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The Memory of Actors.-How the Memory Strengthens by Practice.-
How a Distinguished Actor Committed a Whole Play to Memory, by
Simply Listening to it Once, as Played on the Stage.-Marvelous Feats
of Memory." Winging " a Part.-Modes of Memorizing.-Learning
a Whole Newspaper by Heart.-Treacherous Memories.-Instances of
Parts being taken at Short Notice.
CHAPTER VI.
Erroneous Ideas of the Gayety and Ease of Life Behind the Scenes.-An
Actor's Daily Duties.-Studying Parts, Attending Rehearsals, and Per-
forming at Night.-The Mental Labor.-The Physical Labor. — The
Mockery of Stage Glitter.-False Jewels and Flaring Gaslight.-How
Actors Go Astray.-The Stern Rules which Govern Life Behind the
Scenes. Waiting for the Cue.-A Curious Incident in the Life of a
Celebrated Actress.-Asleep on the Stage.
---
CHAPTER VII.
-
How Rehearsals are Conducted.-The Stage by Daylight.—Queens in
Calico Dresses.-Kings in Threadbare Trowsers and Coats out at El-
bows. · Ball-room Belles in India-Rubber Overshoes. Fairies in
Thick Boots, and Demons in Stovepipe Hats. The World Upside
Down. How to make a Crowd of Democrats Yell.-The Rehearsal a
School.-Humorous Account of a Rehearsal in California.
CHAPTER VIII.
Stage Dresses.-Hair Dressers and the Like The Exigencies of Attire.—
The Art of Dressing a Part to Suit the Character and the Period.-
Ristori's Attention to such Details.-Mistaking Dress for the Chief
Requirement of an Actor.- Absurd Anachronisms by Ignorant or
Careless Actors.-The Wardrobe Keeper.-Curious Instances of Effect
in Costume. Exaggerated Idea of Value of Stage Jewels. The
Mountain Robbers.-The Stolen Crown.-My Jewel Bag in a Western
Town.
CHAPTER IX.
Making up the Face.-Ristori's Skill in this Subtle Art.-Painting Age
and Youth on the Same Face. Easier to Paint Old than to Paint
Young. Tracing the Lines of Suffering, Sorrow and Despair.-
Daubing with Chalk and Rouge.-A Lover's Disappointment. How
the Artist Rothermel changed Me from a Young Woman into an Old
One in Five Minutes.- Instructions in the Art of Making Up. — Col-
oring for Indians, Negroes, etc.- Magic Effects produced by Actors
through Removing Color while Playing a Part.
How Salaries are Paid.-The Etiquette of Actors regarding Salaries.-
Exaggerated Ideas of the Pay of Actors.-The Truth in the Matter.-
Salaries of Leading Performers, Walking People, Old People, Utility
People and Supernumeraries.-Why the Pay of Actors seems Larger
than it really is.-Their Expenses for Dress. The Cost of Running a
Theatre.-The Pay of Stars.-Salaries in Old Times.
CHAPTER XI.
The Noble Army of "Supes."-Custom of Laughing at these People.-
Rough Treatment by Managers. - A Frightened "Savage."-Utility
People.-Fallen Fortunes.-Ups and Downs of Actors.-Making the
Most of One's Opportunities.—Attention to Trifles.-How the Celebra-
ted Comedian Robson made his First Hit." Villikins and His
Dinah."-The Story of a Utility Man.-Green Ibid.-The Summons
of Death.
CHAPTER XII.
'Sticks" Behind the Scenes. Bad Acting. - Murdering Parts.-The
Woman who went Insane in a Theatre.-A "Scholarly" Fool Plays
Paris.-A "Gentlemanly" Style of Dying on the Stage.-The Man
who Died into the Orchestra A Lady's Hand throws an Actor into a
Perspiration of Bewilderment." What will I do with It?"-Lack of
Noble Incentives to the Stage Life.-Mountebanks vs. Artists.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Property Man and his Curious Duties.-His Singular Surroundings.
The Abode of a Lunatic.-An Actress Drinks a Bottle of In by Mis-
take.-Amusing Inventory of "Properties."-Quaint Picture of the
Property Man and his Powers.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Scenic Artist.-His Strange Workshop in the Clouds.-Up in the
Flies. Magic Transformations. Streets turn into Open Fields
-Rivers into Dry Land.-The Stage Manager and his Duties. -
Curious Letters between two Old Managers.-Borrowing Assassins.-
Lending Shepherds.-A Cupid who had to Find his own Wings.-The
Prompter and his Duties.
