The first night is the most terrible thing one can go through.
We had a hard time of it; Palmer became excited and cussed; Tom
did well as long as I told him; Mrs. Palmer filled in all the
stops with music and this helped but if it hadn't been for me it
would have been a bad failure. It was all I could do to keep it
going; I nearly worked myself sick. I'm going to ask Palmer to
raise my wages. Palmer praised all of us, but I know he was
lying because every time Jake or Tom made a mistake he cussed.
Palmer does all the talking for all the characters; the way he
can change his voice you'd swear there were several people
talking. He is hid from the audience and of course they think
it's the characters that talk. In spite of Gideon's advice,
Palmer gave Jake the part of Christian. The first scene is a
field. Jake, as Christian, is discovered standing in the middle
of the field. Here is where the pilgrimage begins. Jake is
supposed to be reading a book and asks: "What shall I do to be
saved?" Jake held the book in his hand, not looking at it but at
the audience, smiling. From behind the scenes Palmer hissed;
"Look serious! Look worried! Read the book! Hold the book up! Oh
you dam Dutch galoot look scared!" Jake only smiled louder. I
know Jake didn't hear a word Palmer said. I could hear him
breathing from where I stood. You know Christian is dressed in
ragged clothes, he has a burden on his back. Palmer wrapped an
old coffee sack about a big stone and this was fastened on
Jake's back to represent Christian's burden.
I was Evangelist. I had a long, white robe on and wore a wig
with long curls; not yellow curls like you used to make me wear,
but black curls, with a blue ribbon around my forehead. I walked
solemn towards Jake; I looked at him a little while, then I
raised my hand, pointing the roll of parchment and, in the most
saddest way I could speak, I said: "Wherefore dost thou cry?"
Jake said easy like, "Not by a tam sight." Palmer came right in
with the proper speech: "If I be not fit to go to prison I am
not fit to go to judgment and thence to execution. The thoughts
of these things make me cry." Here Jake looked at me, then at
Palmer; then he winked at me. I could scarcely go on with my
speech: "If this be thy condition, why standest thou still?" "I
don't vant to, I'd rather valk to Bedford dan stan' dis way
still," was Jake's reply. A number of those nearest the platform
overheard Jake but Palmer came in quickly with: "Because I
knoweth not whither to go." I didn't give Jake any time, I just
shouted at him: "Do you see yon wicket gate?" I pointed at the
imaginary gate. Jake turned about, shook his head and answered:
"No." I cut in before he could get further: "Do you see yon
shining light? Keep that light in thy eye and go up directly
thereto, so shalt thou see the gate at which, when thou
knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do."
[Illustration: "Hold Her Down, Tom"]
Jake was lost. He walked he knew not whither, Palmer pleading
and swearing to guide him. The gate and shining light to which I
referred were imaginary. I pointed off stage. Jake, in his
excitement was trying to get away from the audience. He walked
up stage; he pressed against the canvas, trying to force his way
further. Palmer and Bedford Tom had all their weight against the
frame of the panorama. When Jake felt resistance he put his
powerful muscles to work. "Hold on! Hold on! Stop! You can't go
further," cried Palmer. Jake kept on pushing. "Hold her down,
Tom; hold her down." Then came a crash, the lights went out and
over went Palmer, Tom and the panorama.
Jake's breathing and his efforts to release himself from the
heavy canvas covering him could be heard above the din and
confusion. Palmer was here, there, everywhere, assuring the
audience that a slight accident had befallen the mechanical part
of the panorama. "Just remain seated, we'll give you a good
show." He forgot himself and called it a show after all his
orders to us not to speak the word "show." The strong arms of
Bedford Tom, and Jake soon righted the panorama. Mrs. Palmer
played the organ, and right there is where one of my songs would
come in right. I sung for Jake and Tom last night and Jake
declared: "The people in Bedford would like one of dem nigger
songs better dan Palmer's hull tarn pictur show. De hull tam
ting is a fraudt; no such a man as Bunjun was ever in Bedford
yail. I and Tom knows every man dot's been in dot yail and dey
don't put 'em in yail fur what he sedt." Jake's mixed up; he
imagines Palmer refers to Bedford, Pa.
The panorama worked along smoothly until Pliable and Christian,
(I and Jake), fell into the Slough of Despond. You know, in the
book, Pliable and Christian are traveling together; they fall in
the Slough of Despond; Pliable struggles and gets out.
