The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume], March 09, 1909, Page 8, Image 8

About The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917

Image provided by: Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT

                
(OUR nSHORT STORX PAOB I
;
TlielREMI
Thing
COPYRIGHT 19fi9X....
ANOTHER long moment of sickening hesi
tation, then a crashing report, and
Clough Hagan fell forward across the
table, the smoking revolver barrel trail
ing from his limp clasp upon the floor.
It was an uncomfortable position and he must
have been glad to get up and stretch himself. True
to his artistic principles, he had let the curtain rise
and fall three times without moving, certain that
j this East Side audience he knew so well would
stay on at the end to pay his achievement the
j tribute of a "call."
V. In his dressing room a few minutes later I
found him bending over a chipped bowl vigorously
i crabbing and splashing.
"Hello, Sport," was his greeting. "How's the
J Press? Am I in for a roast?"
"Not from me," I answered. "I'm going to fill
' up the boxes for you by saying that Clough Hagan
ought to be on Broadway which is a lie for
you're simply made for this line. The swells like
getting up parties to come over here."
"You make me sick. Why can't you say what
you think? Was it a good show?"
"Not so much. But now you've got your hat
. a I don't mind telling you that Prince Louis
couldn't have been better done by anyone."
Arrogant under censure, but shy before praise,
' Clough flushed and asked:
! "What about the Jewel?"
"The Jewel was her own sweet self. She can
never play any other part, and I for one never
1 want her to."
No; she's a swell little lady," he assented,
i but I was surprised at his thoughtful tone, for
rumor had persistently asserted that Clough Hagan
was about to marry his leading woman a rumor
. that I, for one, welcomed joyously. She was a
sweet exotic to have grown in this tainted at
mosphere, for, unlike Clough, who had played more
j roles in life than he had in his six years with the
I Einstein Stock Company, the Jewel was born to
the profession. The stage her nursery, her school
room, and her playground, had left her natural
and unaffected, as unconscious of her slim girlish
beauty as a child.
Einstein entered now unctuous and beaming, his
pudgy, bejewelled hand extended to me.
"He's all right, ain't he?" he exultantly ex
claimed, indicating the actor with a jerk of the
thumb. "And. we're, .going, to get a swell bunch
of notices. But say, the Madame and Miss Jewel
are waiting for' us. I've ordered "a "little lunch
round at. the joint- can't say 'no,' and remember
the whole thing's strictly on me."
Clough paused in the act of turning the key in
the lock. "I'm sorry, old man; I've got a date."
"Well, you just forget it again. I know it s
all some bloomin' girl."
The young Irishman seized the phrase. "Yes,
it's all some bloomin' girl," he said. "I'm sorry,
old man straight goods."
As we passed through the little knot outside
the stage door, Clough offered his customary
apology for the manager.
"He can't help being greasy, and he's white on
the' money end all right."
But I was not thinking of Einstein. "What's the
matter with you and the Jewel?" I asked.
"Nothing the matter.' Then before I could
renew the attack he stepped into the street and
swung aboard a passing car.
,' The next time I saw Clough Hagan was on a
Sunday evening at a little Italian restaurant on
; the lower West Side. He was sitting with a girl
r in a corner of the high-fenced garden, a drooping
' acacia tree deepening the twilight shade above
; them. . r ''
:. When I joined them, Clough insisted on having
another chair brought up and ordered more cof
I fee.
"This is Miss Schwartz," he said. "She's just on
from Milwaukee."
The lady's flaxen hair and slow, bovine smile
betrayed-her nationality more surely than did
even her name, and residence. In five minutes I
was in possession of the facts that this was her
first trip East; that she thought New York a nice
place to viBit, but one in which she wouldn't care
to live; and that she was staying at the Waldorf
with her mother. Then I turned to Clough with
a question . about the "show."
Oh, it's taking all right," he responded, "but
there's nothing in the business. Even Einstein
hasn't raised the price of diamonds very far yef."
"Art is long and artists are usually 'short,' "
I remarked. "After all, money isn't everything,
is it. Miss Schwartz?"
