AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE VENTURE
Pancakes, grits, home-made sausage, and, before each guest, an egg
that had been proudly heralded by the clucking hen but a few hours
before--truly a bountiful breakfast, discrediting the latest guest's
anticipations! The manager, in high spirits, mercurial as the weather,
came down from his room, a bundle of posters under his arm,
boisterously greeting Saint-Prosper, whom he encountered in the hall:
"Read the bill! 'That incomparable comedy, The Honeymoon, by a
peerless company.' How does that sound?"
"Attractive, certainly," said the other.
"Do you think it strong enough? How would 'unparagoned' do?"
"It would be too provincial, my dear; too provincial!" interrupted the
querulous voice of the old lady.
"Very well, Madam!" the manager replied quickly. "You shall be
'peerless' if you wish. Every fence shall proclaim it; every post
become loquacious with it."
"I was going to the village myself," said the soldier, "and will join
you, if you don't mind?" he added suddenly.
"Mind? Not a bit. Come along, and you shall learn of the duties of
manager, bill-poster, press-agent and license-procurer."
An hour or so later found the two walking down the road at a brisk
pace, soon leaving the tavern behind them and beginning to descend a
hill that commanded a view to eastward.
"How do you advertise your performances?" asked the younger man,
opening the conversation.
"By posters, written announcements in the taverns, or a notice in the
country paper, if we happen along just before it goes to press,"
answered Barnes. "In the old times we had the boy and the bell."
"The boy and the bell?"
"Yes," assented Barnes, a retrospective smile overspreading his
good-natured face; "when I was a lad in Devonshire the manager announced
the performance in the town market-place. I rang a cow-bell to attract
attention and he talked to the people: Ding-a-ling!--'Good people,
to-night will be given "Love in a Wood";' ding-a-long!--'to-morrow night,
"The Beaux' Strategem'";' ding!--'Wednesday, "The Provoked Wife";'
ling!--'Thursday, "The Way of the World."' So I made my debut in a
noisy part and have since played no role more effectively than that of the
small boy with the big bell. Incidentally, I had to clean the lamps
and fetch small beer to the leading lady, which duties were perfunctorily
performed. My art, however, I threw into the bell," concluded the
manager with a laugh.
"Do you find many theaters hereabouts?" asked the other, thoughtfully.
Barnes shook his head. "No; although there are plenty of them upon the
Atlantic and Southern circuits. Still we can usually rent a hall,
erect a stage and construct tiers of seats. Even a barn at a pinch
makes an acceptable temple of art. But our principal difficulty is
procuring licenses to perform."
"You have to get permission to play?"
"That we do!" sighed the manager. "From obdurate trustees in villages
and stubborn supervisors or justices of the peace in the hamlets."
"But their reason for this opposition?" asked his companion.
They were now entering the little hamlet, exchanging the grassy path
for a sidewalk of planks laid lengthwise, and the peace of nature for
such signs of civilization as a troop of geese, noisily promenading
across the thoroughfare, and a peacock--in its pride of pomp as a
favored bird of old King Solomon--crying from the top of the shed and
proudly displaying its gorgeous train. Barnes wiped the perspiration
from his brow, as he answered:
"Well, a temperance and anti-theatrical agitation has preceded us in
the Shadengo Valley, a movement originated in Baltimore by seven men
who had been drunkards and are now lecturing throughout the country.
This is known as the 'Washington' movement, and among the most
formidable leaders of the crusade is an old actor, John B. Gough. But
here we are at the supervisor's office. I'll run in and get the
license, if you'll wait a moment."
Saint-Prosper assented, and Barnes disappeared through the door of a
one-story wooden building which boasted little in its architectural
appearance and whose principal decorations consisted of a small
window-garden containing faded geraniums, and a sign with sundry
inverted letters. The neighborhood of this far from imposing structure
was a rendezvous for many of the young men of the place who had much
leisure, and, to judge from the sidewalk, an ample supply of Lone Jack
or some other equally popular plug tobacco. As Saint-Prosper surveyed
his surroundings, the Lone Jack, or other delectable brand, was
unceremoniously passed from mouth to mouth with immediate and
surprising results so far as the sidewalk was concerned. Regarding
these village yokels with some curiosity, the soldier saw in them a
possible type of the audiences to which the strollers must appeal for
favor. To such hobnails must the fair Rosalind say: "I would kiss as
many of you as had beards that pleased me." And the churls would
applaud with their cowhide boots, devour her with eager eyes and--at
this point the soldier found himself unconsciously frowning at his
village neighbors until, with an impatient laugh, he recalled his
wandering fancies. What was it to him whether the players appeared in
city or hamlet? Why should he concern himself in possible conjectures
on the fortunes of these strollers? Moreover--
Here Barnes reappeared with dejection in his manner, and, treading his
way absent-mindedly past the Lone Jack contingent with no word of
explanation to his companion, began to retrace his steps toward the
hostelry on the hill.
