On July 31st Jim McKnight, a young fellow of ambition and talent, put on a play of his own writing, which he called "The Robbers of the Rocky Mountains," with an exclusive amateur company. Young McKnight drew on his imagination for his robbers; had he written years later he could have taken his characters from life, with Butch Cassidy and the whole Robber's Roost gang in the cast.
CHAPTER XVI.
SEASON OF '72-'73.
The season of '72 and '73 opened on August 7th with George Chaplin and Clara Jean Walters as stock stars. They opened in the classical drama of "Buffalo Bill." This was a long time before Cody started his wild west show and probably this play was what put him in the notion of starting in the show business. Chaplin made a fine Buffalo Bill, and if Cody saw him in the part it must have made him envious to see another fellow stealing his thunder. The combination ran two weeks, when Stetson came in "Neck and Neck" with us and played a week, presenting also "Daring Dick" and "The Fatal Glass." Chaplin had a decided objection to supporting male stars of mediocre ability, and second class repertory, and so he generally laid off on such occasions as the Stetson engagement; besides it was a matter of economy with the management; they did not need him, so George laid off during Stetson's week, and then came with his "Seven Sisters" the following week. George was immense as the big sister and was just a trifle vain over the fact that he could outshine all the women in the company in female apparel.
On September 2nd Ada Gray opened a week's engagement in "Article 47" and gave besides, "Jezebel" and "Whose Wife." Ada was a pleasing actress, of fine appearance, but didn't seem to quicken the pulse of her Salt Lake patrons, after their seeing some of the greater ones.
On the 9th Chaplin and Walters resumed as stock stars and played continuously up to the 23rd, T. A. Lyne taking a benefit on the 20th instant and playing "Richelieu." On the 23rd Chaplin dropped out of the company, closing in "School," and on the 25th the stock company kept right along with Clara Jean Walters featured through the October Conference and up to the 12th.
On October 1st W. T. Harris made his initial bow to the Salt Lake public; he came from one of the Omaha theatres, accompanied by Annie Ward and Miss Blanche de Bar, a sister of the popular manager and actor, Ben de Bar. Miss De Bar had already grown old in the profession, but proved nevertheless a very useful member of the stock company. She played old women and characters and on more than one occasion proved her agility in spite of years and gray hairs, by doing an Irish jig or a "Dolly Varden" lilt. The rag time had not yet come in vogue or Miss De Bar could have done a cake walk with the best.
"Jimmy" Harris, as he was familiarly called, cut quite a figure in the future history of the theatre as manager and deserves more than a passing notice. He was featured on his opening night in an Irish farce, "That Rascal Pat," and made a very fair impression. Miss Annie Ward, who accompanied Harris to Salt Lake, and who at first was supposed to be "Jimmy's" wife or fiancee (from all appearances), was a young woman who had been beautiful, but her face was now so deeply pitted with small pox that she invariably in public kept it covered with a veil, except when on the stage, where she could veil the blemish under a thick coat of grease paint, and, this artistically done, she presented as fair a face as one could wish to look at. "Annie," 'twas said, had been the fiancee of the great African explorer, Henry Stanley, before he caught the African fever, which tore him away from her and all his early associations. Annie found consolation for her bereavement in a close friendship with "Jimmy." So close was their alliance that on their joining the stock company here together, everybody judged they were man and wife, or ought to be. They had taken a room together in old man McDonald's house, just under the shadow of St. Mark's church, and everything went well for a little while—but by some inadvertence the good Mr. McDonald discovered that they had not secured the necessary license for rooming together, and he very promptly and perhaps rudely gave them notice to vacate. They thought the old man was a crank and quite unreasonable, to turn them out of his house for such a slight offense, in a community where many of the men were living with a plurality of wives. They had an idea it was a sort of Oneida community here; free love, etc. They secured another lodging house, but the lady who ran that was a very strict Mormon also, and so soon as she found out how matters stood she served them with a notice to quit. "Jimmy" got a "hunch" from some one that he would have to marry Annie or sever the alliance altogether, as the Mormons would not stand for anything of this kind. It was even intimated to him that he might be indicted for lascivious cohab, which so terrified him that he suddenly ceased his relationship with Annie altogether, and left her to paddle her own canoe. Those who were acquainted with the circumstances have always blamed Harris for his treatment of Annie Ward; he should have married her, was their thought, but he turned away from her in this time of mutual trouble. His offense was condoned, and gradually he worked himself into favor until he became quite an object of interest with the ladies about the theatre, while those same ladies turned up their noses at Miss Ward, and made it so unpleasant for her, that she was glad to terminate her engagement long before the season was over, and go back to her former haunts. Poor girl! She went down hill rapidly after returning and died wretchedly in St. Louis a year or so later, while Harris remained here, married one of Brigham Young's daughters and was given the management of the theatre, which he held for several years. Harris and his wife went to New York in about '80, where they have resided ever since. "Jimmy," who has wealthy relatives there, has a good easy position and raised a nice family of four or five children, to whom he has bequeathed his real name of Ferguson, that of Harris being merely adopted to hide him from his relatives while he was a profane stage player. So runs the wheel of fortune.
Hamlet. I did love you once.
Ophelia. Indeed, my honored lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet. You should not have believed me; for virtue can not so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.
Ophelia. I was the more deceived.
Hamlet. Get thee to a nunnery.
—Shakespeare.
On November 8th Mr. Al Thorne was added to the stock company and made his first appearance in the play of "Maud's Peril." Al Thorne came to Utah as a soldier in Johnston's army. He was a member of the Camp Floyd Theatre company and played with Dick White, Mrs. Tuckett et al. He contrived in some way to remain in Utah when the Civil War broke out, instead of following "the uncertain chance of war." He had married and settled in the north part of the territory, and was associated with the Richmond Dramatic Company for several years and now found a place in the Salt Lake stock, where he remained for several years, doing excellent work in "heavies" and "old men." Thorne joined the Mormon church and got more family than he could take care of—two families in fact, which proved his ruin. He became estranged from them both, and for the last twenty years of his life was practically an exile, living a solitary life in the mining camps of Nevada. He died three years ago at De Lamar, Nevada, a prematurely old man, with no relative near. But Al always had friends, for he was a good natured, generous hearted man—his own worst enemy. "Requiescat in pace."
George Chaplin having exhausted his extensive and variegated repertory, and taken his departure for pastures new, the stock company, with Clara Jean Walters, played through the October conference. The very palpable weakness occasioned by Chaplin's retirement was filled by F. M. Bates, who with his wife and Baby Blanche had been rusticating in the vicinity ever since their engagement in the previous May. Bates opened on the 14th of October, as joint star with Miss Walters, and continued until November 21st, the only interruption being a three nights' engagement of the Australian actor, James J. Bartlett, who gave "David Garrick," "New Magdalen," and "Married for Money."