"Why, I think it's a good deal," she replied.
On the way out Clough confided to me. "She's
old Jake Schwartz's daughter, you know the big
cooperage people. They're just made of the real
thing."
"And she's the only child?"
"Yes, she's -the only child."
I parted from them on the sidewalk and strolled
home balancing those huge quantities of the "real
thing" against the Jewel's winsome red-lipped
beauty and tender charm.
One morning soon after this I came down to
breakfast and found a note from Clough Hagan
lying by my plate. It asked me to be one of a
box party he was giving on the opening night of
the new play. "Miss Schwartz is to be there," he
wrote, "and a Mr. Hud gins my rival. I want you
to come, too, and see he doesn't take a mean ad
Vantage of me in his criticism of my acting," and I
saw from this frank disclosure of his intentions
that matters must have advanced considerably
farther since I had last seen him.
On the night in question I was the first to arrive
and found Clough in his dressing room rolling
back in a dilapidated Morris chair and blowing
miniature clouds of cigarette smoke ceilingward.
His mood seemed perversely sordid and in his
replies to my question about the company's plans
he burst forth into a tirade on the profession
"I tell you how it is," he concluded. "I don't
give a hurrah in Halifax what the company does.
I'll be on the other side of the footlights next year
that is, unless Hudgins has set his alarm clock
earlier than mine."
"So you're in earnest?"
"Of course I'm in earnest and Hudgins is,
too. I can tell you. It's not all tha sponduiiks,
either. She's a mighty nice girl."
"Yes," I said with the bare assent of politeness,
"but after the Jewel "
"I don't see why you all talk about the Jewel,"
he rejoined almost peevishly. "I never had a
chance with her. She doesn't like me."
"Rubbish."
He sat up eagerly. "No, that's right. Freddie.
She likes me in a way, I know, bu'c she doesn't
like to have me touch her. She has a physical
aversion for me. Whenever there's a scene in
which I have to make love to her, take her in my
arms, or any of that sort of thing, she strains
away from me as if touching me were positively
painful to her."
I surveyed him pityingly, but my opportunity
to explain was postponed by the arrival of the
others under the pilotage of the kindly officious
Einstein. Miss Schwartz, dazzling in white satin,
introduced me to her companion. Miss Walters.
I got through the amiable preliminaries me
chanically. Miss Walters, she informed me, was
rtaying with the Schwartzes at the Waldorf.
As for Mr. Hudgins, I can merely state that
he was a heavy blond young man with a broad
back, and that he shaved the nape of his neck.
I saw him, so to ; peak, in the reverse, and I can
not say whether this was more interesting than
the side he turned so assiduously to MissSchwartz.
We occupied the stage box and had scarcely
disposed of the wraps when Miss Schwartz de
clared that she felt conspicuous everybody
iH !TiVv - anyone 1 .. ver 5een 'ii the stage, she re-
seemed to be staring at her. She, therefore,
changed to one of the seats farther back, while
Miss Walters not to be outdone in an effort
at genteel effacement, refused to take the vacant
seat. Thus it was that, acting as a screen from
the eyes of vulgar curiosity, I found myself nearest
to the stage a fact for which later I had occasion
to be glad.
"Isn't he charming?" I said, turning to Miss
Schwartz as the Jewel came again upon the scene.
"She looks well on the stage," the heiress as
sented judicially. "It's wonderful how well these
actresses make up."
Throughout the play she showed the languid
interest of true gentility, but when at the end the
lover slipped his arms about the heroine and
drew her hands from her face, I noticed that Miss
Schwartz stirred restlessly and leaned forward in
her seat.
Miss Walters raised a tightly gloved hand dis
creetly to her lips. "He makes love better than
anyone I've
marked.
Then as I turued my eyes back to the scene the
Jewel suddenly slipped her arms about dough's
neck and press-red her cheek against his.
There flashed to my mind the memory of what
dough had said that evening, and seeing his
bewildered, shamefaced juize as lie halted over
his lines like ;:. shy boy released from an unlooked
for embrace, I realized that what he had told me
was true and that this willing contact had deeply
affected him.
