181
A JUVENILE COMMISSIONER. ---------------------------------------------- A MESSENGER BOY'S TRIP ABROAD. --------------------------------------------- He Takes Souvenirs to Journalists and Theatrical Men in London--His Fellows Give Him a Send-Off With Cheers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York World.
Eugene B. Sanger, commonly known among his young Mutual District friends as "No. 1222," was the star passenger on the steamer Germanio July 27. More fuss couldn't have been made over him if he had discovered the North Pole or licked John L. Sullivan. Music and flowers conspired to make his sailing noteworthy, and the cheers from half a hundred of his young blue-coated friends gave the big, black steamer a strong push on her way to England. The reason of all the enthusiasm over Eugene is that he is the first American messenger boy to go over to John Bull's country and show him how things can be delivered with neatness and dispatch.
Manager Dan Frohman and Actor Ed H. Sothern put "The Highest Bidder" on the stage a few months ago and the piece made an instant success. It had lain for twenty years among the papers of the elder Sothern and had not even been tried on the stage. When Messrs. Frohman and Sothern saw how finely "The Highest Bidder" was doing they determined to send souvenirs of the piece to Madison Morton and Robert Reece, the authros. Madison Morton had long ago finished his stage work and is now a Charter House pensioner, but Robert Reece is still a thriving theatrical man. Messrs. Frohman and Sothern were bothered for a while to know how they could send the souvenirs. While they were trying to hit on an eminently proper way out of their difficulty Edwin H. Low arranged things for them.
"I'll fix it," he said. "so that a district messenger will hurry to London, deliver the souvenirs and scoot back to New York with all his tickets signed in less than twenty-eight days." So the theatrical men went to the Mutual District headquarters, in Murray street, and out of a small army of boys picked out Sergeant Eugene B. Sanger, the brightest and the handsomest of the lot. When Eugene found out what he had to do he immediately ordered a new suit of dark blue, with irreproachably bright buttons and his sergeant's stripes neatly picked out in fine red lines on the sleeves. Messrs. Frohman and Sothern thought they might as well send souvenirs to a few more friends in London, and kept adding to the list until it grew into this shape:
Madison Morton and Robert Reece, authors of "The Highest Bidder;" Henry Irving, Wilson Barrett, Chas. Overton, Henry E. Abbey, Wm. F. Cody, Edmund Yates, Clement Scott, H. Labouchere, A. Oakey Hall, Nate Salsoury, Chas. Warner, Kyrle Bellew, Chas. Wyndham, John Toole, Wm. Beattle Kingston, William Fullerton, Willie Edoum, Mrs. John A. Mackay, Mme. Blanche Roosevelt. Emily Faithfull, Miss Mary Anderson, Mrs. Frank Leslie, Miss Geraldine Ulmer, Miss Jessie Millward, Mrs. Alice Lingard, Miss May Fortescue, Mrs. James Brown Potter, Miss Ellen Terry, Miss Eastlako, Geo. R. Sims, Celil Rashall P. Wilder, Major John H. Bucke of the "Wild West," Geo. Delacher, Green Room Club; Thomas Burnside, Savage Club; editor Topical Times, editor Reteree, editor Stage, editor Sporting and Dramatic News, T. C. Crawford, representing New York World; Geo. W. Smalley, representing New York Tribune; Harold Frederic, representing New York Times; W. W. Kelley, manager Grace Hawthorne; Marcus Mayer, Wm. El. Chapman; Townsend Percy of the "Wild West;" Ed. A. Perry, representing Boston Globe; editor Sporting Times, Fleet street.
Promptly at 10:30 yesterday morning Dan Frohman and Ed Sothern came down the White Star pier with Eugene B. Sanger in tow. He had his packet of souvenirs under his right arm and a bright smile on his face. He is 14 years old and a handsome youngster, as any one can see who looks at his picture in this column. When he had been safely led aboard the Germanic he hurried to his stateroom amidships to put away his package. Going through the cabin he found a surprise on the table. A big horse-shoe of roses and violets was the first thing he saw. It was from his fellow-messengers. With it was a big bouquet of white roses from Ed Sothern and a basket of flowers from N. S. Wood, the boy actor. When Eugene had admired the tributes Dan Frohman took him up to the hurricane deck and introduced him to Capt. Gleadell, a fine gray-haired sailor man, who looks like Gladstone. Eugene will sit near the captain at dinner all the way across the Atlantic.
