The Washington herald., 1918-02-26

btas look tuis part was clever ana
made fine appearing 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 pour
ing from her face unloading shells
from motor lorry.
As our section passed her I yelled
out: Hello. Flossie, Blighty-what
Hopes?" Her reply made our love die
out instantly.
"Ah, go to hell!"
This brought quite a laugh from the
marching column directed at me, and
instantly made up my mind that
our sketch should Immediately run in
opposition to "Blighty What
Hopes?"
When we returned to our billet
from the march. Curley Wallace, my
theatrical partner. came running over
to me and said he had found a swan
ky place In which to produce our
show.
After taking of my equipment, and
followed by the rest Of the section. /
went over to the building he had
picked out. 1t was q monstrous barn
with a platform at one end which
would make an ideal stage. The sec
ton got right on the job. and before
night had that place rigged out in ap-
ple-pie order.
The next day was Sunday and after
i church parade We put all our time on
dress rehearsal. and 1t went hne.
I made four or FIVE large signs an
nouncing that our company would
open up that evening at the King
George the Fifth Theater, on the col =
ner OF Ammo street and Sandbag ter
race. General admission was one
half franc. First ten rows in orches-
ira one franc. and boxes two francs.
By this time our printed programs
had returned from London, and !
further announced that on the night
of the first performance a program
would be given free Of charge to men
holding tickets costing a 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 tC
start at p. m.
At 5:15 there was a mob in front Of
our one entrance and 1t looked like a
big night. We had two boxes each
accommodating four people, and these
we Immediately sold out. Then q
brilliant idea came to Ikey Cohen
stein. Why not use the rafters over
head. 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 Ikey this
was a mere detail.
He got long ropes and tied one end
around each rafter and then tied q
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 ticket-holders for the
boxes got a glimpse of the rafters
and were informed that they had to
use the rope stairway, there was a
howl OF Indignation, but We had their
money and told them IL they did not
like II they could write to the man.
agement later and their money would
be refunded; but under these condi-
| tions they would not be allowed to
witness the performance that night.
After a little grousing they accept
\ ed the situation with the promise that
| IL the show was rotten they certainly
4 lNN 10 hiO" obOHN ~ NAC
performance.
Everything went lovely and It was
bowling success. until Alkali Ike
appeared on the scene with his revol-
| yer loaded with blank cartridges. Be-
hind the bar on a shelf was a long
line of bottles. Alkali Ike was sup
posed 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 can
vas was supposed to represent the
back Of the bar. At each shot from
Alkali's pistol man behind the
scenes would hit one OF the bottles
with his entrenching tool handle and
smash 1t, to give the impression that
Alkali was a good shot.
| Alkali started in and aimed at the
| right of the line of bottles instead OF
the left, and the poor boob behind
the scenes started breaking the bot
ties on the left. and then the box
holders turned loose: but outside OF
this little fiasco the performance was
a huge success. and We decided to run
it for a week.
New troops were constantly coming
through. and for six performances we
had the "S. r. O." sign suspended
outside.
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