On November 25th Mrs. Bates opened her second engagement at this theatre, supported by her husband (Frank), Miss Walters and the stock company. She played two weeks, repeating mostly her favorite roles, "Elizabeth," "Lucretia Borgia," "Camille," etc. Mrs. Bates during the time her husband, Frank, had been playing with the stock company, had played an engagement with John Piper, the Virginia City manager. Returning here she sent ahead of her to exploit her return engagement Mr. John Maguire, who has since made a name as a theatrical manager, but who was then a very enthusiastic disciple of Thespis, and was ambitious to make a mark in the histrionic art. Maguire by his own confession had been educated for the Catholic priesthood, and certainly a good priest was spoiled when John turned Thespian, but the stage fever caught him, and struck in so deep that he was irrevocably lost to a profession which he was capable of adorning, and exposed "to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" that are generally in quiver to be hurled at the unfortunate actor or manager who does not achieve an unqualified success. At the time of which I write, 1872, John Maguire was young (about 30, eh, John?), and handsome; he was often mistaken for Lawrence Barrett, the tragedian, which was a flattering compliment to John, as he was a very great admirer of "Larry" Barrett. We don't know just how it came about, but he was cast in Mrs. Bates' opening performance of "Elizabeth" for the part of the young Scottish king, James VI, unless it was that he had played it in Virginia City with the lady, and she thought he looked the part so well. Any way the company was numerous and the managers let John out after his performance of King James. The week following the Bates engagement, there being no star attraction booked, the managers gave it to the writer, who had not been playing in the stock company that season. I arranged a repertoire for the week which included "The Duke's Motto," "Macbeth," "Louis XI," "The Stranger," "Jack Cade," and "The Three Guardsmen." A very ambitious attempt, as I view it now, but all parts that I was "up" in, having played them in the company before. While rehearsing before I opened, Maguire, who was out of a job and evidently out of money, come to me and in a very friendly and confidential way informed me that he had just received the bells. "The bells?" I inquired, "what bells?" "Why Henry Irving's Bells, that has just completed a year's run in London." "Take my advice, John," said he, "take down some of those 'old' chestnuts you have billed and put on 'The Bells' for two nights in their place and you'll be money in by it." "Oh, that's impossible," I objected, "my plans for the week are arranged and cast, besides I know nothing about the play of The Bells.'" Maguire was earnest, however, for he had a point to make, so he urged me to make a change. "I have two printed copies of the play," says he, "and will let you have them and copy the remainder of the parts for you for $10. I want to get to Pioche; things are booming there and I am short of money; you can advertise the wonderful run the play has had in London, and you'll be the first to play it west of New York, where Studley is playing it now." John arguments prevailed with me and I took down "Louis XI" and "The Strangers" and put up "The Bells" for the Wednesday and Thursday nights. Maguire delivered the goods, got his money and took the stage for Pioche. Bidding me good bye and good luck, he says, "There's a theatre down there, and if I can secure it, you will hear from me before long." "The Bells" gave me the hardest day's study I ever did; playing "Macbeth" the night before and staying out later than was discreet, I was reading "Mathias" at rehearsal next morning to play that night, but we got through it fairly well, and to my surprise the local papers praised the performance highly next morning, but "The Bells" did not prove the great drawing card Maguire had so sanguinely predicted, the older and better known plays drawing better.
On Friday evening, while playing "Jack Cade," a few of my admirers sent up a request to have me play "Othello" on the following night instead of "The Guardsmen," with Mr. F. M. Bates as Othello, Mrs. Bates as Emelia and myself as Iago. I should have promptly decided not to make the change, but nothing in the way of work seemed too onerous for me, and too willing to oblige, I sent back word that if they could get Mr. and Mrs. Bates to volunteer I would make the change. Some of them waited on the Bateses with the result that Mrs. Bates declined to be Emelia, and Mr. Bates had never played Othello, but would play Iago if I would do Othello. I was in Mr. Bates' fix, having played Iago several times but never Othello. However, I consented to try it and gave myself another hard day's study to get perfect in Othello. Next morning Sloan, in the Herald, roasted me for playing a "star" part like Othello in stock costumes, notwithstanding I had been wearing stock costumes all the week. He spoke rather favorably of my acting, however, which was more than I should have expected. I would not be nearly so accommodating now. This my first "stellar" engagement closed on December 14th, 1872. The record shows that the farce of "The Spectre Bridegroom" was played after Othello, with Phil Margetts in his great part of Diggory. In those "palmy days of the drama," it was quite usual to have a farce after a five-act tragedy. On benefit occasions not infrequently there would be a long play, then an olio of singing and a fancy dance, and a farce to close the "evening's entertainment."
During this engagement Clara Jean Walters played the leading female roles, and rendered effective support, as indeed she always did. She was the most capable and versatile "leading lady" the stock company ever had and remained with it for several seasons a well-established favorite.
Carl Bosco, a very clever magician, put in two nights following the Lindsay engagement, 16th and 17th, and Mrs. Chanfrau opened the 19th inst. for two nights and appeared in "A Wife's Ordeal" and "The Honeymoon." On the 26th John T. Raymond opened a two weeks' engagement, giving "Toodles," "Only a Jew," "Rip Van Winkle," and "The Cricket on the Hearth." Johnny Allen and Alice Harrison and "Little Mac" for three nights. These parties put in from January 6th to the 15th. Johnny Allen and Alice Harrison were a great attraction in those days; how many remember them now? And "Little Mac," that homely dwarf, what wonderful stunts he could do with those stunted legs of his!—a circus in himself was Little Mac.
On the 20th of January William J. Cogswell joined the stock as leading man, Miss Walters still retaining position of leading lady. A Miss Florence Kent (Mrs. McCabe) had been added to the company, and being petite and good looking, as well as talented, Miss Walters saw a chance to gratify a long-cherished ambition, which was to play Romeo. (She would show some of us men folks how to make love.) So the piece was put up with Miss Walters as Romeo and Kent as Juliet; they made a pretty couple. Miss Walters looked very dashing, being a nice size for Romeo, but making love to one of her own sex was not such an easy task as she imagined and although it was a very fair "Romeo and Juliet," it did not make so great a mark as many of her female performances. The stock with the new leading man, Cogswell, played along till February 3rd, when Yankee Robinson came in for a week in "Sam Patch" and "The Days of '76," February 3rd to the 8th inst.
CHAPTER XVII
SEASON OF '72-'73.—CONTINUED.
Before this time John Maguire had been heard from; he had found on his arrival at Pioche that there was some sort of a theatre there. It had been built for a minstrel company of whom Harry Larraine, formerly of the Fort Douglas band, was the leader. At the expiration of the minstrel engagement, Maguire secured the theatre when he immediately set about to put a dramatic company in there. He telegraphed for Mr. and Mrs. Bates, offering them a strong inducement to go there. He also telegraphed for the writer, offering him a salary that was sufficient inducement for him to go. John W. Dunne, a young Californian, who had been in the Salt Lake Theatre company, was also engaged. Our fares were arranged for and about the middle of January this nucleus for a dramatic company left Salt Lake City for Pioche for a six weeks' engagement. Our party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Bates, Baby Bates (Blanche), the now famous actress, who was then about a year and a half old; Mrs. Bates' sister, Miss Wren, who acted as the chief nurse, and Mr. John W. Dunne. It is a matter well worthy of record that Mr. Dunne was married the night before he left for Pioche, to Miss Clara Decker, a niece of Brigham Young, a very pretty and attractive girl, who had been assistant costumer in the ladies' department of the theatre for some time. It was of course, a great trial to the young couple to have to part so soon, after one brief night of married life, but the exigencies of the theatrical business are at times merciless. As they had been engaged for some time, it was decided when Mr. Dunne accepted the Pioche engagement, that it would be best for them to get married before he went away lest absence and distance might cause one or both to change their minds. How wise a precaution this proved the sequel will show. This proved to be a memorable trip. Every member of the party will remember that trip to their dying day except Blanche, and she was too young to remember anything about it. The schedule time from Salt Lake to Pioche was fifty-five hours. We were five days and nights, or one hundred and twenty-five hours making that journey. The Utah Southern was then running only as far as York, about seventy-five miles south of Salt Lake. This left two hundred and seventy-five miles to be traveled by stage. Our stage was not a Concord, but a rather dilapidated specimen of the "jerkie" or "mud wagon." It had seating accommodations for nine persons, and two could ride on the "boot" with the driver. There were two male passengers in addition to our party of six—six counting Baby Bates, who must be figured in as one, for although quite small, she was very much in evidence throughout