PN 
 
 2287 
 T3A1 
 
 &f>e Story 
 
 Payton 
 
 GERTRUDE ANDREWS 
 
Class _Ti$2&4a— 
 B00k._IE3A.fe- 
 CopightN 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
MR. CORSE PAYTON. 
 
THE ROMANCE OF A WESTERN BOY 
 
 The STORY 
 
 of 
 CORSES 
 
 ^PAYTON 
 
 By™ 
 
 Gertrude Andrews 
 
 Illustrated by J. Arthur Day 
 
 Brooklyn-New York 
 
 THE ANDREWS PRESS 
 
 170 Division Avenue 
 1901 
 
4fr 
 
 THE 1 
 
 !SHA«Y OF 
 
 CC 
 
 i,( « '.-, p c g 
 
 Two C 
 
 ip.tis Received 
 
 OCT. 
 
 23 1901 
 
 Cop v 
 
 ?I(?HT ENTRV 
 
 Atjvt 
 
 %5~/<fo/ 
 
 CLASS (X XX& No. 
 
 / t 
 
 nZ * 
 
 COPY C. 
 
 Copyright, 1901, by Fred G. Andrews. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
f 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 f 
 
 * " CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Home on the Prairies ... 5 
 
 II. A Boy's Ambitions 13 
 
 III. Circus Days 26 
 
 IV. A Tragic Night Ride 38 
 
 V. Barnstorming 49 
 
 VI. Rocks of Fate 61 
 
 VII. On the Rialto 69 
 
 VIII. Cupid Hits a Mark 79 
 
 IX. Types of Theatrical Mania ... 92 
 
 X. The Brooklyn Theater .... 100 
 
 XI. Off for Europe 109 
 
 XII. The Song of Prosperity . . . .117 
 
^fe^ian #£ IJJamsm Jfc*jr Joeing 
 
THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE KOME QN THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 ES, it is a pretty good name, 
 because you never get your 
 mail mixed up with that of 
 any one else." 
 Such was Corse Dayton's com- 
 ment on his own name, and in that 
 comment he unwittingly expressed the 
 secret of his own success. No one would 
 ever think of mixing him up with any 
 one else. His is a unique personality that stands 
 out quite alone by itself. No one would ever 
 quite forget him. Those keen restless eyes, 
 
6 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 which flash upon one in such a quizzical way 
 leave a picture on the memory. They look at 
 life as a comedy, and a comedy to be played with 
 a joyful appreciation of his own life therein. 
 That unique personality, the chief characteristic 
 of which is its superabundance of vitality, has 
 stamped itself upon theatrical history. 
 
 Like young Lochinvar and a lot of other bright 
 folks, Corse Payton " has come out of the west," 
 where 
 
 " In verduous tumult far away 
 The prairie-billows gleam.' * 
 
 It has been said that we are each the result of 
 some thing, and occasionally we meet an indi- 
 vidual who sets us speculating on what com- 
 bination of events produced him as a result. In 
 looking back to the origin of Corse Payton one 
 concludes that in his make-up there entered the 
 untamed freedom of the prairies, and those emo- 
 tions which were a part of the civil war ; for he 
 came into the world not long after the war's close. 
 He was, in fact, a sort of thanksgiving baby — 
 thanksgiving for peace and the safe return of a 
 soldier father. That father served through the 
 war under John M. Corse, who was at first a 
 
THE HOME ON THE PRAIRIES. 7 
 
 Colonel in the Sixth Iowa Infantry, but later rose 
 to the rank of Brigadier General. 
 
 General Corse and Joseph Payton were very 
 close friends. Both were wounded at the battle of 
 Missionary Ridge. And, when some three years 
 later, Joseph Payton's black eyed baby boy began 
 his battle of life, he was named Corse in memory 
 of the dear soldier friend. 
 
