During the absence of Mr. Dunne and myself from Salt Lake the following attractions appeared at the theatre. Jean Clara Walters, W. J. Cogswell and the stock company from February 8th to March 10th, on which date a new play by Edward L. Sloan (then editor of the Salt Lake Herald) was produced. It was entitled "Stage and Steam." It was intended to show the advance of civilization. It had a railroad scene and a stage coach in it and a sensational saw mill scene, where a man was placed on the log carriage to be sliced into boards, but was rescued just in the nick of time. Jos. Arthur's saw mill scene in "Blue Jeans" is exactly the same thing, although it is scarcely probable that Mr. Arthur ever saw Sloan's play. The play only had two performances. March 10th to 15th, Frank Hussey and Blanche Clifton held the boards in "Hazard" and some other plays. Marion Mordaunt was the next stellar attraction and gave "The Colleen Bawn" and "Hearts are Trumps" the 17th to 10th. On the 24th a star of the first magnitude appeared. It was Augusta Dargon. She opened in "Camille" and played also "Deborah (Leah)," "Lady Macbeth," "Meg Merrilles" and "Lucretia Borgia." Miss Dargon was one of the greatest actresses our country ever produced, but she was not financially successful. She is the only American actress who has ever played Tennyson's "Queen Mary." Mrs. John Drew made a costly production of this play at the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, with Augusta Dargon as the star during the Centennial. But it was not a financial success. The writer did not meet Miss Dargon till 1878, when she came to the New Market theatre in Portland and played a two weeks' engagement under the management of our old friend John Maguire. Here I had the pleasure (and hard work) of playing the opposite roles to her in her extensive repertory, changing the bill nearly every night during her engagement. Toward the close of it she put up Tennyson's "Queen Mary" in which I had to play King Phillip of Spain on two days' study, a very long, arduous part, that put me on my mettle to master it; also studied and played "Cardinal Wolsey" for the first time during this engagement. Miss Dargon, who was under the management of Henry Greenwald, after her Portland engagement, made a tour of the "sound" playing Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend and Victoria, supported by the New Market Theatre company, and returning, played a few more nights in Portland, then took steamer for Australia. Under Mr. Greenwald's management she had played successful engagements both in San Francisco and Portland, and when she opened in Melbourne she just captivated the city, playing extraordinary engagements both there and in Sidney. The press of Australia printed volumes in her praise. She made a great triumph, and in the very flush of her victory, some wealthy Australian captured her. She got married and retired from the stage, and Greenwald was forced to return without her. She never came back to us. Her return engagement here was played before she went to Australia.
Mr. "Bill" Cogswell seemed to have dropped out of the company before Miss Dargon's engagement and consequently David McKenzie was her principal support. After the Dargon engagement, which closed March 29th, Jean Clara Walters, Florence Kent and the stock company played through the April conference without a star attraction, and filled up time to April 28th when for some reason the season closed but was reopened on May 3rd with the stock company who played up to the 6th. On the 8th of May, Augusta Dargon began a return engagement which lasted till the 15th. She opened in the new play "Unmasked," and repeated "Deborah," "Camille," and "Lady Macbeth," and closed in a new piece "The Rising of the Moon." It speaks highly of Miss Dargon's popularity in Salt Lake that she should play a return engagement in five weeks after her first one.
