THEATRICAL ANECDOTES.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 156, 31 December 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL ANECDOTES.

We clip the following from an American paper : — A GOOD ONE. Edwin Booth tells the following anecdote of his father : " Playing in Boston long ago the elder Booth was seized with a sudden fancy for taking long night walks, on which he made his son accompany him. One night they started out after midnight, and for three hours walked about the docks and quaj's. Not a soul did they meet until on their return to tho hotel they saw a dark figure following them, skulking in the shadows of the warehouse. Edwin was somewhat scared, but his father stepped forward and in a loud voice said, ' ' Good evening, my friend.' Tho man did not answer, but came forward into' the light and showed himself, in looks at least, a thorough ruffian. With a curse* he came toward them. The old man drew himself up and asked, 'Who are you, my friend ? Who are you ? ' I'm a thief, that's what I am,' said the fellow. 'And I,' said Booth, in a voice of wonderful sweetness, ' and I am a pirate,' and he Bkook the astonished ruffian warmly by the hand. The effect was electrical, Edwin Booth said, and tho man troubled them no further." HARTLEY CAMPBELL. Many years ago a tall, gaunt, hollow - eyed, high chf>ek - boned, lantern-jawed, excessively nervous young man named Bartley Campbell tried to eke out an existence in Pittsburg by doing police news for the daily papers. Then he started a penny paper of his own. Soon it slept the Bleep of death. Then ho tried play-writing. "Through the Firo," his first production, failed miserably. Then he wrote " Peril ; or, Love at Long Branch.'' It was also a failure. In a short £imo ho could sign his name as the author of a long list of failures, including " How Women Love," '• The Vigilantes," " A Heroine in Eags " and " Clio." His name became a byword and jest. Actors and managers ' would dodge out of the back doors of bar-rooms to avoid him when he made his appearance with a new manuscript. Then he wrote "My Partner," and persuaded Louis Aldrich to read it. Aldrich read it to Palmer, of the Union Square Theatre, N.Y., and it was produced there. Campbell awoke the next morning to find himself famous. Everybody wanted his plays. He couldn't write them fast enough. Many of his old failures were revived and became successes. Ho acquired money and became manager. He sent out company after company upon the road. To-day there are fewer men in the theatrical business better off than he. He is now a New York manager, having leased the Fourteenth Street Theatro with the avowed purpose of running it with a stock company and producing his own plays in succession. THE TEXAS WAITER. •' Our" train was late," began Raymond, who was relating some hotel experience in a Texas town, " and it was raining and the air was raw. I felt cold and out of sorts. We had just twenty minutes in which to eat our suppoi and get to tho theatre. I remember I hurried into the little dining room of the hotel, and, sitting clown at one of the tables, I picked up my plate and turned it over. It felt cold and clammy, and I said to the gentleman (all the waiters in Texas are gentlemen) who stood sizing me up, in his shirt sleeves and a napkin tied around his legs for an apron : " Please warm this plate." " Warm it ? What the h— l you want to eat ? " " That was the reply I got," went on the actor. "I sized up the waitor once more, but I saw the butt end of a revolver sticking out of his hip pocket, and then I saw that I must be polite and take what I could get. So I said, as I forced a laugh : " Oh, no. I don't want the plate warmed, old boy: I was only joking." " Old boy ? Say, look here, you're d — d familiar ain't you ? " "That settled it,"" said the actor. "I played ' Mulberry Sellers ' that night, and all the supper I had was tho raw turnips I ate on the stage," ITS UPS AXU DOWXS. "Few men experience more of the ups and downs of life than theatrical managers. Rich to-day they may be poor to-morrow. They may ride on tho top wave of success, have money roll in on them, and live on the fat of the land ; then meet with reverses and die in a charity hospital, as did Charlie Furbish, who, in the palmy days of the "Two Orphans" and " Furbish's Fifth Avenue Combination," was a swell of the swells. Managing a theatrical enterprise is a good deal like gambling. A manager must be willing to risk his all on the success of a venture. Very few American managers have died rich. Indeed it would be difficult to mention one, except tho late William Wheatly, who acquired a large fortune at Niblo's Garden, in New York, during the wonderful success of "Tho Black Crook," and who wisely retired to private life when that piece had run its course.