"Going back so soon?" asked the young man in surprise.
"There is nothing to be done here! The temperance lecturer has just
gone; the people are set against plays and players. The supervisor
refuses the license."
With which the manager relapsed into silence, rueful and melancholy.
Their road ran steadily upward from the sleepy valley, skirting a wood
where the luxuriance of the overhanging foliage and the bright
autumnal tint of the leaves were like a scene of a spectacular play.
Out of breath from the steepness of the ascent, and, with his hand
pressed to his side, Barnes suddenly called a halt, seated himself on
a stump, his face somewhat drawn, and spoke for the first time since
he left the hamlet.
"Let's rest a moment. Something catches me occasionally here," tapping
his heart. "Ah, that's better! The pain has left. No; it's nothing.
The machinery is getting old, that's all! Let me see--Ah, yes!" And he
drew a cigar from his pocket. "Perhaps there lies a crumb of comfort
in the weed!"
The manager smoked contemplatively, like a man pushed to the verge of
disaster, weighing the slender chances of mending his broken fortunes.
But as he pondered his face gradually lightened with a faint glimmer
of satisfaction. His mind, seeking for a straw, caught at a possible
way out of this labyrinth of difficulties and in a moment he had
straightened up, puffing veritable optimistic wreaths. He arose
buoyantly; before he reached the inn the crumb of comfort had become a
loaf of assurance.
At the tavern the manager immediately sought mine host, stating his
desire to give a number of free performances in the dining-room of the
hotel. The landlord demurred stoutly; he was an inn-keeper, not the
proprietor of a play-house. Were not tavern and theater inseparable,
retorted Barnes? The country host had always been a patron of the
histrionic art. Beneath his windows the masque and interlude were
born. The mystery, harlequinade and _divertissement_ found shelter in
a pot-house.
In a word, so indefatigably did he ply arguments, appealing alike to
clemency and cupidity--the custom following such a course--that the
landlord at length reluctantly consented, and soon after the
dining-room was transformed into a temple of art; stinted, it is true,
for flats, drops, flies and screens, but at least more tenable than
the roofless theaters of other days, when a downpour drenched the
players and washed out the public, causing rainy tears to drip from
Ophelia's nose and rivulets of rouge to trickle down my Lady
Slipaway's marble neck and shoulders. In this labor of converting the
dining-room into an auditory, they found an attentive observer in the
landlord's daughter who left her pans, plates and platters to watch
these preparations with round-eyed admiration. To her that temporary
stage was surrounded by glamour and romance; a world remote from cook,
scullion and maid of all work, and peopled with well-born dames,
courtly ladies and exalted princesses.
Possibly interested in what seemed an incomprehensible venture--for
how could the manager's coffers be replenished by free
performances?--Saint-Prosper that afternoon reminded Barnes he had
returned from the village without fulfilling his errand.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Barnes, his face wrinkling in perplexity. "What
have I been thinking about? I don't see how I can go now. Hawkes or
O'Flariaty can't be spared, what with lamps to polish and costumes to
get in order! Hum!" he mused dubiously.
"If I can be of any use, command me," said the soldier, unexpectedly.
"You!"--exclaimed the manager. "I could not think--"
"Oh, it's a notable occupation," said the other with a satirical
smile. "Was it not the bill-posters who caused the downfall of the
French dynasty?" he added.
"In that case," laughed Barnes, with a sigh of relief, "go ahead and
spread the inflammable dodgers! Paste them everywhere, except on the
tombstones in the graveyard."
Conspicuously before the postoffice, grocery store, on the town pump
and the fence of the village church, some time later, the soldier
accordingly nailed the posters, followed by an inquisitive group, who
read the following announcement: "Tuesday, 'The Honeymoon'; Wednesday,
'The School for Scandal'; Thursday, 'The Stranger,' with diverting
specialties; Friday, 'Romeo and Juliet'; Saturday, 'Hamlet,' with a
Jig by Kate Duran. At the Travelers' Friend. Entrance Free."
"They're going to play after all," commented the blacksmith's wife.
"I don't see much harm in 'Hamlet,'" said the supervisor's yokemate.
