When the State Hands Struck.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 72

When the State Hands Struck.

(By Murray King.)

You ask me for my funniest pantomime experience. Well, I could tell you of dozens, hut, somehow, when I try to write them on paper, all the fun seems to evaporate. If what I am going to try and relate seems flat and uninteresting, you must be patient with me. Talking of patience reminds me of the old gentleman who, when he suddenly came across a gang of men digging put the foundations of a »bw

suburban theatre, asked the foreman where the pit entrance was •to be,- and when the site was shown him sadly said that "he had never been in time to set a seat for a 'first night' yet, and so he thought he would waitr."

I remember, when playing in a great Christmas success some years ago at a wellknown London theatre, that for 1 one reason or another the "stage hands" struck just before the evening performance, and left the .theatre in a body. What of that? It's easy enough to shift scenery if you know how. We didn't ! The first scene was simplicity itself, it was already there. When the change' arrived, however, trouble was there in "chunks." Men we must have, and no help was to be got from the "strikers,'' who had spent the evening so far singing "Soldiers of -the Queen" and "Rule Britannia" through a hole in the theatre wall every time a quiet scene was in progress. Suddenly we heard coming up the passage leading to the stage door heavy footsteps, and, to our joy, we Bay all the foreign; waiters (hundreds of them) from the restaurant next door, led by-. gold-braided cab whistlers who had been pressed into the service. They saved, the situation. . ~- '- v ' -Eaoh "flat," generally -worked by a, single , sc.ene'-Bhifter, was manned by a* gang- of eight ■ • dress-coated gentlemen, -commaSided by' one' of bur gold-braided' •friends,' and 'on- the-word-"Go!" the fun, started.. .. •_, - No sooner were the lights- put out (thechange! of scene always took place in (the ' dark) than tha wildest confusion arose.' Fearful shrieks and strange oaths filled the air. . One "flat" absolutely- refused to gb into its place in> spite of the foreign gang pushing like mad, but this was explained later by the fact that they had squeezed one- of their pals in between it and 1 the wall, and had been doing their best to cut him in half in the dark. • - The men on "strike," still jeering through the theatre wall, had now broken into a harmonised version of "With a long, long pull and a strong, strong pull," which they rendered with some spirit. , . The most daring of our new recruits was a young Swede, who had been sent into the "flies" with instructions that, when the whistle went, he must undo all the rope* belonging to the scene to be "set," and lower slowly. • * - The sudden, darkness, however, paralysed him, and, taking out his knife, with a, wild swoop he cut everything he could get hold of, bringing down forests, . drawing-rooms, - ceilings ; and finally he himself came gracefully down from the heights above, clinging to a half-taut rope, screaming in terror, .and calling on all the saints, and ultimately passing through, an open trap settled comfortably in the vault under" the stage—whilst the strikers outside softly took up the refrain in unieon of "In' cellar'cool" 1 .