that journey. One of the gentlemen rode most of the time on the "boot" and occasionally one or another of the men would take a spell on the driver's seat so that we were never crowded uncomfortably; yet, oh, how tired we did get and especially the ladies, before that ride was ended. It was the 18th of January, the weather very pleasant but very cold nights, and our first night on the stage was decidedly uncomfortable. We reached the terminus of the railroad, York, about noon, ate dinner in a shack of a restaurant and started on our stage ride about two p. m. We were not long in discovering that there was something the matter with the horses. The driver, in answer to our queries, informed us that they were all suffering from the epizootic; it was getting awful bad, he explained, "don't believe we've got a horse on the line that is free from it." We agreed with him that it was awful bad. The poor beasts coughed and sneezed continuously, throwing off effluvium, the odor of which was disagreeable in the extreme. On our second day out a regular January thaw set in and the snow melted so rapidly that the roads got very bad; a number of times the men had to get out and walk, and on several occasions the well named "mud wagon" got mired so deeply and the horses were so weak, we had to get a fence pole from the neighboring fence and lift the wheels out of the holes, the horses being unable to budge the old coach. The further south we got the worse the roads got. We had to change the horses about every twenty miles, but they were all alike, weak and dispirited, and the stench about the stables at the different stations was nauseating. On the fifth day out we arrived at the last station. Between it and the mining camp there was a hard mountain to climb and the snow was falling thick and fast. It was then well on to sunset and to our keen disappointment the station man and driver decided it would be folly to try to get over the "divide" in that storm, and that we would have to remain at the station until morning. Here was an unlooked for and unpleasant predicament, but there was no help for it, and it was better than getting stuck on the "divide" in a heavy snowstorm. The hostler was a good natured fellow and tried in his homely way to reconcile us to our fate. "I ain't got so very much grub here and what there is ain't very dainty, I 'low, especially for the ladies, but such as it is you're welcome to, and you can have a good fire, and if youse want to stretch yourselves out after supper, I can rake up quite a few blankets and laprobes, and ye can lie down when youse tired of settin' 'round the fire." The odor of the stable from the epizootic was almost sickening and the thoughts of eating there was anything but cheering, but we were all hungry, almost famished, having had nothing since breakfast. So we made the best of it. The hostler hustled in great shape, the presence of the ladies and the baby inspiring him to extra exertions in our behalf. He soon had a big pot of coffee and a pan full of bacon cooking, and he had to make some bread too, in which Mrs. Bates and her sister lent him their assistance. The quickest thing he suggested was slapjacks, and we all agreed to the quickest thing, and so before long we were all partaking with what relish we could of the hostler's coffee, slapjacks and bacon, and, notwithstanding the disagreeable odor of the stable, we all contrived to satisfy our hunger. After the hostler cook had cleaned away the few tin plates and cups, he proceeded to strew the end of the little "hostler's room" farthest from the stove with a diversity of blankets and laprobes, all of which were permeated with the odor of the stable, and suggested in his rough but kindly way "that we had better stretch ourselves on the floor as it was a long time till morning" and he knew "we must be pooty darn tired a ridin' so long in the coach." Mrs. Bates and her sister would have preferred sitting up if they only had comfortable chairs, but there was nothing but a rough bench and a couple of rough stools in the place and the majority of the men had been standing about or sitting on the floor all through the supper function and sleep gradually overpowered the party, and one by one they "knit up the raveled sleeve of care" and were glad to bunk down on the uninviting bed the kindly hostler had improvised for the occasion. In less than an hour after our sumptuous repast, the entire party were in the arms of Morpheus. The women and the baby Blanche were in the most secluded corner, then Frank Bates, John Dunne and myself stretched out on the hospitable blankets. These took all the space and the two strangers and the driver wrapped up in their overcoats and betook themselves to the portion of the floor unoccupied; this was close around the stove. The floor of that hostler's room was literally covered with the sleepy travelers. It was a change of position and measurably restful, but our sleep was broken and anything but sweet, even though it was the "innocent sleep." The constant coughing of the poor, afflicted horses and the peculiar and disagreeable odor of the epizootic, rendered sleep anything but delightful, but "necessity knows no law," and in spite of all the disadvantages we managed to snatch some repose from the "chief nourisher in life's feast." Unenviable as was our position in the hostler's room on this memorable night, it would have been much worse had we undertaken to cross the mountain. Snow was falling thick and fast, and the wind blowing hard enough to be very disagreeable. After we were all asleep, or apparently so, the hostler shoved a stick of wood in the stove which was getting cold, and then turned into the hayloft to get a little sleep himself, for he had to be astir before daylight. Before daybreak the storm had spent itself and the sun rose bright and cheerful, mountain and vale deeply covered with snow. Our breakfast, which the hostler prepared while the driver was feeding and watering the horses, was exactly the same as we had for supper: coffee, slapjacks and bacon, with the addition of some tea which one of our fellow passengers prepared for himself and the ladies. It was a sample package he had and cost him, he solemnly declared, $5.00 a pound. This gave an extra flavor to it no doubt, at all events the ladies declared it was fine and we did not doubt its being more to their taste than the coffee the good hostler provided. Breakfast over, we once more clambered into the shaky old jerkie with the admonition from the driver that we men would have to walk when we came to the steep places. We thanked the kindly hostler and invited him to come to the show when we got to playing in Pioche. The snow was six or eight inches deep and even on the gradual ascent, as we started up the grade, it was all the horses could do to pull us, and the snow soon began to melt and the road to get steeper. It was evident we men would have to foot it, and most of the way to the top, and so we got out one or two at a time till we were all walking and occasionally we had to give a shove on the coach to help the willing but weakly horses get to the top. Once there we were all very glad to get in; we were not long in rattling along the down grade into Pioche, all very glad to get there. Maguire, who had been impatiently expecting us for two days, was overjoyed to see us, for he was full of expectations as to the business we were going to do. He had secured us the best hotel accommodations the camp afforded, and they were duly appreciated after our recent experience at the station.
After dinner we all took a walk with Maguire at his invitation, to see the theatre where we were to play our six weeks engagement. The building stood back from the principal street which was built right in the ravine, the stage entrance facing the street, and the entrance for the audience facing the street above. We had ventured various conjectures in reference to this theatre that the always over sanguine Maguire had secured a lease of. We had not expected very much and yet we were disappointed. We all entered at the stage door which opened directly from a flight of steps onto the back of the stage, and as we beheld the wonderful temple of Thespus, where we were to do honor to his art, the exclamations that escaped us were not well calculated to enthuse John Maguire, but rather to make him feel a little shaky about the venture he was making. Ye gods! What a transition from the Salt Lake Theatre to this shack! The theatre was about 35x75 feet, the stage occupying twenty-five feet. The orchestra floor for reserved seats ran from the stage towards the front about 15 feet. The rest of the space was fitted with rough board seats a la circus, the natural declivity of the ground giving the seats the necessary pitch for the audience to see the stage. The walls of the building were of rough pine boards about ten feet in height and the entire auditorium was roofed in with ducking or light canvas. The stage part was roofed with shingles so as to preserve the scenery from the rain. Of scenery there was a very limited supply and that not very artistic, being painted by an amateur. The stage projected beyond the curtain some six feet and on each side of this apron or projecting stage was a private box, finished off with cheap wall paper similar to the interior scenes on the stage. These boxes were well patronized. Every night they were filled with the fair, frail denizens of the camp at the rate of $10 a box. The opening play had already been announced, but owing to the lateness of our arrival, was necessarily postponed for a few nights. Maguire had gotten together some people of more or less experience (mostly less) to fill up the minor parts in the cast. He also took a hand himself and rehearsals were started the same night we arrived.
The opening night came around and the Opera House (that's what John called it) was packed to suffocation. The boxes were filled to overflowing with the swellest looking women in the town. The play was "Camille" and Mrs. Bates had them all shedding tears. The girls in the boxes were deeply affected. Most of them were "like Niobe, all tears," but we received no intimation that this powerful sermon of Dumas was instrumental in turning them from their life of shame.
