[Sam P. Davis, Dramatic Recollections, from Short Stories (1886)]

 

DRAMATIC RECOLLECTIONS.

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            Virginia has always, until perhaps quite recently, been considered an excellent town for the showman. In the flush times, when Belcher, Savage and Crown Point were turning out their dividends, a troupe of almost any kind was certain to be greeted with a full house. It was not an unusual thing for a pretty dancer to have a hundred dollars showered down upon her by an appreciative gallery, and, occasionally a man who had made a quick turn in stocks would vary the silver monotony by throwing a twenty-dollar piece on the boards. This, however, has not occured since the last panic, and in fact, several panics before the last. Mrs. Bowers was once presented with a hefty silver brick as a mark of the Comstock's appreciation for her rendition of " Queen Elizabeth." Yet to-day she could not draw a house of sufficient size to pay for the inscription on that same brick. One night when John McCullough took a benefit, Bill Sharon invited a number of wealthy friends into a room, and then tried to see how many tickets each could tear in a given time, paying the "genial John " one dollar and fifty cents cash for each ticket destroyed. His benefit netted about ten thousand dollars which John Piper called a " pully house." The Menken was here with " Orpheus C. Kerr"

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in those days and John C. Heenan had taught her how to box astonishingly well This accomplishment made her a great favorite with the boys, and one night she put on the gloves with Joggles Wright, now dead, and in a couple of rounds knocked him out of time, winding, up the bout by throwing him heavily, and stunning him so badly that he had to be carried out. She also set-to with Bill Davis and Tom Daley, and both pronounced her " left," a thing that was well worth a man's while to watch. The first original Comstock play, produced in Virginia City was the work of Joe Goodman, who then owned and edited the Enterprise. It was a stilted production, and some of the magnificent lines read like Richelieu. It was full of great men Roman senators and the like, and the last act made a roaring burlesque of all the preceding ones. The warriors came into the field with as much preparation and blare of trump as in the closing scenes of Richard III., and each man was armed with a keg of beer. They turned the faucets loose and deluged the army stage orchestra, and audience with the genuine liquid, until the theatre was a howling pandemonium, and the gallery almost stamped the floor to pieces with delight. The lager wasted each night was enough to have kept a beer-garden in full blast, and the piece had such a run that several Dutchmen were seriously considering the proposition of starting new breweries in Storey County. It was finally withdrawn to allow the theatre a chance to dry. Goodman and Daggett (our Congressmen) next combined their forces, and wrote the Cycroscope, a really wonderful play, which old Comstockers will remember. The California Theatre Company came up and performed it to crowded houses for a week. John McCullough offered ten thousand dollars for the piece, if

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he could be permitted to eliminate one scene, which he considered too loud for Eastern audiences. The authors would permit no such weakening of their effort, and refused the offer. When the Union Square Company was last here, Charles Thorne, and some others of the troupe, made inquiries of the piece. This was in the Capitol Saloon, a sort of general resort for the Bohemians, under Dick Brown's administration, and Daggett was at a table drinking beer with some friends. The writer introduced him as one of the authors of the play, and the Union Square people ventured to indulge in a little chaff at his expense. This woke " old Dag" up, and when asked when he again intended to produce it, he replied : "Not for a while yet ; I am waiting for a new crop of actors to come on the boards. I wouldn't trust a piece like that to the feeble intellectual grasp of the scrubs who now travel about the country. A piece like that requires a peculiar adaptability for the work, and a brain-requisite not extensively found in the actors of the present generation. In fifty years from now the drama will take a higher stand, and then I shall allow my play to be produced. When it is, the stars of the present day will only be scene-shifters and red-fire holders for the Cycroscope. So, you see, I am obliged to wait. Have more beer, all hands of you." During Daggett's remarks the members of the leading combination stood in silence, but thoroughly enjoyed the situation. There are now but five copies of the play extant, and one is in possession of Judge Hillyer, of the United States Circuit Court, Carson. Some amusing stories are told of Piper's old theatre, when it used to be located on the corner of D and Union. There was once a woman who lived next door to the theatre, in a room on a

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level with Piper's roof, who was in the habit of getting the full benefit of the play gratis, by crawling through the space which was contained between the ceiling of the auditorium and the roof until she reached the ventilator. Here she was enabled to see everything that was going on. One night, when the house was packed, she slipped between the rafters, and her legs went through the laths and the plaster of the ceiling. Those in the pit were treated to a shower of plaster, and, looking up, saw a pair of striped hose vibrating from above. The place at once became a scene of confusion, and the poor woman was unable to extricate herself from her dilemma, and the play stopped until a policeman went aloft and pulled her out of the hole through which she threatened to fall at any moment. Piper's place finally got so old that it fairly shook with the performance, and the audience expected every night to see an entire troupe disappear from sight, and go tumbling down into the railroad tunnel. Piper was very careful of his scenery, and very proud of the new material he got for the Two Orphans—so proud, in fact, that it was impossible to mention a play in which some portions of the scenery would not be used by him. One night, Bauer and Miller, the famous athletes, were billed for a wrestling match in the opera house, and Bauer being drunk, Miller declined to wrestle. Bauer accordingly announced that he would exhibit some feats of strength, and accordingly came on the stage with some dumb-bells and cannon-balls. These he began to slam about in the most promiscuous manner. He sent a cannon-ball through the Convent of Saint Surplice, bowled down a whole forest with some dumbbells, all the while singing the Mulligan Guards, " Marzh marzh avay to ze tune of ze Smulligan Garzs." He wound

