Two seasons in “The Wizard of Oz” and a return to vaudeville in a black-face act, depicting Southern scenes.
Bert Swor was born in Memphis, Tenn., January 9, 1871.
FRANCIS WILSON AS A MINSTREL MAGNATE.
Kansas City, June 30, ’77.
Ed. Clipper:
Dear Sir—We left Philadelphia May 21 last, for a Western trip, and somehow we wish we hadn’t.
We left the main road at Sedalia, Mo., for the lead mining districts of Missouri, being directed thither by “parties who knew” we would there find a bonanza. We didn’t.
The recent heavy rains had made the mines unfit to be worked, and the miners were very poor. Prospects, notwithstanding this, were very good at Galena and Empire City, and to them we turned our faces, full of hope, but the sudden “taking off” of the notorious Tiger Bill by a “companion in arms” on the day of our arrival, was a topic that must needs be discussed in the open air, so the minstrels did not thrive.
We are a most harmonious little concern, and our gentlemanly deportment is, everywhere we have seen, the topic of conversation. We receive daily very flattering and eulogistic notices from the papers, and have yet to see one dissenting criticism. We are perfectly independent, and under such little expense that we move anywhere with a very moderate income, and without any serious embarrassment. It is a great source of comfort to us to know that, but a trifle over a month old, we have outlived some much older concerns. We had no difficulty in obtaining the Clipper even in Joplin and Short Creek.
Our company consists of Mackin and Wilson, Chas. Sutton, “Bernardo,” J. H. Stout, Levino Bros. and Prof. Froude and orchestra.