 Evidently he liked the name, 
 for he was a jolly happy little 
 chap, and grew in mischief as 
 all normal babies do. The 
 stage where he played his first 
 scene was Centerville, Iowa. 
 Here he gave vent to his first dramatic wail, and 
 here he spoke his first line. 
 
 But I must tell you something about his father 
 and mother. 
 
 Away back there in the year 1844, when the 
 great prairies still lay in a drowsy trance, and 
 before the California gold seekers had begun their 
 exultant chorus of Westward, Ho ! Joseph Payton 
 — being then only ten years old — was taken into 
 the wilderness of Iowa. Here he entered upon the 
 wild," free and lonely existence of a pioneer. But 
 
8 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 those were experiences which produced a type of 
 fearless, strong men-^men imbued with a love of 
 country; for had not the power of their muscle 
 gone into the framework of that country ? With 
 an undaunted courage and with persevering toil 
 they developed the embryotic wealth of a new 
 land. It certainly is not strange then that they 
 loved it. Such strong love of country is always 
 characteristic of the pioneer. It was the inspira- 
 tion of those staunch old Pilgrim Fathers, and in 
 that fight for a land of liberty, they were ever 
 conscious of their own suffering toil which had 
 made a home of the wilderness. 
 
 For five years after young Joseph Payton went 
 with his parents into Appanoose County, Iowa, 
 they had no neighbors save the Sac and Fox 
 tribes of Indians. At that 
 time famous old Keokuk 
 was chief of the Sac tribe, 
 Joseph's only playmates were 
 the Indian lads. With them 
 he matched his prowess, 
 and grew in strength. With 
 them he learned to swim, and 
 to shoot with bow and arrow. 
 
THE HOME ON THE PRAIRIES. 9 
 
 With them he sat at night round camp fires and 
 listened to Indian lore. Many other things he 
 learned besides through these associations — 
 things which are learned by boys who come in 
 close contact with Mother Nature. He learned 
 the different animals of the prairies — he learned 
 them both great and small, their characteristics 
 and habits of life. He grew to understand the 
 voices of the wilderness, and he caught from the 
 Indian lads their inheritance of observation. 
 Later these powers of observation developed into 
 an alert, keen-wittedness which was eventually 
 passed on to his son Corse. 
 
 At fourteen years old the boy Joseph became 
 an independent wage earner, for at that time he 
 began to carry the mail from Othena to Center- 
 ville, Iowa. This trip 
 he made on horse back 
 once^week. The dis- 
 tance from town to town 
 was forty miles ; and the -^ 
 munificent sum which' 
 i.2 received for this long 
 ride through a new and 'fft. 
 hostile country was four " .^P^ 
 
IO 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 dollars a month. At Centerville he turned over 
 his mail bag to William F. Cody, who has since 
 gained a world wide reputation as "Buffalo Bill," 
 but who was then also serving Uncle Sam in the 
 capacity of mail carrier. 
 
 For two years Joseph continued to take this 
 weekly ride when he gave it up for the life of a 
 farmer. 
 
 Then, out there on the prairies, began the 
 romance of his life. He met and loved the young 
 widow Elizabeth Manson. There where the wild 
 flowers nodded encouragement, and the trees 
 rustled their sympathy, and 
 the soft prairie winds breath- 
 ed their joy in the Creator's 
 greatest gift to man, Joseph 
 wooed and won Elizabeth. 
 And another home was begun 
 in the new land — a home in 
 the truest sense of that word, 
 H for the wealth of Elizabeth's 
 heart and brain were spent 
 to enrich its treasures. In no other woman's 
 nature have the beauty of wifehood and mother- 
 hood been more strongly marked than in hers. 
 
THE HOME ON THE PRAIRIES. II 
 
 Elizabeth was also a child of the prairies. 
 Her first knowledge of the world's beauties, 
 of earth and sky, was gained from glimpses 
 through the windows and door of a log cabin. 
 When, in 1846, Iowa w T as admitted into the Union 
 as a State, Elizabeth Manson's father was the 
 first representative from Davis County. Some 
 years later the family moved to Appanoose 
 County, and settled in Centerville, where Eliza- 
 beth's father became a mail contractor, sub-letting 
 contracts to other parties. 
 
