Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-05
PAGE EIGHT
" The Greater Glory"

ament, whether the Babcock girl did
or not-an awful dose of it, which is
an extremely unfortunate thing for a
property man in an opera house in
little town particularly if the actors
be local. FOR in case like the pre-
sent one Georgia had ideas how a
show should be put on. Furthermore
George had full control over the
vocabulary adequate to express them.
Up to George it was to make OF
Harriett's milk-sop manuscript a
theatrical knock out.
Now George clothed himself by
day and also by evening in a pair
of smudgy white overalls the size
whereof was enormous and the peck
cts of which were popularity supposed
to contain any little thing wanted,
from pair of andirons to four
poster bed. He wore blue shirt the
collar of which was always turned
up about his neck and on Georges
head was an diversified cap which
came down to his ears. In fact one
might say that no one would even
look upon him and then confuse him
with anyone else.
Having been bribed and bought and
COMMUNICATED and labored with he
had eventually assented to act as
stage-director and general supervis-
ing dramatist. Therefore he procur-
ed a kitchen table from regions back
stage-or it may have been his over
alls-and came grunting out with it,
planked it in the center of the plat
form as close to the footlights as it
would 60 without sliding over into
the pit of the orchestra and spilling
George off onto the pianist's head
Then he went behind the scenes again
and returned with cuspidor nearly
as large as himself which he set down
on the floor conveniently at hand,
sampled it a couple of times to see
that it was working properly and find
ing it was, called the courageous to
the chalk mark.
George sweat and he swore and
emptied his soul of sarcasm and his
mouth of tobacco juice. He waved
the manuscript and he waved the
hammer; he jumped off the table a
dozen times minute and he jumped
back again. His initiative was phe-
nomenal. As an illustration: when
no live baby could be procured for
Lady Audrey to carry in rehearsals
he substituted a sofa pillow. And
the spectacle of an emaciated woman
falling into the door of Il farmhouse
in the last stages of collapse, going
through four minutes OF "heavon will
-the-child" doggeral and then
blandly handing over q sofa pillow
with six inch rip in the stuffing,
shrieked to high heaven for applause.
The funny part of it was that Geor-
gle never saw that it was funny.
Jack Purse had been cast for the
heroes part and because she had the
time and the conscientiousness to de-
vote to it and because by such situa-
tons are the whole courses of our
lives affected, Mary Wood was cast
for the heroine. That little local ia
lent play! How strange that it
should have been proposed just then.
The first act of Lady Audrey's
Mistake was divided into two parts.
The first was given over to that much
abused lady's demise and the bequest
of her offspring to the good-hearted
strangers.
Then the curtain came down for
three minutes, supposed to represent
the passing of two decades while the
orphaned child grew to maturity.
When the first half of the act had
been concluded somewhere near to
Georges satisfaction, the curtain a.
rose on the real beginning of the
story, twenty years after. Mary, in
the role of the girl who was to be
enticed away to the city by the vii
lain, was discovered sitting in the
kitchen. On should come the hero
and make love to her-love which
was true love indeed because it was
not destined to run smooth. And
Jack came on.
"Come on now! Come on noww
ordered George from his tabletop.
"Get busy with the love stuff. Come
up behind her and give her kiss,
when she don't expect it. Make it
humdinger so the whole house won't
mistake it-like an old she-cow
pulling her hoof out of bog. You're
in love with each other, amt yer?
Well, well mix together as though
you had sunstroke."
Jack looked into the girls eyes
and the girl blushed crimson.
"In the play l meanw added Geor-
gle.
eyes," whispered the girl.
"Well then act like lovers and not
like a couple of elephants tryin'
to cuddle down together in coal hod
Start in, Jack Purse! Git your hands
binding her eyes and then get in your
lovin' properly. Cripes! You act as
if you was scared of her. Does she
bite?"
Jack went out as he was bidden
He came softly in on tip-toe. He
stole his fingers around the girls
eyes. AS she dropped the pan in her
lap, he kissed her.
1t was only stage kiss, kiss
in play. But it was the first kiss he
had ever given her. The blood
pounded strong in his temples when