Evening star., 1921-09-18

are forgot. Emmett also wrote "Old
Dan Tucker" still sung and fddled
in Maryland and Virginia and other
parts of the south. Walk Along.
John" Early in de Mornin'" and
"Boatman's Dance" 1t was in the
at that time he was singing and
picking the banjo in Bryants Min
strels. There are many disagreements
rs to where. when and under what
circumstances the great marching tune
and battle song of the Confederate
/, armies was written. One account is
that Emmett wrote the piece in New
Orleans in 1853, two years before
the civil war, and that it was sung
there by Bryant'S MinstrelS. Brander
Matthews. in an article in Scribner' s
several years ago. wrote: Dan EN-
| NETT devised Dixie in the late SOS
for Bryant's Minstrels. 1t was init O.
duced by Mrs. John Wood into a bur-
i lesque. which she was playing in New
Orleans just before the outbreak of the
| civil war 1t has also been written
that Dan Emmett sang Dixie" at the
old New York Me!odeon before it was
sung by Bryant's Minstrels.
= ** X
lnNE of the early minstrels was
Thomas D. Rice. and he came to
be regarded as a pioneer or original
promoter of minstrelsy- sort of
Plymouth Rock Pilgrim of the black
| face art. But he was not this. Old
minstrels. eotemporaries of his, de-
Eied him this honor. He had been
an actor and in play or two had
introduced a black-face part. but the
d-line. classic and conservative min
sueis denied that such an act con-
..ituted him member of their pro-
a N c Yal nd
famous one. One of his stunts was
the Jim Crow turn. 1t was an &C.
centric dance and funny little song,
the refrain of which was:
Wheel about. turn about.
DO JUS SO:
An cherry time turn about
jump Jim Crow!
Botheration, friends. This is half
way down the fifth page of my type
writer paper, 1 have a page and a
half still to go, and turning back to
the first page of my ''copie." which
find, to my surprise, that l started
put to write something about Ma
zeppa. So let me turn back to that
! subject before it is too late.
Adah Isaacs Menken. long noted as
one of the very beautiful women of
she stage and who was for some time
the wife of John c. Heenan. the great
prize fighter, was one of the shining
Mazeppas. Adah was a friend of
Alexander Dumas. and for years she
Paris. Rome. New Orleans and San
Francisco. In a "ramble" near the
beginning of this series the Rambler
wrote about her.
There were two other popular Ma
zeppas whom the Rambler can recall
I--Addie Anderson and Fannie Louise
buckingham. Perhaps from the
!depths of your memory you can sum-
mon forth others. But the actress
who was longest identified with the
who died only about three years ago,
in July, 1918, at her home in BROOKLYN.
at the age of eighty-five. Her first
husband was Gaines Clark. member
of prominent family of the south,
and her second husband was John
maggie. who had been her advance
agent and who died, as the Rambler
recalls. about 1908.
Kate was born in Boston, and going
! to New York made her bow as a
Street Theater. Then she travelled
with the Ravel family, which toured
the West Indies and South America.
and when Kate came back to the
states she toured the west and made
hit as Mazeppa. When she came east
she was advertised as the great west
ern star" She played Mazeppa in
Washington many times. When Mrs.
Maggie died a friend of the Rambler.
working on the Brooklyn Eagle, wrote
the following about her:
Especially remembered in connection
with this play of Mazeppa' is Don
nelly's old Brooklyn Olympic Theater.
which stood on Fulton street west of
Hoyt on the present site of depart
ment store annex. Variety. burlesQue
and melodrama were frequently inter-
mingled there on one evenings pro-
gram, and that theater was generally
looked on by the theatrical profession
as one of theN most popular homes of
Byron's Cossack chief. The patrons
of Donnelly's Brooklyn Theater and
the old Bowery and Niblo's Garden
across the East river never tired,
seemingly, of witnessing the spectacle
of a finely formed woman bound to
the back of a snorting steed, dashing
like mad and surrounded by shout
ing crowd Of ferocious semi-savages.
up an incline and across bridge on
the center of the stage"
Kate Fisher played other things be-
sides Mazeppa. The Rambler re-
members her in the Young American
Actress" and as Mike Martin in ''The
Terror of the Highway" She was an
excellent mimic and people debated
whether she was better in this line
than Frank S. Chanfrau of Kit and
Nose fame wonder how many of
you remember Frank in his little play