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up his performance by dropping a one-hundred-pound dumb-bell into the orchestra, where it demolished the bass-drum and almost frightened "Yakobson " to death. Piper was disconsolate over the loss of his scenery, and vowed that no more athletes should ever be allowed on his stage. Speaking of "Yakobson, " he was also quite a noted character. He was a dapper little musician of Jewish extract, and led the orchestra for years. As soon as his curly head appeared there would be a shout of "Oh! Yakobson, how you vos?" from the gallery, and the boys would manufacture paper-darts to throw at him. If one fell near him a yell of approval would go up, during which time the little fiddler would never miss a note. He had a weakness for extensive jewelry, and thought every star in love with him. Bishop, the stage carpenter ("Old Bish") was another odd character. He was the imperial master of his part of the business, and would tolerate no interference. One day Rose Eytinge gave him some orders about making some repairs to her Cleopatra barge, which he disobeyed, and this called forth some sharp comments, to which Bishop replied, as he shook a saw in her face, "Come, come, Rosey, take a big tumble ; don't come bleatin' around me, or by thunder I'll saw yer head off. Now get off the stage d—n quick, and stop yer foolishness." The great exponent of the emotional took the hint, and vanished directly. He was always blunt and plain-spoken, and once finding Ada Cavendish behind the scenes sitting on a pile of carpet which he needed, pulled the carpet from under her, and let her down on the floor. She began to expostulate, when he broke her up completely with "Git inter yer dressin' room then; this ain't no place for the ballet anyhow." When Jim Ward introduced the Win-

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ning Hand in Virginia he hired twenty Piutes to take part, and they went into the theatrical business, having the solemn assurance from the writer that they were to get five hundred dollars a night. As the money was not forthcoming, they determined to storm Ward in his room. The writer saw them moving on the Fredericks House about midnight, and followed them up to find them in Ward's room demanding five hundred dollars of his wife (Winnetta Montague), who was sitting up in bed, and laboring under the impression that she was about to be scalped. Jim came in a few moments later, and was obliged to distribute half his theatrical wardrobe among Captain Bob's tribe to get them out of the room. At the next performance Bob attempted to scalp Ward in dead earnest. The Alhambra was a famous resort in those days, and the variety shows which appeared there in rapid succession drew crowded houses as a rule, but if the audience was thin, the receipts of the bar made up the deficiency. Pat Holland, whose Daily Record enjoyed a brief existence in Virginia, was determined to put a play on the boards, and finally evolved the drama of the Crescents. This piece ran for a few nights, and when the audiences began to dwindle, Pat conceived the idea of introducing a mule to add to the general effect. "Lame Foster," who was then running the house, received a China mule, which gave every appearance of being a docile animal. Things went on with encouraging smoothness until the second act, when the mule, doubtless recognizing the author within reach, planted his hoof in Holland's stomach, and sent him flying into the orchestra. He then proceeded to kick the troupe right and left, and demolished the scenery in a fashion that called forth the hilarious plaudits of the audience. He finished his per-

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formance by leaping into the piano, which was without any top, for the purpose of increasing its sound volume, and there he began to execute "Napoleon's Retreat" in a style that demolished the instrument in a few minutes. When his hoofs swept the quivering strings the delight of the audience knew no bounds, and in response to an enthusiastic encore, he made his way up the middle aisle, and gained the street. He never appeared again, and his performance was voted " pretty good for a debut." On another occasion a wild-cat and a dog were matched to fight on the stage for one hundred dollars a side, and the cat, on being whipped, left the stage and plunged into the audience, causing the little theatre to be emptied almost immediately. The place, once the scene of so many boxing matches and wrestling encounters, interspersed with an occasional riot, has been closed for more than eight years, and the place is given over to the rats and darkness. Occasionally tramps break in and corral a few nights' lodging, and one night the police found a lot of drunken wanderers trying to play Hamlet there by the light of a solitary candle. Nearly every troupe that ever played there walked out of town in a body over the Geiger Grade, as the manager usually got back their salaries over the bar. But going back to a higher plane of theatricals, one recollects how the Comstock has seen some of the best artists in the world. Booth trod the boards of Piper's old place ; and, on one occasion, when he wanted some one to fence with in Hamlet, Monsieur Chevalier, an old Frenchman who kept a restaurant on C Street, was brought to the fore, and astonished Booth—who prided himself on his fencing—with some trick at carte and tierce, which called forth Booth's warmest admiration. Modjeska played the first rendition of

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Camille at National Guard Hall, and, since then, has made the role famous throughout the world. Barrett and McCullough have visited the city frequently—and, in fact, got on a roaring spree here once, which was fully described in the papers. Matilda Heron was in the height of her success when she appeared here. Charley Pope, once Piper's leading man, now owns a big theatre in Saint Louis, and is a leading Shakespearean actor. John Snow, Piper's comedian for a season, once vowed that if he failed to score a hit as " Dimple," he would go down on a sheep ranch in Lower California and work for thirty dollars a month and board. He is now on the ranch. Last, but not least, comes Needles, the " Comstock Forrest," with his attenuated frame, melancholy look, and outstretched palm for charity. The poor fellow was a rare elocutionist. But spree after spree rolled the waves of tribulation over his frame, until his hunger gave him that terrible look which reminded one of the scowl of a wolf on the steppes of Siberia. The poor fellow, especially fitted by nature to play the part of the " Apothecary " in Romeo and Juliet, has drifted away to other camps, and an occasional postal card like the following reminds me that he is still alive :

LEADVILLE,--

            DEAR OLD BOY : Send me a pair of pants to play in The Stranger, also some underclothes to appear as " Spartacus, the Gladiator. Yours in haste, NEEDLES.--