The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1918-07-18
OVER THE TOP
An American Soldier Who Went
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY

AaIs company charged an admission
of franc per head, and that night
our company went en- masse to see
their performance. 1t really was good.
l had sinking sensation when
thought of running my sketch In op-
position to 1t.
In one of their scenes they had a
soubrette called Flossie. The soldier
that took this part was clever and
made a Incorporating and chic girl.
We Immediately fell In love with her
until two days after, while we were
on a march, we passed Flossie with
"her" sleeves rolled up and the sweat
pouring from "her" face unloading
shells from motor lorry.
AS our section passed her l yelled
out: "Hello, Flossie; Blighty-What
HopesT Her reply made our love die
out instantly.
"Ah, go to h-l"
This brought quite laugh from the
marching column directed at me, and
instantly made up my mind that our
sketch should Immediately run In OPP
position to "Blighty-What HopesT
When we returned to our billet from
the march, Curley Wallace, my the
atrical partner. came running over to
me and said he had found a swanky
place In which to produce our show.
After taking off my equipment, and
followed by the rest of the section,
went over to the building he had picked
out. 1t was a monstrous barn with
platform at one end which would make
an ideal stage. The section got right
on the job, and before night had that
place rugged out in apple-pie order.
The next day was Sunday and after
church parade we put all our time on
a dress rehearsal, and 1t went fine.
made four or five large signs an
nounclng that our company would open
I'D that evening at the King George the
Fifth theater, on the corner of Ammo
street and Sandbag terrace. General
admission was one-half franc. First
ten rows In orchestra one franc, and
boxes two francs. BY this time our
printed programs had returned from
London, and I further announced that
on the night of the first performance
program would be given free of
charge to men holding tickets costing
franc or over.
We had an orchestra Of seven men
and seven different instruments. This
orchestra was excellent, while they
were not playing.
The performance was scheduled to
start at p. m.
At SIS there was a mob in front of
our one entrance and 1t looked like
big night. We had two boxes each ac-
commodating four people, and these
we Immediately sold out. Then
brilliant idea came to key Cohenstein.
Why not use the rafters overhead, call
them boxes, and charge two francs for
a seat on them? The only difficulty
was how were the men to reach these
boxes, but to key this was a mere de-
tail.
He got long ropes and tied one end
around each rafter and then tied lot
Of knots In the ropes. These ropes
would take the place of stairways.
We figured out that the rafters
would seat about forty men and sold
that number of tickets accordingly.
When the ticketholders for the boxes
got glimpse of the rafters and were
Informed that they had to use the rope
stairway, there was a howl of indigna-
ton, but we had their money and told
them that If they did not like it they
could write to the management later
and their money would be refunded;
but under these conditions they would
not be allowed to witness the perform
ance that night.
After little grousing they accepted
the situation with the promise that If
the show was rotten they certainly
would let us know about it during the
performance.
Everything went lovely and 1t was
bowling success, until Alkall Ike APP
peared on the scene with his revolver
loaded with blank cartridges. Behiad
the bar on a shelf was a long line of
bottles. Alkali Ike was supposed to
start on the left of this line and break
six of the bottles by firing at them with
his revolver. Behind these bottles a
piece of painted canvas was supposed
to represent the back of the bar, at
each shot from Alkali's pistol a man
behind the scenes would hit one of the
bottles with his entrenching tool
handle and smash 1t, to give the i'm
preston that Alkali was a good shot.
Alkali Ike started in and aimed at
the right of the line of bottles instead
IF the left, and the poor boob behind
the scenes started breaking the bottles
on the left, and then the boxhOlders
turned loose; but outside Of this little
fiasco the performance was huge sue
cess. and we decided to run 1t for
week.
New troops were constantly coming
through, and for six performances we
had the rs. r. o." sign suspended out
side.
CHAPTER XIX.
On His Own.
Of oourco Tommy pnDDOf olwoVq no