The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1921-02-15
The Hoodoo
By FOREST HALSEY
Copyright.

her now.
Under the light touch of rouge. that
shield which of late she had been
forced to don, her face went white.
Her hands clenched together angrily
in her muff, even while. finished ac-
tress that she was, she smiled at the
crowded room her gay, friendly greet
ing She knew them all.
Months of weary sitting In the wait
ing rooms of the managers had made
them familiar to her.
Once-it seemed long ago-they had
been to her simply the crowd through
which she passed TO pleasant inter
views with the managers whom the
crowd waited patiently to see. She
had been sent for In those times.
Now she came unbldden to walt re-
signedly at grudgingly opened doors.
Few today could believe that super
stition can still blight the lives of in
telligent people. But it can.
| They called her the hoodoo."
Wo to the actor or actress on whom
that name falls
The most bedraggled specimen
among the waiting throng had a bet
ter chance. And she knew 1t even as
she smiled her question at the world.
weary office boy.
Suddenly every chair held an alert
and smiling figure. The managers
door had opened.
The girl raised her eyes, alert and
smiling once more. She sprang up.
Eagerly she advanced to the railing.
Nothing today, Miss Breen," said
the god. and disappeared.
She went out into the rainy streets.
There was nothing to do with the
rest of the empty day. The thought
of her lonely, shabby room revolted
her.
She turned away from II, and In
short time found herself under the
bare glistening boughs of a little park.
Through the naked branches the
long white marble front of great
library attracted her. At least, 1t was
a place to rest
In the vast reading room, lined with
rows of shaded lights and quiet faced
folk busy with notes and books. q
sense of rest came TO the weary girl.
These people would not whisper about
her.
That little sharp-faced old maid in
spectacles beside her, dipping into that
pile of books, what could her business
be?
The light glittered on the lnquisitive
spectacles, and the girl turned away
making pretense of looking at the
books before her. In reality looking
back at her life.
Her mind drifted to what she had
called her day" the morning when
she had sprung out of bed to read the
criticisms of the play in which she had
acted the night before for the first
time before a metropolitan audience.
She could still feel faint ripple of
that great wave of JOY which had
passed over her deliciously on reading
of her personal success. But the play
had failed.
Margaret Breen, that fine actress
seemingly destined to appear In hope
less plays"
II wonder IL she Is hoodoo?" the
producer said jolzingly.
"Garvis says Breen Is hoodoo." the
actor to whom the remark was made
said that night. Little by little the
word "hoodoo" began to be associated
with her. The Joke became reality.
In the busy and prosperous seasons
she was idle.
With start the girl returned to the
present. She rose and hurried out
down the dim, vaulted corridors.
Excuse me-" She turned and beheld
to her annoyance the little, sharp old
maid. Are you Miss Breen?" said the
little woman, In response to the girls
look.
DO you think you could act the
look ] saw on your face just nowY"
"My dear woman" the girl said with
a little bitterness In her voice, II am
that look. Why do you ask?'
Because I want you and nobody
N'"N' w shS Pdit III my new
play. l am" and she gave a name
known from coast to coast for its
ability to put humor and pathos on
the stage.
The girl caught her breath.
Then, rejecting that the other In
spite of her fame as a newly recog-
nized playwright might not have heard
her history, she said quietly:
you will not want me when tell
you what they call me. The name !
go by is the hoodoo.'"
Fine humorous lines came out In
the sharp face; the eyes behind the
spectacles shone with the keenest
mirth, that which has won through
suffering.
II know" she said, "and that is
what they once called me. But. my
dear. l went on fighting. The worst
hoodoo will break If you keep on
banging on ii. Mine did. And so will
yours. Hard luck is only a shell to