All that had come to him in that moment 1 was
not to know till laier, but something of it 1 must
have guessed, for I felt no great surprise when
Kinsteiu came round io the box door just as we
were leaving, and in his best curtain manner an
nounced thai Mr. Hagan war, indisposed and would
have to go straight !ir.m-
"Nothin' much the matter just the excitement
an' all. He was working extra hard," the man
ager added with an atrocious wink, "to make a
good impression on two handsome young ladies
in the audience."
When we reached the street, both the ladies
seemed to be out of spirits, Miss Schwartz vetoing
every suggestion as to where we should take sup
per, while Miss Walters replied that the places
named had always been very nice whenever she
was there. Altogether the remainder of the even
ing was not a success, and I was glad when, our du
ties discharged, I parted from Hudgins at the door
of the hotel and walked up Fifth Avenue turning
east on the street where Clough lived. Something
had happened and I could not sleep without find
ing out what it was.
I half expected to have to wait, but the boy who
swung open the heavy glass door marked "Bach
elor Apartments" told me that Mr. Hagan had
been home some time.
Clough arose from the lounge as I entered and
answered literally my question as to how he was
feeling.
"Pretty rocky, thanks, old man but, say, I'm
awfuMy sorry to have left that bunch on your
hancrR"
"That's all right," I answered. "It's a good
thing I was there. I kept Hudgins from stealing
a base on you, I think."
"Stealing a base? He can cross the plate if he
wants. I shan't stop him."
I did not speak, but waited for him to tell me
what he meant. Instead, he turned to me with
the invariable professional question:
"How's the show?"
"Not up to 'Prince Louis,' but I heard a lady
say that you made love better than anyone she
had ever seen."
"Oh, yes, I make love all right. I'm the swell
thing in lovers even if I have just been turned
down."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the Jewel I mean that I've been in
love for Heaven knows how long without even
knowing it. I thought I wanted to marry money.
But to-night when that little girl's arms twined
suddenly about my neck in the last act, and I felt
her lips flutter against mine, I knew then that I
wanted her more than anything else in the world."
"And you told all this to the Jewel and she
refused you?" I repeated incredulously.
"She said that 1 was deceiving myself that I
wasn't the man to struggle through life. I wanted
money and all that it could do more than I knew.
'Don't pass by golden opportunity,' were her words,
and there wasn't a hint of irony that's what
made it worse .just a reasoning patience, as
though I were a kid wanting to take on something
she knew 1 wasn't equal to."
"But she loves you.'
He shook his head. "Xo. she doesn't. Freddie.
She told me the sort of man she should love, and
ii wns one very different from Clough Hagan. A
fighter she wants no, a pug, but a man who won't
lie down to a count, fl man who stands by himself
and keeps on to the end."
I could find no words to express either my sut-
prise or sympathy, and we sat on a long time ii
silence. Only as I rose to go my mingled thought
were gathered into one generalization:
"All women are strange, but some of them ar,
wonderful," I said, and that observation recurre4
to me many times in the succeeding weeks, top
though the drama had ended, the characters were
still there, as if in a dreary sequel demanding the
interest ana anection or all friends. iM
When Clough came to me with the news that
he had canceled his engagement for the next sea
son so that the theater being closed he had now
joined the ranks of the "has beens," I railed loudly
against the pity of it, ,
And later when the stock company commenced
their season without Clough, who had broken his,
contract, and, after changing the bill three times.
in as many weeks, offered Clough his old place at . j
a Dig aavance, i urgea mm 10 accept,
"You might as well ask me to have another try
for Miss Schwartz," he said with a half smile. "But
from all I hear my successor has given satisfaction,
there, and his contract's as good as signed."
So Einstein's offers and my persuasions failed
alike. We could not get him to return to the
stage. It took Jerry Mackintosh to do that poos
old Jerry who had been dead and gone six months
or more, for about the middle of winter Clough
into Jerry's little girl somewhere on the Bowery,
and found out that her mother was sick and -the)
family almost starving. He asked me to write
article, saw all of his old friends, and in less than
a week the "Jerry Mackintosh Benefit" was adver
tised in the papers. Included in the bill was "the
last act of 'Prince Louis' with Mr. Clough Hagan.'