Just as the steamer was leaving the pier down marched fifty Mutual District boys, with a boy drum and fife corps at their heads. They lined up like little soldiers on the string-piece and said "Hooray!" many times to Eugene. He took off his cap and waved it at them.
Through the arrangements made by Edwin H. Low, Mr. Bosworth, theatrical agent of the Midland Railway, will meet Eugene at Liverpool and rush him through to London. The steamer will arrive a week from to-night and the souvenirs will all be delivered by the following Monday Eugene will be received by Buffalo Bill at his leyee and on Friday, Aug. 19, Mr. Low will take him back to Manager Dan Freeman, the contract having been carried out. The lad will travel 6200 miles and bring back his pink tickets all properly signed.
182
CURRENT EVENTS. ------------------------------------ As commander of the Thirteenth Army Corps, Boulanger should carefully avoid duels.
The smallest jockey in the country is De Long, a most inappropriate name. He weighs only sixty-eight pounds.
The astonishing news goes forth that, after a recent ball in Saratoga, Berry Wall was observed wearing a collar and a pair of cuffs which were full of wrinkles.
Zola is about to publish a new novel said to be viler than any he has written heretobefore. It is too bad that no good shot thinks it worth while to challenge Zola to a duel.
London Truth says the the Prince of Wales has presented Buffalo Bill with a horseshoe pin set with diamonds. What Bill wants is the freedom of London.
Emperors William and Francis Joseph will meet at Gastein Aug. 6. An osculatory smack, which will echo around the world, will inagurate the meeting.
Robert Louis Stevenson is again seriously ill at Bournemouth. There is some fear that he never will be strong enough to make his contemplated American journey.
Miss Content is the unambitious name of one of the most popular of the season's belles at Long Branen. It is not at all an uncommon thing to find Discontent at Long Branch.
A correspondent writes that Mrs. Clement C. Moore of New York is the handsomest young married woman at Atlantic City, while Miss Josie Trossell ranks first among the unmarried belles.
After Jules Verne has finished his novel of the civil war he should try his hand at magazine article on the battle of Gettysburg. The subject is one especially suited to his peculiar genius.
Congressman Phelan of Memphis is the youngest member of the Fiftieth Congress. He will not be 31 when he takes his seat. Congressman Vandever, the oldest member, is 71.
Mrs. Sadie Chanfrau, aged 24 years, the wife of Henry T. Chanfrau, an actor, died recently. She was formerly Miss Sadie Fulton, the daughter of a well-known hotel proprietor of Pittsburg.
The monument of Sir William Wallace recently unveiled at Sterling is on an eminence three hundred feet above the plain. The pedestal is fifty feet high, and on this is a statue of the Scotch here twenty-one feet high.
Dr. McGlynn, three years ago, came near being appointed bishop of the Pittsburg diocese, his name, with three others, being sent to Rome. This gave him a close chance, as the pope was then favorable to him.
William K. Vanderbilt, who is still in London, has leased Beaufort Castle, Lord Lovat's new and picturesque seat in Inverness, for two months, at a rental of $10,000. It is said to be the very ideal of a sporting estate.
A twelve-year-old boy near Springfield, Mo., who was bitten by a rattlesnake, was saved from the effects of the poison by the application of the raw flesh of five chickens to the wound, and by drinking a quart of whisky.
A tall, fine-looking colored man recently called on Secretary Lamar, and the two men sat down and conversed for over an hour. The surprised clerks at length leraned that the caller was Bishop Turner of Georgia.
