
headed man with pink cheeks and a pair
# big blue eyes and flowing side whis-
ters. He wore a silk lid and an expen-
i've macintosh, and when he threw the
aincoat open it was easy to see that the
uds underneath were the right kind. and
hat his left mitt was bedecked with all
linds Of sure-enough blue rocks.
"The hotel man had his back to the
3oor ond didn't see the nhilQ h r0DjSt