Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-03-15
me and said he had found a swanky

|
place in which 10 produce our show.
After taking off my equipment. and
followed by the rest OF the section.
went over to the building hc had pick
al out. II was monstrous barn with
a 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 pi" or
der.
Th" next day was Sunday and after
| church parade "" put all our tim" on
Il dress rehearsal. and il went fine.
I made four or five large signs an
, nouncing that our company would opcr
up that evening at the King George IN,
Fifth theatre, on the corner OF Ammo
street and Sandbag terrace. General
admission was onc-half franc. First
ten rows in orchestra 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
4 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 10
start at 6 p. IN.
NJ SIS there was Il mob in front ol
our one entrance and il looked like Il
big night We had two boxes each ac-
commodating four people, and these
we Immediately sold out. Then "A
brilliant idea came To Ihry Cohrnstein.
Why not uS" th" raitrrS overhead. call
hem hoX"S. and charg" two francs for
a seat on them? The only difficulty
WAS how were the men To reach these
boxes. but to key this waS u mere de-
tail.
He got long ropes and tied one end
around each raftcr and then tied II lot
of knots in tn" ropes. Thrs" ropes
would take the plac" of StairwayS.
We figured out that the raItrrs
would seat about forty men and sold
that number of tickets accordingly.
When the tick"tholdrrs for the box
cS got Il GlimpS" of tn" rait"rs and
were informed that they had to use
the rope stairway, there was Il howl
of Indignation. but "" had their
t.l.l i'll
not like it they could write to the
management later and their money
would bc refunded: hut under these
conditions they would not be allowed
to witness the performance that
night.
After little grousing they accept
cd the situation with the promise that
ii the show was rotten they certainly
would let us know about it during the
performance.
Everything went lovely and ii was
n bowling success. until Alkali Ike APP
pcarcd on the seen" with his revolver
loaded with blank cartridges. Behind
the bar on q; shelf was Il long line Of
bottles. Alkali Ike was supposed TO
start on the left of this line and break
six Of he bottles BY firing at them
with his revolver. Behind these bot
ties a piece of painted canvas was
supposed to represent the back Of the
bar. at each shot from Alkalis pistol
4 man behind the scene would hit one
of the bottles with his cnir"nchinS
tool hardlc and smash il. to give the
impression that Alkali was a good
/, shot.
Alkali Ike started in and aimed at
the light 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 hoNhold-
prs turned loose; but WItSid" OF this
l.ttlr iiasco the performance" was Il
huge success. and We decided to run
il for Il week.
New troops were constantly coming
through. and for six performances we
had the -. r. o." sign suspended ont
side.
(To be Continued).