Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — THE GOOSE MADE A HIT. [ARTICLE]

THE GOOSE MADE A HIT.

How an Old Gander Killed Maggie Mitchell's Rural Drama. “I have just been approached by a fellow with a stock yards show,” said Manager Will Lykens to a New York reporter. “A stock yards show Is my name for those plays that Involve barnyard scenes with their usual living occupants. The genius I speak of provides for live cows, calves, pigs, chickens and the whole domesticated animal kingdom. "I have had enough of that sort of thing, and I will tell you why. A few years ago, when I was her manager, Maggie Mitchell tried a rural drama at Hooley’s in Chicago. “The barnyard scene was duly loaded with real live stock and poultry, and here the emotional climax of the play was designed to occur. “Miss Mitchell had the center of the stage in an impassioned soliloquy, when a big gander wriggled out of the pen and calmly waddled down to the front Whatever was In the fool bird’s mind I can’t say, but it calmly poked Its head into the footlights. The gas Jet nipped its bill, and with one almighty squawk the creature flopped out into the middle of the audience. “The house went crazy. It would have cured the man who ‘never smiled again.’ I was wild with rage, but I had to laugh, while Eugene Field, who sat by me in a box, beat his hat to rags on the rail. “Miss Mitchell wept, and the piece was killed because we could not star the goose.”