Pioche was a camp of about eight thousand people and was "booming." We played four weeks to good paying business. This fairly exhausted the Bates repertoire, and business began to fall off appreciably. So a farewell benefit was worked up for Mrs. Bates and she made her final appearance at Pioche in a blaze of glory, chiefly emanating from a diamond ring with which she was presented on the memorable occasion as a token of regard to a distinguished actress from a few of her Pioche admirers. The Bateses were fortunate. They had been playing on a large percentage of the gross receipts and had cleared up quite a nice little stake in the four weeks they had played and they struck out at once for San Francisco, and from there went to Australia where, in '78, Frank Bates died, after which Mrs. Bates and Blanche, now a girl of eight, returned to San Francisco in 1880. Maguire still kept myself and Dunne and the rest of the company, thinking that with some new and lighter plays we could still do a paying business. The results were not very satisfactory. We played several weeks in a sort of spasmodic way, and then organized a little traveling company in which a clever young girl, Maggie Knight, whom Maguire had discovered, was a feature, and we played back to the C. P. R. R. On one of these occasions in Pioche, a very ludicrous thing happened which should not go unrecorded. We were playing the burlesque of "Pocahontas." Maguire was playing Captain John Smith, the writer Powhatan, and Johnny Dunne, as we were short of ladies, was playing Pocahontas. In the scene where Smith is brought in a prisoner and is about to be executed, a catastrophe happened to John Maguire, so sudden and appalling, should he live to be as old as Methusaleh, I doubt if he would ever forget it. Where Smith says, after viewing the stone on which he is to be decapitated,
"It's a hard pill, but a harder piller,
Life's a conundrum," and Powhatan replies:
"Then lie down and give it up."
Just at this point a sudden scream emanated from one of the boxes, which were well filled on this occasion with the demi monde, then several screams of laughter, then the whole audience began to roar with laughter. I knew something had gone wrong for there was nothing in the text to extort such screams and peals of laughter. I glanced over the group on the stage, and to my amazement I saw Mac's trunks had dropped down to his feet, and he, all unconscious of the fact, was standing there in a pair of thin cotton tights. His knee pants or trunks, were of very light material and the drawstring with which they were fastened around his waist, had given way and they dropped to the floor, and so excited was he in his character he did not notice it. I said to him in sotto voce, "Your pants are down." Then he cast his eyes down, and the look of abject despair that came over his face as he said in a subdued tone, "Oh, my God!" and stopped and pulled the gauzy things up to their place and walked off the stage to readjust them, we can never forget. The girls at this resumed their screams of laughter and the audience roared until they were tired. When the noise subsided, Maguire, with his costume adjusted, came back to finish the scene, but it was several minutes before we could proceed, so much did the audience enjoy this simple accident. Maguire remained in Pioche some time after I left there, and finally left the place worse off by far than when he went there, and I did not see the genial John again till I went to Portland in '78 to play in the New Market theatre of which he was the manager. Just before the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Bates, John Dunne and myself for Pioche, the Cogswell-Carter company arrived in Salt Lake, having traveled by stage and team from California, playing the towns en route.
This company consisted of J. W. Carter, Carrie Carter, W. J. Cogswell (Carrie's brother), Ed. Harden, Lincoln J. Carter (then a very small boy), and probably one or two others, minor people who did not come into publicity here. On arriving here the party waited upon President Brigham Young to pay their respects, and to inform him that they had been commanded by the spirit world, with which they had been having communications (by the "Planchette" route), to go to Salt Lake and join the Mormon church as that was the true church and the only one that could save them. This told in all apparent sincerity, with the request to be baptized, was altogether a pleasing surprise to Brigham and his counsellors, and the Cogswell-Carter company were warmly welcomed. They were baptized and confirmed into the church without delay, and within a few days they were all engaged at the Salt Lake Theatre. Their coming was very timely for the theatre managers, for they had lost several of their leading people. "Jim" Hardie had gone for good, McKenzie, who had been playing steadily since the opening of the theatre in '62 and was wearied with study, had been released and sent on a mission in the belief the change would benefit him; John Lindsay was off on a "fool's errand" playing for John Maguire in Pioche, and the Cogswell-Carter-Marden accession filled the gap very nicely, and the season progressed to its close without much friction.
During the absence of Mr. Dunne and myself from Salt Lake the following attractions appeared at the theatre. Jean Clara Walters, W. J. Cogswell and the stock company from February 8th to March 10th, on which date a new play by Edward L. Sloan (then editor of the Salt Lake Herald) was produced. It was entitled "Stage and Steam." It was intended to show the advance of civilization. It had a railroad scene and a stage coach in it and a sensational saw mill scene, where a man was placed on the log carriage to be sliced into boards, but was rescued just in the nick of time. Jos. Arthur's saw mill scene in "Blue Jeans" is exactly the same thing, although it is scarcely probable that Mr. Arthur ever saw Sloan's play. The play only had two performances. March 10th to 15th, Frank Hussey and Blanche Clifton held the boards in "Hazard" and some other plays. Marion Mordaunt was the next stellar attraction and gave "The Colleen Bawn" and "Hearts are Trumps" the 17th to 10th. On the 24th a star of the first magnitude appeared. It was Augusta Dargon. She opened in "Camille" and played also "Deborah (Leah)," "Lady Macbeth," "Meg Merrilles" and "Lucretia Borgia." Miss Dargon was one of the greatest actresses our country ever produced, but she was not financially successful. She is the only American actress who has ever played Tennyson's "Queen Mary." Mrs. John Drew made a costly production of this play at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, with Augusta Dargon as the star during the Centennial. But it was not a financial success. The writer did not meet Miss Dargon till 1878, when she came to the New Market theatre in Portland and played a two weeks' engagement under the management of our old friend John Maguire. Here I had the pleasure (and hard work) of playing the opposite roles to her in her extensive repertory, changing the bill nearly every night during her engagement. Toward the close of it she put up Tennyson's "Queen Mary" in which I had to play King Phillip of Spain on two days' study, a very long, arduous part, that put me on my mettle to master it; also studied and played "Cardinal Wolsey" for the first time during this engagement. Miss Dargon, who was under the management of Henry Greenwald, after her Portland engagement, made a tour of the "sound" playing Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend and Victoria, supported by the New Market Theatre company, and returning, played a few more nights in Portland, then took steamer for Australia. Under Mr. Greenwald's management she had played successful engagements both in San Francisco and Portland, and when she opened in Melbourne she just captivated the city, playing extraordinary engagements both there and in Sidney. The press of Australia printed volumes in her praise. She made a great triumph, and in the very flush of her victory, some wealthy Australian captured her. She got married and retired from the stage, and Greenwald was forced to return without her. She never came back to us. Her return engagement here was played before she went to Australia.
Mr. "Bill" Cogswell seemed to have dropped out of the company before Miss Dargon's engagement and consequently David McKenzie was her principal support. After the Dargon engagement, which closed March 29th, Jean Clara Walters, Florence Kent and the stock company played through the April conference without a star attraction, and filled up time to April 28th when for some reason the season closed but was reopened on May 3rd with the stock company who played up to the 6th. On the 8th of May, Augusta Dargon began a return engagement which lasted till the 15th. She opened in the new play "Unmasked," and repeated "Deborah," "Camille," and "Lady Macbeth," and closed in a new piece "The Rising of the Moon." It speaks highly of Miss Dargon's popularity in Salt Lake that she should play a return engagement in five weeks after her first one.
Blind Tom, the musical prodigy, was the next attraction. He played but one night, May 17th. On the 19th Annette Ince began a return engagement of six nights and a matinee and the record shows a change of play for each performance. She gave "Elizabeth," "Mary Stuart," "Medea," "The Hunchback," "The Stranger," "The Honeymoon," and the "Lady of Lyons." This repertory in one week undoubtedly kept the company right busy. Miss Ince was a sterling actress, and always gave satisfaction, but she did not possess the faculty of making your blood thrill in your veins and your hair rise occasionally that Miss Dargon had. It is just a little singular how she came so close on Miss Dargon's heels this time. It seems like poor management to play two lady stars, so nearly alike in repertoire, so close together, but these accidents would happen once in a while. Frank Hussey and Blanche Clifton came back for two nights, May 26th and 27th. Then the stock had to take up the burden again and carry it from May 28th to June 21st. By June 1st John Dunne and the writer had returned from the Pioche trip and were back in their old positions in the company. Dunne had a surprise party in store for him on his return. Instead of being received with open arms and loving embraces by his bride of a night, she coldly repulsed him and refused ever to live with him, and she kept her word. This was owing to things she had heard about John and his freedom with other females while he was at Pioche. This did not discourage Dunne, however, from trying again. He has had several wives since, the best known being Patti Rosa, a talented actress whom he managed and married. Clara, on the other hand, was not inconsolable, and her enchantment with the stage and stage actors having been rather rudely dispelled, she sought "surcease from sorrow" in the affections of a well to do farmer, who has proven more constant, and with whom she has raised a representative Mormon family.
