DEAD AND GONE PLAYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1887, Page 7

DEAD AND GONE PLAYERS.

gjs Acting as Good as His Pay,

Theke was a little thin actor of the name of Hamilton. Barry one morning remarkj j. o him—" Hamilton, you might have done your part with a little more spirit last night." :He replied—" To be sure I might, and could, but with my salary of forty shillings a week do you think I ought to fl cb with a bit more spirit or a bit better ? your Woodward there has a matter of a thousand pounds a year for his acting. give me half a thousand and see how I'll act. But for a salary of £2 a week, Mr Barry, I cannot afford to give you better -,•■■" ° A Ready Witted Priest. The Rev. Father O'Leary, a u'ell-known Catholic priest in his day, and John Philpot Curran, tho renowned Irish orator, met one day at the house of the actor, Michael Kelly- They were warm friends, and as jt may be easily imagined, O'Leary v. Curran was no bad match. :' After dinner Curran said to him—"Rev. Tather, I wish you were Saint Peter." "And why, Counsellor, would you wish " that I were St. Peter?" asked O'Leary. "Because, Rev. Father, in that case," E ald Curran, " you would have the keys of ' Jfeaven, and you could let me in." .... "Bymy honour and conscience, Counsellor," replied the divine, " it would be tetter for you that I had the keys of the otter place, for then I could let you out." Lear In Chancery. i At a period when Mossop, tho great ; actor,' was managing the theatre in Smock I Alley, Dublin, business was bad and the I actors were not paid their salaries. One . night Mossop, playing Lear, was supported I in the arms of an actor playing Kent, who whispered to him "If you don't give me : your honour, sir, that you'll pay me my j arrearages this night before I go home, I'll I let you drop." Mossop, alarmed, besought I the man not to speak to him now. " 1 I irill/'said Kent, " I will: I'll let you drop." I Jlossop was obliged to give the promise, :: andtlie actov thus cot his money, the eUeeb of a desperate though well timed hint. ; How the Servants Lost the Gallery. Previous to the production of " High Life Jtelow Stairs " in'Londou, the upper gallery ...mus free to the servants of those who had places in the boxes. The whole race of the domestic gentry on the first tight of the excellent little piece ■'were in a ferment of rage at what they considered would bo their ruin; and from ;tlieir gallery came hisses and groans, and even many a handful of halfpence was flung .'on the stage at I'hiilip, my Lord Duke, Sir ■ Harry, and 'others. The tumult went on ' for a few nights, but ultimately was a good thing for all concerned, as it gave David ' parrick a fair occasion to shut the galleries j from the servants and ever after make it a pay place. How to Keep Your Temper. * Macklin was a man of very irritable temper and a severe taskmaster at rehearsal, •put he made sturdy and habitual efforts to keep his temper down. One morning at re- ; : foarsalone of the actors got tired with overparticularity, as he called it, and declared it worse that the Prussian exercise. ... Macklin paused, looked at the refractory actor, and quietly said : —i" Suppose we all ■ goand sit down a little in the green-room.' nei walked in, and the actors followed ; he .Kit down, and they seated themselves ; he I /then took out his watch, looked at it, and i laid it on the table. '"Now," said he, , "we'll just sit here one hour." The per;;formers' acquiesced, but kept rather an awful silence. At the expiration of the .hour taacklin took up his watch. " JS row v " he said, "we" are all in good humour, and ' we'll go upon,.,the stage and begin our re- . tearsal,"—E; H. Btodikrt.