THE DYING VILLAIN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 150, 21 December 1907, Page 15

THE DYING VILLAIN.

An amazing and unrehearsed scene was enacted recently atf the Third Avenue Theatre, which is noted for melodrama, and, according to the critics, for most atrocious acting. It was in the last scene, wjjere the villain, after trying the patience of the audience for three long houis, exasperating the gallery .-.lnir.st beyond endurance, essayed to* die in the usual melodramatic fashion. Then, for the first tims the audience began to cheer, and the special officer in the gallery, armed with a "slap-stick," the customary vea'pon in American theatre galleries, made himself very officious amongst the small hoys. The resounding thwacks from aloft increased- tho merriment evoked by the unfortunate player's desperate cft'ort to die a stage death. 1 Laughter and cat-calls became general, and the "dying" villain, named Augustus Robinson, waxed wroth. For one, two, three minutes Mr. Robinson ' stood it. Then he sat bolt upright in bed. "Say, give a fellow a chance, won't you ?"N ho yelled. He had to yell to make himself heard. The gallery shouted in glee. This was too much for Mr. Robinson, and, hopping out of bed, he strode to the footlights, clad in street attire from waist down. "Ladies and gentlemen," he bawled, "I know there are some here, and I want to appeal to you in a sense of fairness to stop this disturbance. We are here to deliver the goods, and I know we can if we only get a chance. Bufc how do you suppose I can 'die' if you keep up this racket. If there is any one in the bouse not fair enough to let us give this play in peace, he 'can get his money back at the box-office." The jeers immediately turned to cheers, and Mr. Robinson strode back to bed, covered himslf w r ith the sheet and "died," as his lines required him to do.