CHAPTER XV.
New York
About Managers. The Top of the Theatrical Heap.
Managers. Speculators, Merchants and others as Theatre-Owners.-
Actors and Dramatists as Managers.-How Expenses are Cut Down.-
What Managers Should Be, and What, alas! They Are.-Swindling
"Agents" Turned Managers.-The Sharks of the Profession.
Χ
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
My Return to the Stage in Womanhood.-The Dictate of Necessity.-
An Unwelcome Duty.-Getting Acquainted with Life Behind the
Scenes after a Long Absence.-My Debut at Wallack's.-Following
the Advice of Friends.-The Eventful Night.-How it Went off.-
The Morning After.-The Interesting Character of Debuts.-Remi-
niscences of the American Debuts of Ole Bull, Jenny Lind, Alboni,
Rachel, etc., by an Old Theatre-Goer.-The Story of Leopoldine, a
French Debutante.-Exciting Time in the Theatre.-The Fickleness
of a French Audience.-Bravery of the Actress.-Her Scornful Treat-
ment of her Fickle Admirers.-The Result.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Story of Carrie Lee, an American Debutante.-Driven to the
Stage for a Livelihood.-Secures an Engagement. - Horror of her
Friends.-Cast for a Boy's Part.-The Recreant Lover.-The Eventful
Night." Charlie."—" Will you put out Mine Eyes?"-The Denouc-
ment.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Stage-Struck Youths.-The Victim of an Unhappy Fever.-A Pitiable
Object.-His General Impecuniosity.-His Vanity and Presumption.
False Ideas of the Stage Life.-Sticks and Stage-Drivers.- Worthy
Industry.-Democratic Possibilities.-The Stage-Struck Heroes of the
Midsummer Night's Dream.-Modern Stage-Struck Youths.-Queer
Letters to Managers.-A Girl of "Sixteen Summers, and Some say
Good-looking."-Two Smart Girls wish to "Act upon the Stage."-A
Stage-Struck Bostonian. A Pig with Five Legs.-A Stage-Struck
Philadelphian.-He Appears under an Assumed Name at the Chestnut
Street Theatre. His Love of the Coulisses.-The Most Delightful
Place in the World."-A Species of Infatuation. - A Discontented
Manager.An Actress who "Married Well."-Her Yearnings for
the Old Life.-A Letter and an Epithet.
CHAPTER XIX.
The True Story of Mr. Alfred Pennyweight.-The Elegant Young So-
ciety Beau. Mr. Pennyweight Demoralized. He is Stage Struck.-
He Wants to Play Macbeth.-Besieging the Managers.-An Engage-
ment Secured.-Cast for the Bleeding Soldier.-Pennyweight Fright-
ened.-Procuring the Costume.-The Wardrobe Keeper.-The Pad-
maker Visited. - Pennyweight's Legs. - The Fearful First Night.-
The Curtain Rings Up, and the Play Opens. — Pennyweight's Debut.
Effect on the Galleries. - The Catastrophe. Good Advice to the
Stage-Struck. The Cure for the Fever.-Ridicule, the Remedy.
My Tour in the West as a Star Actress.-From Paris to Cincinnati.-
My Critics.-My First Benefit. - Generals and Poets in the Green-
room.-Down the River to Louisville.-An Operatic Company.-
My First "Soldier Audience."-Military Necessity.-Southern Refu-
gees.-Queer Gratitude for an Actress's Services.-Trouble in Getting
to Nashville.-Cutting Down the Wardrobe.-Soldiers in the Cars.-
The Mason.-A Guerrilla Attack.-The Rebel Negro.
CHAPTER XXI
Nashville Experience.-A Candid Critic.-A Model Hotel ("Over the
Left.")- More Military Necessity. Two St. Clouds. Hogshead
Cheese.-A Slippery Actor.-Miss Griggs.-Visit to a Battlefield.-
A Bellicose Official.-Mrs. Ackley's Sorrows.-The Blacksmith Shop.-
Somebody's Darling.-From the Pathetic to the Ridiculous.-"Let
me Kiss him for his Mother?"-Farewell to Nashville.
CHAPTER XXII.