 Here it was that she at last met Joseph Pay ton 
 and became his wife. Here they first began house- 
 keeping, and here it is she has always lived. 
 But the log cabin of earlier days has been replaced 
 with a beautiful modern home. The old farm 
 has been narrowed to a velvety lawn around 
 which bloom many brilliant shrubs and rose 
 bushes. The neighbors are no longer Indians, 
 but cheerful, loving friends, who are filled 
 with that hospitality and energetic spirit of 
 progress which are so characteristic of the west. 
 
12 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 And for this beautiful home and the many 
 luxuries she enjoys, Elizabeth Pay ton never tires 
 of praising her black eyed war-baby Corse. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 
 
 EN have different character- 
 istic ways of acquiring wis- 
 dom through experience. 
 Corse Pay ton's method has 
 been the lightning express 
 kind which bangs impetuously 
 ahead until it smashes into some- 
 thing standing in the way to suc- 
 cess. He pulls himself out of the 
 ruins , and, for a while, views that 
 "something" with a dazed quizzical surprise. 
 He does not nurse his bruises for long, how- 
 ever. Soon he recovers his accustomed confi- 
 dence and, climbing nimbly over the impediment, 
 gets up steam again for another quick run. The 
 next time, though, that he makes that same run 
 he does not do any smashing. No, he puts on 
 
14 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 the brakes and stops before getting hurt, for he 
 has learned the dangerous places along that line. 
 
 Never was he known to ask advice. The people 
 who are always asking advice are not the ones 
 who do things. Such people spend their time 
 figuring how a thing ought to be done, and if 
 they ever get around to do it some one is ahead 
 of them and taking up all the road. Corse Pay- 
 ton's motto is "get the road first." 
 
 Not allowing himself, therefore, to be confused 
 with conflicting advice, he has stamped all of his 
 enterprises with his own originality. Now, 
 originality being the commodity the world most 
 wants, he has, of course, succeeded. 
 
 Very early in life did this impetuous energy of 
 his make itself felt. When only a wee chap at- 
 tending the Centerville school, he was the recog- 
 nized Boss of Boyville. He it was who originated 
 and carried out most of those reckless projects by 
 which boys show their animal inheritances. 
 He always had the biggest kite and the highest 
 stilts. He could throw a stone farther than any 
 other boy. He could jump the highest and swim 
 the longest, and he always chained the affection 
 of the prettiest girl. In his riotous imagination 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 15 
 
 grew wild schemes, and his com- 
 panions followed him as admiring 
 confidence has ever followed fear- 
 less independence since man was a 
 lower animal and lived in herds 
 where the boldest was always tacit- 
 ly acknowledged leader. 
 
 Patriotism was one of Corse's 
 strongest inheritances. He carries 
 on his arm to-day a mark of his 
 enthusiastic patriotism. This mark 
 recalls one of the smashing-up ex- 
 periences of his early life. 
 
 It happened when he was about 
 ten years old. There had been a 
 Grand Army reunion in Centerville. 
 The flying bunting; the music of ^y" ^nLJ^i 
 brass bands ; the military sugges- 
 tiveness of fife and drum and clum- 
 sy rattling cannon; the uniformed ^ \lr,<^^ 
 soldiers marching in solemn parade, ^^^Wm&fo. 
 and the hysterical shouts of interested specta- 
 tors all made a strong appeal to the dramatic 
 instinct of the boy's nature. He flew everywhere 
 on that day, he shouted himself hoarse, and ex- 
 