To be engaged in opposing wrong affords., under the conditions of our mental constitution, but a slender guarantee for being right. — W. E. Gladstone. Moral strength is the highest kind of health.— Hunter.

SHARPER THAN SHARP. Some years ago I had an invitation to spend Christmas with my aunt, Mrs. Dinsdale, in town, and ox\ eoted ha\ ing a line time of it amongst the pantomines and other amusements appropriate to tho season of mirth. Of course before starting away from home I received manifold instructions as to how I should conduct myself, what I ought to do and what I ought not. Like many a young man before me, I put down two-thirds of this as useless prattle. However, bearing in mind that tho pickpocket always looks upon tho not over-bright country-man as his natural prey, I left all the money excepting a sovereign, in the custody of my aunt when I first sallied forth into the crowded streets, trying to look as dashing and unlike a countryman as possible. After wandering about for some time, viewing the different historic buildings in the neighbourhood of London Bridge with curiosity and amazement, the tasteful decoration of a confectioner's window won my admiration, and I was deeply absorbed iv viewing comical-looking figures modelled in spice, when a smart young gentleman of about my own age ran up against me, immediately begging my pardon. T'> is, of course, I readily granted. Hereupon he asked me if I would take a cigarette. As I thought that this would add to my smart appearance, I at once agreed. "My friend," then whispered my companion, " I see you'are a countryman, and I would like, therefore, to give you some kind advice. Before doing so". I will tell you a short story of what happened to myself when I came from the country about five years ago this will show you how great tho need of caution is. "I was walking home from business one evening when two men came up to me. One of them held a canary in his hand, which he said he had caught in their workshop, and offered to sell it to me, if I would buy it, as he had got no cage to put in. The other exclaimed : "'Oh! it's not worth sixpence,' but at the same time ho seized mo by tho arm and whispered. ' That bird is one of the finest I ever saw ; it's worth three pounds if its worth a penny. You go and buy it for three or four shillings, if you can, and I'll give 3'ou ten for it immediately.' " I thought for a moment, "Well, here's a chance of making six shillings in no time," and bought the bird accordingly. I paid down my four shillings and 'looked round for the would-be purchaser. But to my astonishment, he had bolted down the alley, and was soon followed by his accomplice, leaving me with a worthless painted sparrow in my hand. " Now," continued my friend, " this neighbourhood swarms with pickpockets, who are trained to such perfection that they are not allowed to practice their thievish art until they cau take a purse out of the pocket of a pair of tissue-paper trousers hanging in the middle of a room without moving them. So if you have any money about you I advise you to beware." Determined to follow such excellent council, I immediately threw tho end of my cigarette into the gutter and dived into my trousers pocket for the sovereign. This I told him was all I had, and without more ado I popped it into my mouth. This made him smile, and I grinned with a good deal of satisfaction, as I thought to myself. "I defy the best pickpocket in the town to get my sovereign now ! " My kind-hearted adviser now bade me good day and departed, leaving me in deep meditation on the subject of pickpockets, and their artful ways. Presently a little girl approached with a small beer-can in her hands containing some money which she was plaj'fully jingling. When exactly opposite the place where I was standing sEe fell flat on her face, the can and money meanwhile flying all over the pavement. I, of course, good-naturedly picked her up, and helped her to Beck her money, endeavouring at the Bame time to pacify the little creature, as she was crying dreadfully over tho accident. In an amazingly short time a crowd collected. One asked her if she had got all her money ? "Yes," she sobbingly exclaimed, " yes, all but a soverign which that man has put into his mouth." At the same timo pointing to me. In a moment and before I could say a word. I was seized by about half-a-dozen roughs, who, in spite of my struggles, soon brought out my sovereign. Then they landed me in the middle of the road, bestowing upon me the favour of a few sharp kicks which would have done justice to a football player, and which I felt for weeks after. After this I had no alternative but to make the best of my way home to my aunt's, which I had some difficulty in liuding, a poorer, sadder, and, I need hardly add, a much wiser man. — Cassell's Saturday Journal.