Blind Tom, the musical prodigy, was the next attraction. He played but one night, May 17th. On the 19th Annette Ince began a return engagement of six nights and a matinee and the record shows a change of play for each performance. She gave "Elizabeth," "Mary Stuart," "Medea," "The Hunchback," "The Stranger," "The Honeymoon," and the "Lady of Lyons." This repertory in one week undoubtedly kept the company right busy. Miss Ince was a sterling actress, and always gave satisfaction, but she did not possess the faculty of making your blood thrill in your veins and your hair rise occasionally that Miss Dargon had. It is just a little singular how she came so close on Miss Dargon's heels this time. It seems like poor management to play two lady stars, so nearly alike in repertoire, so close together, but these accidents would happen once in a while. Frank Hussey and Blanche Clifton came back for two nights, May 26th and 27th. Then the stock had to take up the burden again and carry it from May 28th to June 21st. By June 1st John Dunne and the writer had returned from the Pioche trip and were back in their old positions in the company. Dunne had a surprise party in store for him on his return. Instead of being received with open arms and loving embraces by his bride of a night, she coldly repulsed him and refused ever to live with him, and she kept her word. This was owing to things she had heard about John and his freedom with other females while he was at Pioche. This did not discourage Dunne, however, from trying again. He has had several wives since, the best known being Patti Rosa, a talented actress whom he managed and married. Clara, on the other hand, was not inconsolable, and her enchantment with the stage and stage actors having been rather rudely dispelled, she sought "surcease from sorrow" in the affections of a well to do farmer, who has proven more constant, and with whom she has raised a representative Mormon family.
Madam Anna Bishop put in a week of high class concert from June the 25th to 30th. On July 2nd John W. Dunne took a benefit, on which occasion we repeated one of our Pioche performances with an important change of cast. "Theresa, or the Cross of Gold" and "Pocahontas" was the bill. Dunne did not find the atmosphere of Salt Lake so congenial to him as it had been and did not remain for the next season. I next met him in Cheyenne in '78. He was married and apparently contented, working at his trade of printer.
The business, after Dunne's benefit, seems to have been spasmodic. The stock kept on playing, however, during the month of July. That it did business at all was remarkable, but there being no "resorts" and the theatre the coolest place in town, in some measure accounts for its keeping open during the torrid heat of the summer.
Weiniawska, the Polish violinist, gave a concert on the 12th. George Waldron and his wife drifted in and played a few nights up to the 17th. Then W. O. Crosbie and his wife, Arrah Crosbie, and James A. Vinson, drifted in from the northwest and were given a few nights. "Jim" Vinson was featured in the play of "Quits" and "Billie" Crosbie in some favorite farce, supported by Arrah and the stock company. Both Vinson and Crosbie made a very favorable impression which resulted in them being engaged by the management for the following season. It looked as if all the other theatres in the West had closed and the actors had come trouping to Salt Lake to get summer engagements. Now comes Carrie Cogswell-Carter and the available stock to the front. They opened on the 26th and played till the 30th, and the season closed.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SEASON OF 73-74.
The season of 73 and '74 was somewhat later than usual in opening. The reasons were, Clawson and Caine had renewed their lease of the theatre, and having done so well with it financially, they were not content to "let well enough alone," but felt that they should make certain imaginary improvements that different wise-acres had suggested, and embellishments commensurate with the liberal patronage they had received during their previous lease of the house. Accordingly some radical changes were made which cost a plenty of money and made the managers scratch their heads many a time before they were all paid for. As an example of how much costly mischief one interfering "know-it-all" can accomplish, the managers were persuaded by their prospective new stage manager, "Jim" Vinson, that the stage of the theatre did not have sufficient pitch or slope from back to front. It had a slight pitch one-eighth of an inch to the foot, or about eight inches in its entire depth, which was just perceptible, but not sufficient to be particularly noticeable or to render it uncomfortable to walk on or to dance on. But the wisdom of the new stage manager was paramount, and that immense stage whose huge supports were built into the solid stone walls, had to be cut loose from its bearings and the front of it lowered until it had three-eighths of an inch fall to the foot, a slope that made it uncomfortable to walk on, indeed, entering in a hurry, one was quite inclined to slide on. It made it awkward too for stage settings. Every piece of scenery that was set up and down the stage or at any angle save that paralleling the front curtain, was thrown out of the perpendicular that is so essential to make the scenery look well. At