Christian, owing to the burden he carries on his back, flounders
about and is fast sinking when Help appears and asks: "What
doest thou there?" Jake answered: "Noting." Palmer hissed: "Roll
over! Roll over! Hold your head under the canvas; duck, you son
of a gun, duck!" Palmer answered with the speech Jake was
supposed to deliver, as Jake rolled over and over: "Sir, I was
bid by a man named Evangelist, who directed me to yonder gate
that I might escape the wrath to come and as I was going thither
I fell in here." Then I come as Help; I say: "Why did you not
look for the steps?" Jake is supposed to say: "Fear followed me
so hard that I fled the next way and fell in." Then as Help, I
lean far over, hold out my hand and say: "Give me thine hand
that I may draw thee upon hard ground that thou might go thy
way." Instead of Jake following the business as rehearsed, he
arose, took the burden off his back, walked out the opposite
side, back towards the City of Destruction.
The audience, or some of them, tittered, others laughed
outright. Palmer was prompting Jake: "Get into the pond!
Complete the scene!" The more Palmer prompted, the more confused
Jake appeared. "Get your burden, it's not time to drop it; get
your burden." Jake, smiling, walked over the miry, muddy slough
he was supposed to have struggled in a moment before, and took
up the burden. Instead of putting it on his back he carried it
under his arm, nodded at Palmer, as much as to say: "I'm ready
for anything further, go on." Worldly Wise Man here appears
before Christian and speaks to him: "How now good fellow;
whither away after this burdened manner?" Christian answers: "A
burdened manner indeed as ever, I think, poor creature had. And
whereas you ask me whither away, I am going to yonder wicket
gate, for there, as I am informed, I shall be put in a way to be
rid of my heavy burden." Then Worldly Wise advises Christian:
"Wilt thou hearken to me if I give thee counsel?" Christian
answers: "If it be good I will, for I stand in need of good
counsel." Worldly Wise then answers: "I would advise thee that
thou, with all speed, get thyself rid of thy burden, for thou
will never be settled in thy mind until then." Palmer answered
with Christian's speech: "That is which I seek for, even to be
rid of this heavy burden, but get it off myself I cannot, nor is
there any man in our country who can take it off my shoulders."
[Illustration: Jake As Christian]
Jake, smiling more pleasantly than ever, answered, "I kin."
Suiting the action to the word, he flung his burden into the
Slough of Despond. The pond was a thin piece of canvas painted
to represent the quagmire. The burden made a sound as of the
house falling down. Jake wiped the perspiration from his face
and, spitting a mouthful of tobacco juice to one side, he gazed
on the audience and smiled. It was too much for even the staid
old church members. The laughter was so great that Palmer pulled
the curtain and announced an organ recital.
Christian's burden was replaced on Jake's back, he was
admonished to pay closest attention to Palmer's promptings. Jake
continued the pilgrimage. In the next scene Jake, representing
Christian on his journey from the City of Destruction to the
Celestial City, must pass through the Dark Valley of Shadows.
When Jake, instead of keeping to the right and following the
straight and narrow path, boldly walked into the mouth of the
burning pit, out of which Palmer was sending sparks and smoke.
Palmer again pulled the curtain on the scene. Jake sat on a
stage stump. Smoke was still coming from the pot of damp straw.
Tears filled Jake's eyes, tears caused by the smoke. Palmer
rushed back and forth, declaring Jake had made a farce of the
most beautiful and inspiring scene in the entire exhibition. I
was substituted for Jake. I knew every speech; I had learned
them all and it went good to the last.
The second book is even more impressive and instructive than the
first. You should read it. As the young ladies walk in at the
Beautiful Gate of the city, Pilgrim is seen through a gauze; one
by one the sheets of gauze are pulled down until Christian fades
away like a vision. It held the audience dumb; they never
witnessed anything like it; neither did I. Palmer wouldn't let
me speak the words; he said they must be delivered with great
dramatic effect. The words are: "I see myself now at the end of
my journey, my toilsome days are ended. I have formerly lived by
hearsay and faith, but I now go where I shall live by sight."
But glorious it was to see how the open regions were filled with
horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers
and players upon stringed instruments, to welcome the pilgrims
as they went up and followed one another in at the gates of the
Beautiful City. Here the young ladies, with lighted lamps,
passed in. As Pilgrim disappeared, Palmer, with great effect,
ended the scene with the eloquent words: "Now, while he was thus
in discourse, his countenance changed; his strong man bowed
under him and, after he had said: 'Take me, for I come unto
thee,' he ceased to be seen of them."