Queen Victoria has contributed numerous relics to the Mary Stuart Tercentenary Exhibitions at Peterborough, among them, a Bible with the Queen of Scots' autograph and a print of the Queen and Lord Darnley, of which only three copies exist.
At the Goodwood races the Prince of Wales wore a black sack coat made of rough cloth, gray trousers, white overgaiters, a white cravat tied in a four inhand knot, a white shirt and collar, a pair of yellow kid gloves and a gray Derby hat. He carried a cane with a silver handle Altogether the costume was much more becoming than the admiral's uniform he wore at the Spithead naval review.
Mrs. A. F. Hill of Orlando, Fla., got so excited at hooking a fish, while out for sport with her husband and niece, that she upset the boat, and the entire party were drowned.
At Redwood City, Dr. Gamble, a naturalized Canadian, tore down and trampled on the stars and stripes on the Fourth. He was ridden out of town on a three-cornered rail.
It is reported from Richmond, Va., that a pious Baptist of that city has rented her fine home and moved into cheaper quarters that she thus might be able to give $1000 a year more to charity than she otherwise could have done.
Zebehr Pacha, at Gibraltar, is still protesting that his rascally life has always been of unsullied purity. He says he never was a slave-trader, never murdered, never robbed. And he does not claim descent from Ananias either.
In the garden of the old McClellan house, in Gornam, Me., the first brick building erected in the county, a lady recently found a venerable looking gold ring, with this inscription still legible on the inside: "You are the rose that I have chose."
Daniel Dougherty, the silver-tongued, will go from London to the Isle of Wight and thence to Paris, the Mecca of most tourists. During his evenings in London he has gone to hear the debates in the House of Commons whenever he possibly could.
The original of a long lost letter written by Gen. Washington in acknowledgment of an address from the citizens of Newport has just been found in that city. It is written on both sides of two quarto pages of letter paper and is still distinct and readable.
A lawyer in Colmar who defended some Alsatians of Turkeim against the charge of having sung the "Marseillaise" got three weeks' imprisonment for his plea, the precise punishment that his clients received for their song. Lawyers' fees at this rate will soon be very high in Alsace.
An aged negro blacksmith, who still does good work at the forge in Ozan, Ark., and who is known as Gov. Pickens, is probably the oldest working blacksmith living. He was born in South Carolina March 7, 1787, and sold on the block in New Orleans and taken to Arkansas in 1840.
One of the crack shots of Louisiana recently said that he had engaged in his last live pigeon shooting match. He pronounced it cruel in the extreme, and said that others who had engaged in the last match hold the same opinion, since with but one or two exceptions they shoot under assumed names.
Queen Victoria is going to institute an order of literary merit consisting of twenty knights, fifty knights' companions and one hundred companions. Buffalo Bill's recent essays in literature should make him at least a companion.
Mr. Tizoni of Albany has just completed a bust of the lat ex-President Mark Hopkins of Williams College. The bust is made after a plaster cast taken soon after Dr. Hopkins death, and is wonderfully life-like in its general effect.
It has been some time since the American public has heard naything about Louise Michel, the famous Parisian agitator. It seems she has been devoting herself to literary work, and will soon publish a volume of poems entitled "Les Oceaniennes."
John M. Otter is probably the busiest hotel manager in the country. He is in charge of three hotels at Saratoga, the Grand Union, the Colonnade and the Windsor, and of two in New York, the Metropolitan and the Park Avenue. His cares, however, do not make much impression on his rugged health.
Harrison W. Garrett, Robert Garrett, Jr., and John W. Garrett, sons of Robert Garrett of Baltimore, are studying American geography in a pleasant manner. They left Baltimore in May with their tutor, and have traveled in a special car through Mexico, Texas, Colorado and other parts of the country. They recently passed through Utah on their way to California.
Mrs. S. A. Crane of St. Joseph, Mo., sat in her window in the fourth story of her house the other night in order to get a breath of fresh air. She dropped asleep and fell out of the window, and when picked up from the ground, seventy feet below, was found to have sustained no more serious injury than the breaking of one of her toes.
