Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1885 — THE PERILS OF AN ACTOR IN ’63. [ARTICLE]

THE PERILS OF AN ACTOR IN ’63.

How an Enthusiastic Soldier Raised the Siege of Fort Fisher on the Stage. “I had one experience in this smoky old town that I will not forget soon,” said the veteran actor, Joseph K. Rowe. “What was the experience?” “It was during the war, and everything was red-hot here. Old Beauregard was. expected every day to come marching up across the hills from Virginia and burn the town. The city was full of soldiers, and they ran everything. We were playing here at the time, with Henderson as our manager. He had just got hold of a new war piece called the “Storming of Fort Fisher. ” It carried a good deal of red fire and spreadeagle, of course. Henderson though it would catch on, and it did. There was a scene in the play where the rebel Colonel tears down the American flag and tramples it under his feet, with an oath about the “Yankee rag,” and a lot of that sort of stuff. The house was about two-thirds full of soldiers. Officers filled all the boxes, and most of them had been drinking. I knew how reckless the soldiers were, and felt a little leery about taking the part of the Colonel, but Henderson insisted. When I tore down the flag I heard the cocking of half a dozen revolvers in different parts of the house. One big fellow in a private’s uniform, seated directly in front of the orchestra, rose up with a six-shooter in his hand and said: ‘Drop that flag, Johnny.’ I ‘dropped’ it like a hot potato, and retired as gracefully as circumstances would permit. How I was hissed, though. I tried to go out and finish my part, but it raised such a row that I wasn’t permitted to go on the stage to even explain. Half the house didn’t even wait to see the rest of the play. Next day I heard a young officer swear that if that blanked rebel Colonel pulled that flag down that night he’d put a hole clear through him. Well, I didn’t like the character, and was working for money. The prospect of fighting the whole United States army, or that portion of it in Pittsburgh, from behind the scenes, was not alluring to me. I was young and eager for glory, but I didn’t care to be made a martyr of, either for the Southern Confederacy or the dramatic profession. Consequently I informed Mr. Henderson that the flag would not be there that night for me to pull it down. He insisted. I resigned. He pleaded. I was firm. Then he talked ■compromise. It was finally settled this way: A ‘super’ was found who was highly elated with the prospect of doing something. So the reading was ehanged, and in the -lines I ordered him to tear down the Yankee rag. This was received with hisses and calls, but the audience eaught on to the concessions made to them, and let it go, and we had no more trouble. ” “Why, you can have no idea of the bitterness of the war spirit here then. John E. Owens came up here to play ‘Paul Pry.’ It had been reported that Owens was Captain of Ae New Orleans Coektail Guards. Those stories were frequent at the time about different members of the profession. Maggie Mitchell, it was claimed, trampled under foot the American flag, and was hissed for it dozens of times, although the story was a malicious lie. Well, Owens came in one day on the 4 o’clock train, and went into a barber shop to get shaved. While in the chair he heard a young officer swear that if that rebel came on the stage he should shoot him.— Pittsburgh Dispatch.