Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — A Sol Smith Russell Story. [ARTICLE]

A Sol Smith Russell Story.

Sol Smith Russell relates some funny experiences with ambitious amateurs. While he was playing in Chicago Harry Hamlin, the manager of the theater at which he appeared, begged him as a personal favor to give one of his feminine friends a chance. Mr. Russell assented to this and gave her an oppor-

tunity to interpret a role for nothing. She was very bad in the part, but the climax came when Mr. Russell had to utter a soliloquy before an open window. To his surprise the young woman made her appearance through this window instead of through the door, thus ruining the scene. She never played again. Next night Mr. Russell, still amiable, tried another one of Mr. Hamlin’s friends. All went well until she had to exclaim: "Oh, I have lost my husband's love.” Perhaps it was stage fright, perhaps a lapsus linguae, but at any rate, she remarked, in tear-drench-ed tones: "Ah. I have lost my husband’s gloves." That broke Mr. Russell up. He was the husband, and his gloves, as a rule, with their finger holes and general dilapidation, are the joys and amusement of the profession.