Madam Anna Bishop put in a week of high class concert from June the 25th to 30th. On July 2nd John W. Dunne took a benefit, on which occasion we repeated one of our Pioche performances with an important change of cast. "Theresa, or the Cross of Gold" and "Pocahontas" was the bill. Dunne did not find the atmosphere of Salt Lake so congenial to him as it had been and did not remain for the next season. I next met him in Cheyenne in '78. He was married and apparently contented, working at his trade of printer.
The business, after Dunne's benefit, seems to have been spasmodic. The stock kept on playing, however, during the month of July. That it did business at all was remarkable, but there being no "resorts" and the theatre the coolest place in town, in some measure accounts for its keeping open during the torrid heat of the summer.
Weiniawska, the Polish violinist, gave a concert on the 12th. George Waldron and his wife drifted in and played a few nights up to the 17th. Then W. O. Crosbie and his wife, Arrah Crosbie, and James A. Vinson, drifted in from the northwest and were given a few nights. "Jim" Vinson was featured in the play of "Quits" and "Billie" Crosbie in some favorite farce, supported by Arrah and the stock company. Both Vinson and Crosbie made a very favorable impression which resulted in them being engaged by the management for the following season. It looked as if all the other theatres in the West had closed and the actors had come trouping to Salt Lake to get summer engagements. Now comes Carrie Cogswell-Carter and the available stock to the front. They opened on the 26th and played till the 30th, and the season closed.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SEASON OF 73-74.
The season of 73 and '74 was somewhat later than usual in opening. The reasons were, Clawson and Caine had renewed their lease of the theatre, and having done so well with it financially, they were not content to "let well enough alone," but felt that they should make certain imaginary improvements that different wise-acres had suggested, and embellishments commensurate with the liberal patronage they had received during their previous lease of the house. Accordingly some radical changes were made which cost a plenty of money and made the managers scratch their heads many a time before they were all paid for. As an example of how much costly mischief one interfering "know-it-all" can accomplish, the managers were persuaded by their prospective new stage manager, "Jim" Vinson, that the stage of the theatre did not have sufficient pitch or slope from back to front. It had a slight pitch one-eighth of an inch to the foot, or about eight inches in its entire depth, which was just perceptible, but not sufficient to be particularly noticeable or to render it uncomfortable to walk on or to dance on. But the wisdom of the new stage manager was paramount, and that immense stage whose huge supports were built into the solid stone walls, had to be cut loose from its bearings and the front of it lowered until it had three-eighths of an inch fall to the foot, a slope that made it uncomfortable to walk on, indeed, entering in a hurry, one was quite inclined to slide on. It made it awkward too for stage settings. Every piece of scenery that was set up and down the stage or at any angle save that paralleling the front curtain, was thrown out of the perpendicular that is so essential to make the scenery look well. At the very time that this alleged improvement was being made, the pitching or sloping stage (once thought to add perspective to the scenery) was obsolete and all the new theatres in the country were being built with level stages. It cost hundreds of dollars to make this change and instead of being an improvement it was a positive detriment, is still, and always will be. So much for the advice of a stage manager. The proscenium doors that had been used for coming in front of the curtain, were done away with and the present boxes put in their stead, a very sensible and profitable improvement. Something like $8,000 was expended in these and other improvements—a costly experiment the sequel proved. The managers, Clawson and Caine, had in contemplation a very profitable season and engaged an unusually large and expensive company. The old stock members had been now so many seasons constantly before the public that it was thought their drawing powers were waning, and it was considered necessary to get some new blood into the stock. Accordingly, while nearly all the old stock was retained, a number of new people were added to the company, vastly increasing the salary list. First in prominence was Kate Denin (Mrs. John Wilson) who was featured as a stock star. Mr. W. J. Cogswell, who had been playing leads during the latter part of the previous season, was retained as leading man. "Jim" Vinson, who had put into Salt Lake before the close of the last season, was retained as stage manager and to play "old men." "Billie" Crosbie was engaged for the principal comedy roles, thus displacing the local favorites, Margetts, Graham, and Dunbar from the choice comedy parts. Arrah Crosbie, Billie's wife, had to have a place and she made a good utility woman; or she could play Irish characters. From the mere force of assimilation "Billie" was a good Irish comedian. Mr. "Al" Thorne, who was added to the company in the previous November, was retained especially for the "heavies." "Buck" Zabriske was engaged as prompter at a good fat salary, because the prompter was a very essential feature in the makeup of a stock company and generally earned his salary, for he often had a hard part to play behind the scenes on a first night. Then there was dear old Frank Rea, with his face and head of antique beauty; always full of Forrestonian reminiscences, and his wife of blessed memory, who had grown old in the service, along with her husband. Then there was Carrie Cogswell-Carter, and Ed Marden was there. J. W. Carter had parted company with theatrical business and accepted an engagement to preach the gospel for a while. He succeeded in making one convert that we know of whom he brought to Utah later and made Mrs. Carter No. 2. This was a bitter pill for Carrie Carter and she revenged herself in time by becoming the fourth wife of Bishop Herrick of Ogden. Apropos of this latter event, about a year later, December, 1875, Miss Carrie Cogswell was playing Julia in the "Hunchback" to the writer's "Master Walter" at Ogden. There was a Gentile paper there at the time called the Ogden Freeman. It was published by a man named Freeman, who came to Ogden with the advent of the Union Pacific railroad. Freeman had published his paper at each successive terminus of the road until it reached Ogden, and then he settled down there and ran the "Ogden Freeman" as a rabid anti-Mormon paper. We had journeyed northward and were in the town of Franklin. Phil Margetts, "Jimmy" Thompson and myself were seated in the hotel parlor when Carrie came in with a paper in her hand, and in her lively, good-natured way, said "Boys, I met Freeman of Ogden, in the Co-op. store just now, and he gave me a copy of his paper. He says it has a long notice of the 'Hunchback' in it. Let us see what he says." With that she threw herself into a chair, turned over the paper and found the notice. It was generally favorable but criticised her Julia rather adversely, at which she said rather petulantly, "Well, I know I'm not an Adelaide Neilson, but I guess it was good enough for Ogden." On further examination of the paper she came across a "personal" which read as follows: "We understand that Miss Carrie Cogswell, now playing here with the Salt Lake company, is the fourth polygamous wife of Bishop Herrick, having herself had three husbands: first, Thomas A. Lyne, the tragedian; second, J. A. Carter, and third, Bishop Herrick." She read this notice to us and as she did so she grew very angry. She strode out of the hotel like an enraged tigress. We all wondered what she was going to do, but in about five minutes she strode back in again with a handful of poor Freeman's whiskers in her clenched fist and her parasol broken to smithereens over the offender's face and head. In explanation she said, "I don't care how much he criticises my acting but he mustn't meddle in my family affairs." Freeman took revenge for this upon the writer several years later in Montana, by giving him a red hot roast while playing in a neighboring town. He evidently thought that I had prompted her to the castigation act, which was not true, and totally unnecessary.
The season was ushered in very auspiciously with the "School for
Scandal," with Miss Denin as Lady Teazle and Mr. J. H. Vinson as Sir
Peter; Mr. Cogswell playing Charles Surface and Mr. Crosbie, Benjamin
Backbite, and the full force of the stock company in the cast.