A year ago County Commissioner Van Pelt of Chicago, who is now being tried for bribery, was at the head of a delegation of business men who called on the president to ask him to appoint McGarigle, now a fugitive, to the marshalship of the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Cleveland did not like the looks of either Van Pelt or McGarigle and appointed another man.
A correspondent who has met Buffalo Bill and his daughter in London describes the latter as a young lady of 19, "inclined to be pretty, but rather conveying the impression that she revels in sucking oranges, chewing gum, etc." One of the curious features of her make-up noted was a piece of court plaster stuck artistically on the side of her nose.
Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland has some of her brother's prejudice against newspapers. She writes to the editor of a Maine magazine that she has not given up literary work for periodicals. She says she has been an associate editor with Mrs. Lamb since June 1 on the Magazine of American History. To the Maine editor she further says: "The untruthful and inventive newspapers are at fault and not yourself. My work in Mrs. Reed's school for the next year is that of an associate, not assistant, and is in connection with my historical work in general."
183
THE MESSENGER BOY
Arrested for an Alleged Violation of the British Postal Laws
New York, August 7.--Daniel Frohman's representative in London, Charles Overton, sent a cable despatch yesterday stating that his messenger boy had been arrested on Friday night in London on account of the violation of the postal laws, a fact which had not before presented itself. The cable was as follows:
London, August 6, 1887.--To Edwin II. Low, Low's Exchange, No. 947 Broadway, New York--Messenger boy arrested. Postal laws violated. Shall I retain counsel? CHARLES OVERTON.
Mr. Frohman cables his representative to secure an attorney to state the character of the boy's errand, and plead ignorance of postal laws.
Up to 5 P.M. yesterday Mr. Frohman had received no further news from his London agent regarding the arrest of the Lyceum Theatre messenger boy. The following is a copy of a telegram received by him from Major Burke, manager of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, dated Saturday, August 6
AMERICAN EXHIBITION GROUNDS, LONDON. To Daniel Frohman, Lyceum Theatre, N.Y.--Mutual District Messenger arrived at the Wild West Camp Brompton, this morning. The band played "Hail to the Pioneer Messenger." He was received by Buffalo Bill and the entire Wild West outfit. Buffalo Bill introduced him to an audience of 20,000 people. The boy delivered souvenirs to Cody,Salisbury and Townsend Percy. Great enthusiasm. He takes our stage coach to deliver his messages. BURKS.
Mr. Frohmar says this it is evident that the messenger's arrest did not occur until after his appearance at Buffalo Bill's levee. It was Mr. Frohman's intention only to have Cody introduce him to the select company of the nobility which waits upon him at the conclusion of his performance. He evidently did so after having first presented him to the entire gathering in general.
184
A RIB-ROAST BREAKFAST.
Buffalo Bill Entertains a Score of Dis-tinguished Gentlemen.
LONDON, Aug: 9.-- A "rib roast break-fast," in honor of Simon Cameron, was given to-day by Buffalo Bill and Nate Salis-bury in the marquee of the Wild West camp. A score of distinguished gentle-men were present, including Chauney M. Depew. Murat Halstead, General Hawley, Leonard Jerome and Justin McCarthy. Mr. Phelps, United States Minister, sent his regrets, saying he was going to Scotland. Grilled ribs were served to the guests on the homeliest platters and were eaten Indian fashion, with a keen relish.
185
BILL'S BLOWOUT,
Buffalo Bill Feeds United States Notables In Western Style
A Wild West Dinner.
London, Aug 9 -- [?] "rib roast breakfast" was given ___ ___ of man ___, to das, by Buffalo Bill and Nate Salisbury in the ___ of the Wild West camp. A hoard of distinguished gentlemen were present, including Chauncey M. Depew and Murat Hatstead, General Hawley, Leonard Jerome and Justice McCarthy. Mr. Phelps, United States min[?], sent his regrets saying he was going to [?] and Grilled ribs were served to guests on the homechest platters and were eaten Indian fashion with keen relish.
