. Theatrical and circus life;. ven by the press of St. Louis to ThomasW. Keene, the tragedian, during his first starring sea-son, when among the few guests who sat down to thetable, between Billy Crane and Stuart Robson, was ashort, stout, gray-headed, and long gray-bearded man,whom nobody knew. The night was bitterly cold,still the old fellow wore only a long, gray linen dusterover a thin, red woollen shirt, with a very queer pair ofpantaloons and rough brogans. His high, batteredand wide-brimmed hat rested under his chair as if hewas afraid some of the company would steal it. Heswept clean e
. Theatrical and circus life;. ven by the press of St. Louis to ThomasW. Keene, the tragedian, during his first starring sea-son, when among the few guests who sat down to thetable, between Billy Crane and Stuart Robson, was ashort, stout, gray-headed, and long gray-bearded man,whom nobody knew. The night was bitterly cold,still the old fellow wore only a long, gray linen dusterover a thin, red woollen shirt, with a very queer pair ofpantaloons and rough brogans. His high, batteredand wide-brimmed hat rested under his chair as if hewas afraid some of the company would steal it. Heswept clean every dish set before him, emptied everyglass of wine, and with bent head, and knife and forkin hand, was waiting anxiously for each course when it 496 THE SUMMER VACATION. came. As soon as lie was noticed the question passedaround, « Who is the old gray? and fun was pokedat him ruthlessly ; but it rebounded lightly from thefolds of his linen duster, and he heeded not the the toasts went around the old man was asked. JOHN W. NORTON. to respond to one, and got up and spoke charminglyfor half an hour or more, introducing theMarseillaise,both as a martial hymn, and as a song and he explained how the city editor of a local paperhad sent him to report the banquet; how he came shiv-ering to the marrow of his bones to the door of the THE SUMMER VACATION. 497 Club House — the most fashionable in the city — andasked permission to go into the kitchen to warm him-self previous to appearing at the banquet board, a per-mission which was granted. The old man spoke soeloquently in telling a pitiful story of his poverty, PatShort, treasurer of the Olympic, at the instigation, Ithink, of Manager Norton of the Grand Opera House,picked up a hat and took up a collection from theten newspaper men and ten actors present. The col-lection netted $, which was poured in the oldmans two hands, while his eyes were wet with he was freely plied with wine, and danced
Size: 1483px × 1684px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishe, booksubjecttheater
