The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-18
From the Green Book.


 -HE stage is calm and restful as the doors of the house ! onen for the first produc- tion of the week, Life for Lile'
 The wild-eyed stage manager, the huf-
 ry,no carpenters, the electricians, the fly
 n,op the scene shifters and the bored annearing flremen are missing. Instead the property man, who by his contract l is made up an hour before anyone eise' | is eveing the situation. in a professlohai' l don't-care- what happens manner. Ihe first scene is an attic, so the kitcheh se' is used. The property list is pulled rom a hin pocket and with one hand hoioihs if before his eyes, the one-man stage force begins his work of setting the scene. An old blanket is thrown in one cofhei for A bed, a soap box is placed by kitch- on table on which are pen, ink and paper A candle is stuck in beer pottie anu ughted and the set is made. Then the
 ,.o,,ertv man goes back to the dressing room to loaf a bit.
 o,,.r on the women's side, Mrs. Ken-
 dau weighing 1so and still playing in- penues. is covering her race wi'h coiu cream and complaining to Mrs. steer smith that her husband might nave peeh nlaving leads right now instead or peins
 e1o-a-veelx property man if he had only let the booze alone. Mrs. Steelsmth' net tied at the remembrance that her nuspano failed to bring her breakfast to her room that morning, remarks that even prop
 ort,, man is A whole lot better than bum comedian. On the other side, however Husoahu Steelsmith isn't worrying. lnsteao' ne is dealing in "reminiscences as he porrows
 a stick of No. flesh tint from the heaVy u,an and then turns his makeup box in- ,,aa out in A vain hunt for his plaid whiskers.
 "Just this kind of a show shop in Full tor u he remarks. "Ever show in Fulton?
 The show shop is right in the middle or the town Insane asylum's at one 'ehu of inc street an a college is at tn other'
 T ot,s see I was with Miller Bros. then an, doubin' in brass on the lead cor
 net Well, some college guy makes a crack at me an so I soaks hirr With one hand while I plays the cornet witn tb, other. He makes another crack at me an, I soaks him again. Then some little kid comes up an pulls at my leg. Don mind them college guys he says they make ,em at one end O the street an catch em at tn other
 | Loud noises are coming from outside the door, indicative of nearly ful house. The uncarpeted floor, magnifyine every footstep, acts as a cash register to those inside the wall of muslin. The voice
 of the property man echoes through the
 dress,np room and out into the house: | "O-ver-ture!'
 ."The professor leaves his chair to be-
 gin his work of trying to chastise tune
 out of a set of piano strings that los'
 their melody in the days of slavery. He
 works with spirited activity and his hanqs
 rise and fall with triphammer speed. force
 and regularity. The audience applauds. .1t has heard no music, but it knows the
 effort was heartily sincere. The fishing
 smack off the coast of Algeria. painted
 o,, the curtain, wobbles painfully upward
 as the property man pulls at the ropes The .'spectacuar scenic drama, Life fol I.ife,' begins.
 The spectacular part of. the scenery 1: l missing for some reason and only tht meager efforts of the property man and his kitchen set, culled from the "hous' stuff" are presented. Two-thirds of thu
 audience may not know the play, but II
 the remaining third, there is sure to b' someone to whom the lines sound mighty familiar. There is strange intimac! about the character of the eccentric au thor and about the red-whis1kered Irish
 man who uses paragraphs of denunciatioi
 against the demon rum-to wnich the ec
 centric author, being a devotee ol sat-
 demon, pays little attention.
 T Then, when the author sits down Il
 the light of the beer-bottled candle t
 write a story for pauper magazine. rec