Stock played through conference dates as usual and up to the 11th when Laura Alberta and George W. Harrison hoisted the stellar flag, which they floated for two weeks, opening in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which ran for three nights, and then gave place to other pieces in Laura's repertory. Then followed Fanny Cathcart and George Darrell for a week, presenting "Man and Wife," "Woman in Red," "Masks and Faces," "Black Eyed Susan," "Stranger," "Happy Pair," "Mysteries of Stage," and "Mexican Tigress." Eight different plays in one week must have kept the stock company out of mischief, one would naturally think. The reverse proved true, however, in this case, for the leading man, "Bill" Cogswell, from over-study (we had no understudies in those days), was driven to drink; Bill got on a jamboree and didn't care whether school kept or not, and the managers were in a dilemma. Their next star was May Howard, who opened on November 3rd for a three weeks engagement of legitimate. It was essential to have a good, reliable leading man to help May through such a long engagement. Both McKenzie and Lindsay were away and a new leading man was considered an all important factor in this emergency. So a Chicago dramatic agent, Arthur Cambridge, was wired to and he sent out the "brilliant young American actor, J. Al. Sawtelle." Sawtelle opened on Miss Howard's second night, playing "Armand Duval" in "Camille." It was a part well suited to him and he made a satisfactory impression. Miss Howard played "The New Magdalen" (opening night), "Guy Mannering," "Romeo and Juliet," and "East Lynne." Harry Eytinge rendered support in most of her plays—he being the lady's husband this was a very fitting and graceful thing to do. After three weeks of Howard and Eytinge, Fanny Cathcart and George Darrell came back as "Man and Wife," doing "Dark Deeds" and filling in four nights with a "Woman in Red," and doing funny things in "Masks and Faces."
On November 28th and 29th, an original historical play by Edward W. Tullidge, entitled "Oliver Cromwell," had its initial performance. Sawtelle was cast for the title role. "Jim" Vinson, the venerable stage manager, was greatly impressed with the merits of Cromwell and cast and staged it to the best of his ability, with the resources available, but it was far from being an ideal cast. Sawtelle, tall and slender, looked as little like Cromwell as he did Napoleon, and he was as far from the character in temperament as he was in stature. The play with so many historical characters, Cromwell, Charles I., Ireton, Milton, Vane, Bradshaw, Harrison, et al., was very exacting in its mental requirements, and was easily greater than the company, yet notwithstanding this drawback and the fact that nothing was done for the play in the way of special scenery or costuming, it met with very fair success. A strong local interest was exhibited and the house was well filled to witness the first performance of a great play by a local author. Mr. Vinson said it was the greatest play that had been written since Bulwer's "Richelieu" and told John McCullough on his next visit, that if he would take Tullidge's "Oliver Cromwell" and play it there was a fortune in it for him. McCullough would have made an ideal Cromwell, and Vinson recognized the fact that he was the man to make a success of it, but McCullough, like Davenport, who read the play and made a contract with Tullidge to produce it, had already passed the meridian of his fame and had not ambition sufficient left to engage in a new and venturesome undertaking; so Cromwell dropped back into oblivion. It was revived a dozen years later with the writer in the title role. The play this time was costumed correctly and the cast, although still weak in places, was somewhat better than the original. It was played again in the Salt Lake theatre, at Ogden, Logan and Provo, and met with a hearty endorsement by the press of those towns, but it needed more money to tide it to a financial success than the promoters had to invest, and so Oliver Cromwell has rested in honorable repose, waiting for some enterprising manager to unveil him on the stage as Lord Roseberry unveiled his statue facing Westminster hall only a short time ago; a late but fitting tribute to the genius of the uncrowned king.
Following Oliver Cromwell, Shiel Barry, a clever actor of Irish character, filled the week, December 1st to 6th. On the 8th and 9th Oliver Cromwell was repeated, this making four performances in all, which spoke well for the popularity of Tullidge's play. On December 16th, Kate Denin took a farewell benefit and made her last appearance for this season. Mrs. Frank Rea took a benefit on the 19th and on the 22nd Jean Clara Walters reappeared after an absence of about three months in the "French Spy." Miss Walters had not appeared this season until now, on Kate Denin's retirement. They were both stock stars and two lady stock stars keep not their course in the same orbit. Denin had been shining refulgently since the opening of the season, and Walters, although in the city, had not appeared, but now she burst again into public view resplendent in green tights and spangles. On the 25th Eliza Newton, as the bright particular star, appeared in the "Nymph of the Luleyburg," a beautiful spectacular piece well suited for the holidays. Close following the holiday production with its nymphs and fairies our old friend "Jim" Herne opened a three weeks' engagement on January 5th, 1874, in the now familiar Rip Van Winkle, following it up with a variegated repertoire, including "Bombey and Son," "Rosina Meadows," "Wept of the Wishton Wish," "People's Lawyer" or "Solon Shingle," etc. Herne, during his previous engagement, established himself as a great favorite with Salt Lake audiences, and now he added new laurels to his wealth of fame. Herne was a great actor. He excelled in eccentric comedy all the actors I have known. On January 26th, John McCullough began a three weeks' engagement in "Jack Cade." Annie Graham, herself an attractive legitimate star, was especially engaged to play the opposite roles to McCullough. This made a remarkably strong company and Mr. John McCullough had every reason to be satisfied with his support and proud of the engagement he played. In addition to "Jack Cade," a long list of legitimate plays were presented, including "The Gladiator," "Damon and Pythias," "Virginius," "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," "Merchant of Venice," and "Othello." He exhausted his legitimate repertoire and drew on his comedy resources, playing "Dr. Savage" in "Playing with Fire" and "A party by the name of Johnson" in "The Lancastershire Lass." This was a notable engagement and was followed by another great celebrity, Dion Boucicault, the author of so many successful plays. Boucicault appeared as "Miles Na Copaleen" in his own popular play, "The Colleen Bawn;" also as "Shaun the Post" in "Arrah Na Pogue," and on his third and last night in "Kerry." His dates were February 16th, 117th and 18th. On the 19th Maggie Moore and Johnny Williamson of California theatre fame, opened a nine nights' engagement. We have no record of what pieces they played except one. They had a new play to exploit. They had feared to make the venture with it at the California theatre in San Francisco where they had been favorites, so they brought it to Salt Lake to "try it on the dog." This is a phrase thoroughly understood among theatrical people although it may savor of ambiguity to the uninitiated. It means simply that when a manager is at all dubious about the merits of a new production, he sends it into some comparatively obscure town to try its qualifications for pleasing in the metropolis. The origin of the phrase is obscure, but probably sprang from the similarity of trying a collar on a dog. Inferentially the play is a collar and the obscure town the dog. In this particular case "Struck Oil" was the collar and Salt Lake the dog. The collar happened to fit; the play was a howling success (no suggestion of dog intended here) and it ran three consecutive nights in the Salt Lake Theatre, and then with the Salt Lake stamp of approval on it the Williamsons, Johnny and Maggie, took it out into the theatrical world and made a fortune with it. Joe Murphy had the collar on us before with his "Help" and was successful, and that encouraged the Williamsons and others that have since come, until Salt Lake has won a reputation among dramatic people for being an easy and gentle canine on which to try the collar.
Now comes the prince of comedians, John T. Raymond, back again and stays a short week, during which he sprung on the actors and the confiding and admiring community the following plays: "Our American Cousin," "Everybody's Friend," "Toodles," "Serious Family," and "Only a Jew." In "Our American Cousin," Raymond starred as Asa Trenchard, the "American Cousin," and not in Lord Dundreary, the part Sothern won both fame and fortune in. In this instance my old schoolmate and present colleague, John C. Graham, was intrusted with the character of "Dundreary" and did himself and the company credit by his humorous and artistic rendering of it. Raymond was so thoroughly American (a Yankee in fact) that Dundreary was not in his way, while Asa Trenchard fitted like "ze paper on ze vall." Raymond as Major Wellington De Boots was immense, but it scarcely gave him the scope he was looking for so he was playing a half dozen different plays, none of which were making him any great fame or money. When "The Gilded Age" was ushered in by Mark Twain, people who knew John T. Raymond, on reading Col. Seller's peculiarities, were quick to recognize in Raymond the living counterpart of Mark Twain's imaginary hero. It was not long before Raymond was the only authorized stage edition of Col. Sellers and his popularity increased rapidly until it seemed "there was a million in it" for the genial comedian, but before he had time to amass a million or two "Atropos came with her shears and clipped his thread." "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." Miss M. E. Gordon followed, playing from the 9th to the 14th, opening in "Divorce." Miss Gordon was closely allied to Raymond. Whether they divided evenly the profits of the two engagements we cannot tell, but we know that in many other places they played in conjunction.
