The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1911-02-21
Strictly
Business
A Partnership For Purely Money
Making Purposes
By o. HENRY
ConYright. 1910. by Doubleday, Page
By Q. HENRY
Copyright, 1910, by Doubleday, Page
& Co.

stage and stage people. you've been
touched with and by actors, and you
read the newspaper criticisms and the
jokes in the weeklies about the Rialto
| and the chorus girls and the long
| haired tragedians.
Latterly there has been much talk
of the actor people in a new light. 1t
seems to have been dtvulged that in
| stead Of being motoring bacchanalians
and diamond hungry Loreleis they are
businesslike folk, students and as
/ cetics with children and homes and
| libraries.
| Whether the old or the new report
| Of the sock and buskiners be the true
one is surmise that has no place
here. l offer you merely this little
story of two strollers. and for proof of
its truth l can show you only the dark
patch above the cast iron handle of
| the stage entrance door of Keetor's old
vaudeville theater made there by the
| petulant push of gioved hands too inn
patient to finger the clumsy thumb
latch and where / last saw Cherry
whisking through like swallow into
her nest, on time to the minute, as
usual, to dress for her act.
The vaudeville team of Hart and Cher
ry was an inspiration. Bob Hart had
been roaming through the eastern and
western circuits for four years with
Il miynd I'm cnf rnrnn,suiro a r,,onoTnp,,a
three lightning changes with songs,
couple of limitations Of celebrated imi-
tators and buck and wing dance that
had drawn glance of approval from
the bass viol player in more than one
house-than which no performer ever
received more satisfactory evidence of
good work
One afternoon Bob Hart presented
his solvent, serious, well known vau-
devillian face at the box Office window
of rival attraction and got his d. h.
coupon for an orchestra seat
A, B, and d glowed successfully
on the announcement spaces and pass
ed into oblivion, each plunging Mr..
Hart deeper into gloom.
/ 1JAt VIE G&AA14G Vl lAAC
suddenly sat up straight. I'll was the
happy alphabetical prognosticator of
i Winona Cherry In character songs and
Impersonations. There were scarcely
more than two bites to Cherry. but
she delivered the merchandise tied
with a pink cord and charged to the
old mans account. She first showed
= 1a1f rim ,Iao~1
country girl with basket of property
daisies who informed you ingenuously
that there were other things to be
learned at the old log schoolhouse be-
sides cipherin' and nouns, especially
"when the teacher kept me in" Van
ishing with d lftt ffiieiE ART ef gingham
lapron strings, she reappeared in con-
siderably less than .trice'' as fluffy
4 Parisienne-so near does art bring the
old red mill to the Moulin Rouge And
then
i But you know the rest. And so did
Bob Hart, but he saw somebody else.
He thought he saw that Cherry was
i the only professional on the short or
der stage that he had seen who seem
ed exactly to fit the part of Helen
Grimes In the sketch he had written
and kept tucked away in the tray Of
his trunk.
But Bob Harris sketch was not des
i tined to end in pickle Jar. He called
Il 1t mice viii Play. He had kept 1t
quiet and hidden away ever since he
wrote it, waiting TO find partner who
fitted his conception of Helen Grimes.
And here was Helen herself, with all
the innocent abandon, the youth. the
lsprightliness and the fiawless stage
art that his critical taste demanded.
i After the act was over Hart found
the manager in the box Office and got
Cherry's address. At the next after
noon he called at the musty old house
in the West Forties and sent up his
professional card.
BY daylight In secular shirt waist
and plain voile skirt with her hair
curbed and her Sister of Charity eyes,
Winona Cherry might have been play
ing the part OF Prudence Wise. the
deacon's daughter, In the great fuE-
written New England drama not yet
entitled anything.
81 know your act, Mr.. Hart she
said after she had looked over his card
carefully. What did you wish to see
me about?-
81 saw you work last night" said
Hart. 'I've written sketch that I've
been saving up. It's for two, and /
think you can do the other part. /
thought I'd see you about 1t.
sCome in the parlor," said Miss Cher
ry 1--WE been wishing for something
of the sort. / think I'd like to act in
stead Of doing turns"
Bob Hart drew his cherished Mice
VIII Play from his pocket and read 1t
TO her.
"Read it again. please said Miss
Cherry.
And then she pointed out to him
clearly how f could be improved by
introducing a messenger Instead of q
telephone call and cutting the dfa-
logue Just before the climax while
they were struggling for the pistol and
by completely changing the lines and
hllsineSs If Helen Grimes at tha s,oir,4