By simply closing my eyes I can see that last act
of "Prince Louis" as it appeared from the wing
with the rough board cleats on the back of the
castle walls, and the hero at the top of the tower,
dropping icy ironies with suave malignancy upon,
his wife and her lover.
I had just turned to speak to the stage carpentet -when
the accident happened. It was at the end
of the second scene and the man had already moved
over to the curtain. There was a heavy crash upon
the stage and, turning, I saw the flimsy tower a
mass of torn canvas and splintered framework on
the floor, and Clough lying underneath it. As the
curtain fell he raised himself on one arm and
'gave' his line.
"My ships are in sight, pure cursed fool," he
cried, shaking his fist at his trapped enemy. Then
the curtain dropped and I ran' on, picked him up.
and carried him to his dressing room.
"My leg is the worst," he groaned, his lip drawn
between his teeth.
I felt It gingerly and he winced. -
"I don't believe it's broken, but your ankle is
most likely sprained," I said while I poured him
out a glass of whisky. "The doctor is coming."
"I don't want the doctor yet. I'm going through
that last scene," he replied. i.
"You certainly won't do any such thing."
"No," affirmed Einstein. "I'll step down front j
and explain. I wouldn't have you go on like that
for a week's gate receipts." , t
Clough 's answer was to swing his feet to the n
floor and with a hand on my shoulder he stumbled it
heavily around to the wings.
"You just come back to your room," I said au-j
thoritatively as he paused at the entrance, his
face drawn, his breath coming in quick gasps.
"Not this time, Ereddie. I'll show her I'm not V
always a quitter."
I understood, and I wouldn't have stopped him
then if I had known what I did know later.
I was standing where he left me when the cur- 1
tain rose. Some one touched my arm.
"Why did yon let him go?" The Jewel's eyes;.
were accusing. "Have you no feeling? No heart?"ifi
I laid my hand above hers and met her gazei1
steadily. "Yes," I said. "Have you?"
I could see the color mantel in her face under !
the rouge and powder, but she made no answer, j
and after a moment "took" her entrance. But i
though she delivered the lines faultlessly, she can
hardly be said to have filled the part. The per-'-sonality,
the Jewel herself was not there. And
Clough's fine acting stood out in marked contrast.
As I watched him in turn, I noticed the beads of
perspiration glistening on his face. He was suffer
ing agony.
We watched while Clough did that splendid bit
of silent acting at the end listening, pistol in!
hand, to the long talk between the lovers. Hei
never showed it all better the shame as the hus
band learns his suspicions have been as unjust as
his cruel revenge, and the battle between his de-l
s:"re to atone and the shrinking from death. When J
at last to our straining senses came the dull report
of the shot that meant the end.
a i-,t- minrtes later the doctor Tianrinrl mm - &
slip of paper.
"Send some one to the drug store with this, and
tell the gentleman who diagnosed the sprain that
he'd better stick to his own profession. Mr. Hagan
has a fracture of the leg as well as one of the
smaller bones of the foot."
I obeyed him. He met me outside the door upon
ray return and told me that he had not needed the
prescription, after all. "I've got him fixed up and
he'll get along all right. There'll be something
here shortly to move him in."
As I started to go. in an my return he detained
me. "His, fiancee is with him now and they asked,
to be alone."
"His fiancee."
"Yes, Miss Anderson, isn't it?"
V "They won't mind me, I think." I turned the'?
handle, then paused, smiling, as I viewed the trans- I
formation scene. i ...
"Evidently broken bones haven't much to do
with happiness," I observed as I took a hand of
each.
The Jewel raised to mine eyes that were not
ashamed of some happy tears. "Isn't he splen
did?" Clough's remark was no less illuminating.
"Say, Freddie, old man," he whispered proudly,;
"she's the real thing." 4