Katherine Rogers opened a two weeks' engagement on March 16th, playing
"Galatea," "Leah," "Hunchback," "Unequal Match," "Lady of Lyons," "As
You Like It," "Masks and Faces," and "Love's Sacrifice."
A series of "benefits" followed this engagement, beginning with W. H. Crosbie, April 3rd. On the 6th, Belle Douglass reappeared in the stock after a long absence. On the 7th Carrie Cogswell had a "benefit," and J. H. Vinson on the 10th. On the 13th Mr. and Mrs. Rea "benefited" with the play of "Rob Roy," and gave out satin programs as souvenirs of the occasion. On the 14th Miss Annie Graham commenced an engagement of eight nights in the "Lady of Lyons," and played legitimate repertory. On the 24th Asenith Adams (now Mrs. Kiskadden) had a benefit and played "Elzina." This was some seventeen months after Maude was born, A. J. Sawtelle had a benefit on April 27th. On the 29th H. F. and Amy Stone opened a two weeks' engagement in "Under Two Flags," producing besides "Elfie," "Pearl of Savoy," "Fanchon," "French Spy." On May 11th T. A. Lyne had a benefit, giving scenes from "Hamlet" and "Macbeth." On the 12th Victoria Woodhull lectured. On the 13th William Hoskins and Fannie Colville opened four nights' engagement in "The Heir at Law," "A Bird in the Hand," and "The Critic." On the 18th inst, there was a revival of Edward Tullidge's historical play, "Eleanor De Vere," with Jean Clara Walters in the title role, the character originally played by Julia Deane Hayne, and on the 22nd another play from the pen of Mr. Tullidge had its first production. The play was entitled "David Ben Israel." As the title indicates, the play is Jewish and commemorates the return of the Jews to England in the reign of Charles II. after a banishment of four centuries. John S. Lindsay played the title role, and Miss Walters, Rachel the Jewess. The play made a very pronounced hit and placed another plume in Mr. Tullidge's cap as a dramatic author.
On the 25th, W. A. Mestayer opened a week's engagement in "On the Slope," and with "The Octoroon" and "An Odd Trick" gave much satisfaction. "Bill" Mestayer for years was the heavy man at the old California theatre in its palmy days. As Jacob McClosky in the "Octoroon" he was simply great. On his last night he appeared as Don Caesar for the benefit of the Ladies' Library Association. On June 1st, George Chaplin made his regular summer appearance in the comedy of "School," from which he graduated in one night and appeared on the following evening as Count Monte Cristo. He played Monte again on the 4th. On the 5th George took a layoff as the Lingards, Horace and Dickie, got in on that date with "The Spitsefields Weaver," and gave one performance. Chaplin resumed with the stock company on the following night, June 6th, and played the week out, giving his services on the last night for the benefit of the Theatre corporation. The following week the stock company gave a liberal proportion of their salaries to the series of performances for the benefit of the corporation. Seven performances were given for this benefit. James A. Herne appeared in four of them, Chaplin in one, the company in all seven. Although Clawson and Caine were the nominal lessees and managers, they had associated with them before opening this season, several partners in the venture and the concern was known as the Salt Lake Theatre Corporation. Mr. Thomas Williams was the treasurer and presided over the box office during this regime, and with such peerless bonhomie as made "Tom" (everybody called him "Tom") the acknowledged prince of ticket sellers. It was evident from this benefit business that the corporation had not had the profitable season's business they had expected when they opened with such flying colors in the previous October. The truth was the corporation was very much in the hole, and this series of benefit performances were designed to lighten their financial burdens and did to some extent, yet the close of the season found them heavily in debt, and there were serious results threatening, but the leniency of the creditors averted disaster. The summer was now on but the stars kept on coming. Salt Lake was a regular resort for them. When they could do no business elsewhere, owing to heat, they made for the Salt Lake Theatre. It was the coolest place in the city in those days and before we had any summer resorts the people would go and see these midsummer night performances. Our old Hibernian friend, Joe Murphy, was the next in line, opening on the 15th inst. with more "Help," which he worked for all it was worth three nights and filled out the remainder of the week with a new Irish drama, "Maum Cree." This was Joe's debut in Irish character work and he had come to Salt Lake City again to "try it on the dog." He had good support and "Maum Cree" received a favorable verdict from the Salt Lake theatre goers and Joe Murphy was successfully launched onto the dramatic sea as an Irish comedian. Following Mr. Murphy came the Coleman Sisters for a week. They opened on the 22nd of June in Charles XII and played besides this piece, "Day after the Fair," "The Deal Boatman," and "Pouter's Wedding." In common with many others the Colemans flitted across our dramatic horizon and never returned. On the 30th inst. John S. Lindsay had a benefit on which occasion he appeared in the character of Rolla in the play of "Pizarro." The farce of the "Lottery Ticket" was played after "Pizarro" to make up a good full evening's entertainment. "Billie" Crosbie was the star comedian in "The Lottery Ticket." The stock played only a few nights after this, closing the season on the 4th of July.
On July 18th, Victoria Woodhull drew a large audience to hear her lecture on "The Beecher Scandal." The Beecher trial at that time was the sensation of the day. The lecture drew a crowded house and Victoria took occasion to fire red hot shot at Beecher and the clergy in general, getting in some hard blows on the perfidy of the men in general and the advantage they took of poor, confiding women.
It seemed impossible to keep the theatre closed for more than a few weeks even in the hottest portion of the summer, owing more to the anxiety of the "strolling players" to put in a portion of their summer in Salt Lake than any feverish desire on the part of the theatre patrons to see them. Companies going to and from San Francisco were always glad to get in a few nights at the Salt Lake Theatre as it broke the long jump between the coast and Denver and was pretty sure to be profitable. Accordingly the theatre was reopened on August 3rd with the Vokes family for one week. The Vokeses were great favorites here and did a very fair business despite the hot weather prevailing.
CHAPTER XIX.
SEASON OF '74-'75.
To open this season the stock company were brought into requisition again and played up to the 5th of September. On the 7th and 8th Howarth's Hibernica, a panoramic show with specialties filled in the time. The Vokeses returned on the 9th and filled out the remainder of the week, making ten nights and two matinees they got in during the heated term which was sufficient proof of their popularity. Close on their heels came the Hoskins-Darrell combination, consisting of William Hoskins, his wife, Fannie Colville, George Darrell and his wife. They were supported by the stock company and played from the 14th to the 23rd inclusive. Hoskins was an English actor of great and varied experience, and in high comedy roles was greatly admired. He was a man of sixty years of age and had been in Australia for a good many years. His wife, Fannie Colville, was very much his junior, in fact, it was a May and December alliance and apparently bore the usual kind of fruit. Fanny was not a great actress but was very pretty and attractive, in fact, too much so to prove comfortable to her much senior lord and master. The Darrells were clever and talented. The combination proved fairly successful. They toured about the country for a year or so and then returned to Australia with more experience than money, wiser if not richer. They wooed content in their former home.
The October conference approaching, the stock company were put in rehearsal for some suitable plays and the "Royal Marrionettes" were put in as an additional attraction for the conference season and continued for nine nights from October 5th to the 13th inclusive. The Marrionettes proved to be highly amusing and interesting entertainment and combined with the efforts of the stock company in drama gave the conference visitors the worth of their money and replenished the treasury to a considerable extent.
The next attraction also worked in conjunction with the stock company. This was Laura Honey Stevenson (now Mrs. Church), a lady of some celebrity as a reader. She was assisted in her entertainments by a brilliant young baritone singer, Mr. John McKenzie, whose singing proved to be quite taking and this conjunction lasted for eight nights.