the very time that this alleged improvement was being made, the pitching or sloping stage (once thought to add perspective to the scenery) was obsolete and all the new theatres in the country were being built with level stages. It cost hundreds of dollars to make this change and instead of being an improvement it was a positive detriment, is still, and always will be. So much for the advice of a stage manager. The proscenium doors that had been used for coming in front of the curtain, were done away with and the present boxes put in their stead, a very sensible and profitable improvement. Something like $8,000 was expended in these and other improvements—a costly experiment the sequel proved. The managers, Clawson and Caine, had in contemplation a very profitable season and engaged an unusually large and expensive company. The old stock members had been now so many seasons constantly before the public that it was thought their drawing powers were waning, and it was considered necessary to get some new blood into the stock. Accordingly, while nearly all the old stock was retained, a number of new people were added to the company, vastly increasing the salary list. First in prominence was Kate Denin (Mrs. John Wilson) who was featured as a stock star. Mr. W. J. Cogswell, who had been playing leads during the latter part of the previous season, was retained as leading man. "Jim" Vinson, who had put into Salt Lake before the close of the last season, was retained as stage manager and to play "old men." "Billie" Crosbie was engaged for the principal comedy roles, thus displacing the local favorites, Margetts, Graham, and Dunbar from the choice comedy parts. Arrah Crosbie, Billie's wife, had to have a place and she made a good utility woman; or she could play Irish characters. From the mere force of assimilation "Billie" was a good Irish comedian. Mr. "Al" Thorne, who was added to the company in the previous November, was retained especially for the "heavies." "Buck" Zabriske was engaged as prompter at a good fat salary, because the prompter was a very essential feature in the makeup of a stock company and generally earned his salary, for he often had a hard part to play behind the scenes on a first night. Then there was dear old Frank Rea, with his face and head of antique beauty; always full of Forrestonian reminiscences, and his wife of blessed memory, who had grown old in the service, along with her husband. Then there was Carrie Cogswell-Carter, and Ed Marden was there. J. W. Carter had parted company with theatrical business and accepted an engagement to preach the gospel for a while. He succeeded in making one convert that we know of whom he brought to Utah later and made Mrs. Carter No. 2. This was a bitter pill for Carrie Carter and she revenged herself in time by becoming the fourth wife of Bishop Herrick of Ogden. Apropos of this latter event, about a year later, December, 1875, Miss Carrie Cogswell was playing Julia in the "Hunchback" to the writer's "Master Walter" at Ogden. There was a Gentile paper there at the time called the Ogden Freeman. It was published by a man named Freeman, who came to Ogden with the advent of the Union Pacific railroad. Freeman had published his paper at each successive terminus of the road until it reached Ogden, and then he settled down there and ran the "Ogden Freeman" as a rabid anti-Mormon paper. We had journeyed northward and were in the town of Franklin. Phil Margetts, "Jimmy" Thompson and myself were seated in the hotel parlor when Carrie came in with a paper in her hand, and in her lively, good-natured way, said "Boys, I met Freeman of Ogden, in the Co-op. store just now, and he gave me a copy of his paper. He says it has a long notice of the 'Hunchback' in it. Let us see what he says." With that she threw herself into a chair, turned over the paper and found the notice. It was generally favorable but criticised her Julia rather adversely, at which she said rather petulantly, "Well, I know I'm not an Adelaide Neilson, but I guess it was good enough for Ogden." On further examination of the paper she came across a "personal" which read as follows: "We understand that Miss Carrie Cogswell, now playing here with the Salt Lake company, is the fourth polygamous wife of Bishop Herrick, having herself had three husbands: first, Thomas A. Lyne, the tragedian; second, J. A. Carter, and third, Bishop Herrick." She read this notice to us and as she did so she grew very angry. She strode out of the hotel like an enraged tigress. We all wondered what she was going to do, but in about five minutes she strode back in again with a handful of poor Freeman's whiskers in her clenched fist and her parasol broken to smithereens over the offender's face and head. In explanation she said, "I don't care how much he criticises my acting but he mustn't meddle in my family affairs." Freeman took revenge for this upon the writer several years later in Montana, by giving him a red hot roast while playing in a neighboring town. He evidently thought that I had prompted her to the castigation act, which was not true, and totally unnecessary.
The season was ushered in very auspiciously with the "School for
Scandal," with Miss Denin as Lady Teazle and Mr. J. H. Vinson as Sir
Peter; Mr. Cogswell playing Charles Surface and Mr. Crosbie, Benjamin
Backbite, and the full force of the stock company in the cast.