The "Felon's Daughter."-Actresses' Cartes de Visite.-The Flower
Basket Nuisance.-Theatrical Critics in the West.-Dumb Waiters.-
Ohio Legislators. - Western Hotels. Andersonville! - A High
Private. From the Shoe Shop to the Camp.-The Guide Book
Nuisance. Chicago.- Miltonian Tableaux.-Number 99.-On the
Cars. Flirts and Babies en Route.-The Newly Married Couple.-
The Gum-Drop Merchants.-The New York Hurled.-A Walk in a
Graveyard.-A Terrible Gymnast.-Indiana Loafers.-Nomenclature.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Street Entertainments for the Million.-A Procession.-Juvenile Suffer-
ings on Gala Days.-The Prominent Citizen in the Procession.-The
Day of Gloom.-Theatricals under the Cloud of Death.-The Theatrical
Grandaddy.-Girl Waiters.-Erring Women.-The Death of a Mag-
dalen.-Doffing the Sock and Buskin-Homeward Bound-Travelers'
Miseries-Funny Western Actors-The Balladist of the Parlor.
CHAPTER XXIV.
About Audiences.-A Sketch of a New York Audience.-Specimens
from the Audience.-The Rights of Audiences.-The Right to Hiss.-
Carrying Dissent very Far.-An Ungrateful Pit.-A Furious Canadian
Audience.-Row in French Theatre.-Restoring Good Humor.-An
Actor who was Hissed to Death.-The Right of Free Applause.-The
Claqueur Nuisance.-Putting Down an Honest Hiss.-The Bouquet
Nuisance.- Curious Swindlers. The Encore Nuisance.
- Coming
Before the Curtain. - Bad Habits of Audiences. Curious Anec-
dotes.-The Audience that Had to be Told to Go.-A California Speci-
men.-"Won't you Light that Gas-burner?"-An Unbiassed Wit-
ness.-Jenny Lind and the Hoosier.-Mrs. Partington at the Play.
xii
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CHAPTER XXV.
- How
About Menageries and their Tenants.-How the Animals are Obtained.—
Dealers in Wild Beasts. Prices of Hippopotami, Leopards, Tigers,
Hyenas, etc.-Curious Freaks of Caged Animals.-The Trade in
Snakes.-Cost of Boa Constrictors and Rattlesnakes.-The Trade in
Rare Birds. Pheasants, Parrots and Cockatoos for Sale.
Monkeys are Caught.-Fright at a Wild Beast Show.-"The Animals
are Loose!"-Fire breaks out in the Winter Quarters of a Menagerie.-
Terror of the Animals.-They escape into the Streets.-How they
Behaved.-Wild Beasts Frightened by a Storm.-Chloroforming a
Tiger-Elephant Stories.-Cracking a Cocoa Nut. - Protecting a
Friend.-Afraid to Cross a Bridge.-Debarking an Elephant at the
New York Wharf.-A Leopard attacks an Elephant and gets the
worst of it.-An Elephant Attacks a Locomotive and gets the worst
of it.-A Lion Loose in a Village in Mississippi.-He Eats a Horse
and Escapes into the Open Country.-His Ultimate Fate.
CHAPTER XXVI.
About Jugglers and Gymnasts-Hazlitt and the Italian Juggler.-The
Mountebanks of Paris. Lively Scenes on the Champs Elysees. —
Queer Juggling Tricks. Pompous Street Spouters.
The Seven
Indian Brothers.-Chinese Street Jugglers.-Arab Miracles.-Conju-
rors' Perils.-Japanese Jugglers and Acrobats.-A Western Acrobat's
Feat.-A Gymnast's Account of his Sensations in Falling from the
Trapeze.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Accidents to So-called "Lion Tamers."—An Amateur Tamer torn to
Pieces.-A Lion attacks its Keeper in Wisconsin.-Narrow Escape of
an English Keeper.-Almost a Tragedy at Barnum's.-A Lion Tamer's
Story.-The Killing of Lucas, the Paris Lion Tamer.-What it Costs
to get up a Menagerie.-The Headless Rooster.-The Gorilla which
had a Tail.-How the Happy Family is kept Happy.-A Dog that
wouldn't be Put on Exhibition.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
About Circuses and Pantomimes.-Children as Acrobats.-Barbarous
Treatment of a Little Girl by her Trainer.-Cruelty of a Father
to his Two Performing Children.- Excitement in a Philadelphia
Variety Hall.-How Children are Driven to their Tasks in Circuses.-
Death in the Ring.-The Clown's Dying Wife.-Leaping through a
Hoop into Matrimony.-The Cost of a Circus.-Behind the Scenes
in the Circus.-How Engagements are Made.-Circus Clowns and
Stage Clowns.-Pantomime.-An Evening of English Pantomime.