It was during this last engagement that there occurred quite an exodus from the Salt Lake Stock company to John Piper's theatre at Virginia City, Nevada. Mr. J. A. Sawtelle and wife and daughter, a girl of twelve or fourteen years, Miss Adams (Mrs. Kiskadden), her daughter Maude, now two years old, accompanied by Mr. Kiskadden, Miss Carrie Cogswell-Carter with her son Lincoln J., then about ten years of age, and the writer went to Virginia City, all with the exception of Mr. Kiskadden and the children being under engagement to play with Piper for the ensuing season. There is much of interest connected with this exodus from Salt Lake. It materially weakened the stock forces, taking away the leading man, Mr. Sawtelle, the leading heavy (the writer), and leading juvenile lady, Miss Adams, and Miss Cogswell, the principal heavy woman; but their places were filled in a little while and the stock pushed along in the same old way.
The combination system, however, was now gaining ground and the stock companies throughout the country began to suffer correspondingly, their engagements becoming more and more intermittent as the traveling combination became more numerous.
At the opening of the season of '74 and '75 there were so many combinations booked that the managers of the Salt Lake Theatre could not offer the stock company a season's engagement, but only brief periodical engagements between the dates of the various combinations. It was in consequence of this that the above mentioned members of the company took a season's engagement with Mr. Piper of Virginia City. The Comstock was booming in those days and the theatre ran every night, Sundays included. At the close of the Piper season, Miss Adams went to San Francisco taking Maudie with her. There they made their home; Mr. Kiskadden having preceded them there and obtained a good situation as a bookkeeper with the firm of Park & Lacy. Mrs. Kiskadden played occasional engagements at the San Francisco theatres and there in due time little Maude made her first voluntary appearance on the stage, her first appearance which occurred at the Salt Lake Theatre when she was yet in long clothes, having been an involuntary one in which her feelings or inclinations were not consulted.
The writer's stay in Virginia City was brief. Receiving an offer from James A. Herne, who was managing stage at the Bush Street, San Francisco for Tom Maguire, and being anxious to visit the Golden Gate city, I got Mr. Piper to honorably release me by showing him how he could get along without me and save my salary. So, after playing a week at Sacramento during the State fair, I left the Piper company and went to San Francisco by steamboat which was running opposition to the railroad, giving very low rates—only fifty cents from Sacramento to San Francisco. Mr. Kiskadden, who had been with his wife and baby Maude since leaving Salt Lake, decided to take advantage of this low excursion rate on the steamer and go to San Francisco also in the search of a situation. "Jim," as he was familiarly called, was always ready for a little sport in the way of a game of cards or billiards, so as soon as the boat got under way, he got into a game of cards with some kindred spirits and although a crack player and usually a winner, on this occasion he lost every cent he had moreover he likewise lost his hat, a nice new summer one he had recently purchased. The wind was blowing strong upstream and a sudden puff took his hat into the river, leaving "Jim" bareheaded and dead broke; not a very desirable plight to be in going a stranger into a strange city. Moreover, to add to his discomfort, he was wearing a summer suit and as we approached San Francisco the weather was cold and foggy, and "Jim's" clothes were decidedly unseasonable when we reached our destination. Fortunately he had his trunk along and as soon as he got located he effected a change of costume, but he was in a dilemma for money to live on till he could find a job and he appealed to me to lend him a certain sum, which I was unable to do, having barely enough to see me through till I would have a week's salary due, but I let him have enough for immediate necessities, and he was not long in finding friends and a good situation.
My engagement at the Bush Street did not last very long. The house was doing a struggling business when I went there. Emerson's minstrels just across the street were doing a phenomenal business, turning people away every night, while "Jim" Herne at the head of a good company, was playing to very meager houses. "Zoe the Cuban Sylph" was the reigning star when I opened there and my opening part was an Indian—Conanchet, chief of the Naragansetts, in the "Wept of the Wishton Wish."
The Bush Street theatre season ended rather ingloriously soon after the New Year holiday. I had on the very morning preceding our closing night, received a telegram from Mr. Piper of Virginia City, offering me the leading business for the remainder of the season, but declined it, believing the Bush would struggle along. That night we had a new piece on, "The Circus Queen," and it proved such a failure that Tom Maguire decided to close, which he did without any previous notice, so the entire company were out of a job. Next morning I lost no time wiring to Piper to know if the engagement was still open to me and in a few hours I had received the agreeable answer "yes" and took the train the same day for Virginia City. I had been there about three weeks when I met T. B. H. Stenhouse, who was there writing up the Comstock mines for the New York Herald. He said to me, "They need you in Salt Lake badly; why don't you wire them? Katherine Rogers opens there Monday night for a two weeks' engagement and they have no competent leading man to support her." "Well," I said, "they know where I am. If they want me why don't they wire me?" "Will you go," said he, "if I wire for you and get you the engagement?" "Yes," I replied, "I shall be glad to go, for I am tired of this." So he went right off and wired, and the next day I left for home, but did not arrive in time to open with Miss Rogers in the opening bill, but got in on the second night and played throughout the rest of the engagement.
I had been absent from October 14th, 1874, to January 26th, 1875, a little over three months, during which time the following attractions appeared at the Salt Lake Theatre: The Wheeler Comedy troupe, October 29th to 31st. On November 2nd, Risley's Panorama "Mirror of England" opened for a week. On the 13th and 14th the Infantry combination. On the 16th Frank Mayo and Rosa Rand opened a week's engagement presenting "Davy Crockett" and "Streets of New York." On the 25th Agnes Booth and Joseph Wheelock opened in "Much Ado About Nothing," and filled out a week with "King John" and the comedy "Engaged." On December 2nd R. H. Cox, familiarly known as "Daddy Cox," among professionals on the coast, opened a four nights' engagement with "The Detective," which went for two nights. The other two nights he gave "The Bells That Rang Nellie a Bride." Daddy Cox had recently left Piper's theatre in Virginia City, where he had been stage manager for a time.
On the 9th, Harry Rickards, an English comic singer of great spread and self importance, opened for a week's engagement in conjunction with the stock company. Rickards was recently from Australia and put in a week at the Bush Street during the writer's engagement there. His singing and style did not catch on with the San Franciscans. He was too "awfully English, yer know." He did not prove any great attraction in Salt Lake. On the 21st a grand concert was given for the benefit of the Catholic church. On the 22nd, W. J. Florence opened for a week, supported by the stock company. His opening play was "Dombey and Son." He gave besides "No Thoroughfare" and the "Colleen Bawn." Each piece ran two nights, carrying the season through the Christmas holidays and the house closed with his last performance on the 26th until New Year's day. January 1st, 1875, the theatre reopened with the stock company, who, without the assistance of any stellar attraction, played two weeks when the house closed again until the 25th inst.
Of the people who had comprised the stock company the previous season, the following members had drifted away: J. Al. Sawtelle, leading man; Mrs. Sawtelle, general utility; John S. Lindsay, leading heavy; Asenith Adams (Mrs. Kiskadden), leading juveniles; W. S. Crosbie, comedian; Arrah Crosbie, characters; J. H. Vinson, first old man and stage manager; Buck Zabriske, prompter. The uncertain and spasmodic nature of the engagements this season, which had caused this strong contingent of the company to seek other engagements, also prevented the accession of new people to the ranks of the stock company, so that it was in a rather dilapidated and weakened condition, especially for the support of legitimate repertoire, such as Katherine Rogers presented for the patrons of the drama.
On January 25th she opened in "Romeo and Juliet." Mr. "Mike" Foster was the Romeo for the occasion. The "leading men" were all out of the way and this was sudden promotion for Foster one of those opportunities that come but rarely to the ambitious young actor, and nearly always bring new honors and distinction. "Mike" struggled manfully with his task, but he did not make an ideal Romeo. On the following evening the writer made his reappearance with the company, after an absence of three months. He played Master Walter in the "Hunchback" on the occasion and was warmly welcomed by the audience. Miss Rogers played in addition to "Romeo and Juliet" and the "Hunchback," "As You Like It," "Love's Sacrifice," "Pygmalion and Galatea," "Lady of Lyons," "Leah," in which the writer played the following characters respectively: Jacques, Matthew Elmore, Pygmalion, Claude Melnotte, Lorenz. Such a repertory, where each play ran for but two performances, put the company on high tension. Those who had new parts, and particularly if they had never played in the pieces, found it very exacting work. Fortunately for the writer, he had played most of the parts before, yet it was a busy time for him during that engagement.