"It certainly ain't frivolous."
"Let's go to 'The Honeymoon'?" suggested an amorous carl to his
slip-slop Sal.
"Go 'long!" she retorted with barn-yard bashfulness.
"Did you ever see 'The School for Scandal'?" asked the smithy's good
wife.
"Once," confessed the town official's faded consort, her worn face
lighting dreamily. "It was on our wedding trip to New York. Silas
warn't so strict then."
Amid chit-chat, so diverting, Saint-Prosper finished "posting" the
town. It had been late in the afternoon before he had altered the
posters and set out on his paradoxical mission; the sun was declining
when he returned homeward. Pausing at a cross-road, he selected a tree
for one of his remaining announcements. It was already adorned with a
dodger, citing the escape of a negro slave and offering a reward for
his apprehension; not an uncommon document in the North in those
days.
As the traveler read the bill his expression became clouded,
cheerless. Around him the fallen leaves gave forth a pleasant
fragrance; caught in the currents of the air, they danced in a circle
and then broke away, hurrying helter-skelter in all directions.
"Poor devil!" he muttered. "A fugitive--in hiding--"
And he nailed one of his own bills over the dodger. As he stood there
reflectively the lights began to twinkle in the village below like
stars winking upwards; the ascending smoke from a chimney seemed a
film of lace drawn slowly through the air; from the village forge came
a brighter glow as the sparks danced from the hammers on the anvils.
Shaking the reins on his horse's neck, the soldier continued his way,
while the sun, out of its city of clouds, sent beams like a
searchlight to the church spire; the fields, marked by the plow; the
gaunt stumps in a clearing, displaying their giant sinews. Then the
resplendent rays vanished, the battlements crumbled away and night,
with its army of shadows, invaded the earth. As Saint-Prosper
approached the tavern, set prominently on the brow of the hill, all
was solemnly restful save the sign which now creaked in doleful
doldrums and again complained wildly as the wind struck it a vigorous
blow. The windows were bright from the fireplace and lamp; above the
door the light streamed through the open transom upon the swaying
sign and the fluttering leaves of the vine that clambered around the
entrance.
In the parlor, near a deteriorated piano whose yellow keys were
cracked and broken--in almost the seventh stage of pianodum, _sans_
teeth, _sans_ wire, _sans_ everything--he saw the dark-eyed girl and
reined his horse. As he did so, she seated herself upon the hair-cloth
stool, pressed a white finger to a discolored key and smiled at the
not unexpected result--the squeak of decrepitude. While her hand still
rested on the board and her features shone strongly in relief against
the fire like a cameo profile set in bloodstone, a figure approached,
and, leaning gracefully upon the palsied instrument, bent over her
with smiling lips. It was the grand seignior, he of the equipage with
silver trimmings. If the horseman's gaze rested, not without interest,
on the pleasing picture of the young actress, it was now turned with
sudden and greater intentness to that of the dashing stranger, a swift
interrogation glancing from that look.
How had he made his peace with her? Certainly her manner now betrayed
no resentment. While motionless the rider yet sat in his saddle, an
invisible hand grasped the reins.
"Shall I put up your horse?" said a small voice, and the soldier
quickly dismounted, the animal vanishing with the speaker, as
Saint-Prosper entered the inn. Gay, animated, conscious of his
attractions, the fop hovered over the young girl, an all-pervading
Hyperion, with faultless ruffles, white hands, and voice softly
modulated. That evening the soldier played piquet with the wiry old
lady, losing four shillings to that antiquated gamester, and, when he
had paid the stakes, the young girl was gone and the buoyant beau had
sought diversion in his cups.
"Strike me," muttered the last named personage, "the little stroller
has spirit. How her eyes flashed when I first approached her! It
required some tact and acting to make her believe I took her for some
one else on the road. Not such an easy conquest as I thought, although
I imagine I have put that adventurer's nose out of joint. But why
should I waste time here? Curse it, just to cut that fellow out!
Landlord!"
"Yes, sir," answered the host behind the bar, where he had been
quietly dozing on a stool with his back against the wall.
"Do you think my horse will be fit for use to-morrow morning?"
"The swelling has gone down, sir, and perhaps, with care--"
"Perhaps! I'll take no chances. Hang the nag, but I must make the best
of it! See that my bed is well warmed, and"--rising--"don't call me in
the morning. I'll get up when I please. Tell my man to come up at
once--I suppose he's out with the kitchen wenches. I have some orders
to give him for the morning. Stay--send up a lamp, and--well, I
believe that's all for now!"