The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-04-23

After taking off my equipment, n
followed by the rest Of the section l
went over to the building he had picked
out. It was a monstrous barn with q
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 u time on
q dress rehearsal, and it went fine.
I made four or five large signs an
n%ouncing that our company would open
up 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 n franc, ana
boxes two francs. By this time our
printed programs had returned from
London, and I further announced thai
on the night Of the first performance
O program would be given free OF
charge to men holding tickets costing q
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 6 p. m.
At s :15 there was a mob in front or
our one entrance and it looked like q
big night. We had two boxes each ac'
commodating four people, and these
we Immediately sold out. Then q
brilliant idea came to key Cohenstein.
Why not use the rafters overhead, call
them boxes, and charge two francs fof
a seat on them? The only diflculty
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 a 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 a 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 1t 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 a little grousing they accepted
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 it was q
bowling success, until Alkali Ike ap-
peared on the scene with his revolver
loaded with blank cartridges. Behi1d
the bar on q shelf was a long line Of
bottles. Alkal 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 q
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 n 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
Of 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
fasco the performance was a huge sue
cess, and we decided to run 1t for o
week.
New troops were constantly coming
through, and for six performances we
had the rs. R. o." sign suspended out,
side.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)