l6 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 citedly rushed in and out of the crowd, delirious 
 with his own riotous emotions. But he was not 
 content to remain a mere witness of such inspir- 
 ing festivities. He longed to do something which 
 might act as a vent to his own dramatic yearnings, 
 so he planned a sensation and took two other lads 
 into his confidence. By some method, which 
 would probably not bear too critical an investiga- 
 tion, they secured an old gun-barrel, and, by pool- 
 ing finances, succeeded in getting enough money 
 together to buy a considerable amount of powder. 
 These treasures were surreptitiously carried to a 
 safe hiding place ; and that night, if all attention 
 had not been absorbed by the reunion, anxious ma- 
 ternal suspicions would have been aroused in three 
 different homes. The next day was Sunday, and 
 Centerville citizens slept late after the recent un- 
 usual excitement. When the sun rose from the 
 prairie billows, he saw a little community peace- 
 fully enjoying that lethargic reaction which follows 
 an emotional purgation. He saw something else, 
 too, did that old sun who has looked down upon 
 so many different kinds of earthly escapades. 
 He saw three touseled-headed boys steal from 
 three sleeping homes and cautiously speed to a 
 
MR. PAYTON'S FATHER AND MOTHER. 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 common meeting ground. Their actions would 
 have aroused the most stupid observer, for their 
 every movement betokened mischief, and in three 
 pairs of roguish eyes there gleamed a boy's joy in 
 his own original sin. 
 
 And then the Sunday calm 
 of Centerville was broken. An 
 appalling explosion shook the 
 town to its very cellars. This 
 explosion was followed by an- 
 other, and still another, each 
 increasing in force. 
 
 In a stunned sort of a way 
 Centervilleans opened their 
 eyes. They had gone to sleep, 
 their brains teeming with 
 stories of war and bloodshed. 
 Yesterday the town's atmos- 
 phere was charged with pain- 
 ful memories of old soldiers, 
 and every one, little and big, 
 had lived over again those sorrowful days before 
 Johnny had come marching home again. And 
 now to be awakened by these terrific explosions ! 
 All sorts of fearful possibilities rose in their 
 
IS THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 imaginations. Half-dressed men were soon rush- 
 ing down the streets. Women in night robes ap- 
 peared affrightedly at doors and windows. Chil- 
 dren cried. Dogs barked, and one nervous citizen, 
 having the town's safety at heart, hurried to ring 
 the fire bell. And, then suddenly, from the 
 point of commotion there came flying a terrified 
 lad with blackened face and mutilated trousers. 
 To anxious inquiries he gasped out the intelli- 
 gence that Corse Payton was killed, and public 
 alarm grasped the situation, and public sympathy 
 was mixed with a certain grim kind of public 
 satisfaction ; for Corse Payton's escapades had long 
 been a terror to the town and the cause of much 
 doleful forebodings as to his future career. It 
 seemed perfectly correct that he should go out of 
 the world in such a racket. Every one had always 
 predicted that he would burn the town down some 
 time, or throw it into some kind of frantic con- 
 vulsions. 
 
 But Centerville was not yet to lose its most en- 
 terprising citizen. Some time later a number of 
 men carried Corse across his own threshold. 
 His face showed very white in spots through 
 an uneven coating of black powder. His hair was 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 
 
 19 
 
 wildly tumbled and his coat, blown to rags, ex- 
 posed a bloody and mutilated arm. 
 
 The Payton home was crowded with neighbors 
 in every kind of undress. All citizens who could 
 not crowd into the house and yard had gone for 
 doctors. To this agitated commotion Corse re- 
 mained a quiet though intensely interested spec- 
 
 tator. It was all such a legiti- 
 mate part of the show, and he felt 
 himself the hero in the middle of the stage. To 
 be sure a luckless heroine had not been rescued, 
 but a sensation had been created and he regarded 
 the results of his efforts with eminent satisfaction. 
 The first line he spoke in his little Sabbath 
 day drama was addressed to his mother. ■ White 
 faced and agonized, she bent over him and shud- 
 
20 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 dered at sight of that bleeding arm. Corse look- 
 ed up and smiled a wan, sickly smile of triumph 
 then said in a voice which, though faint, was 
 propped by the pride of a Napoleonic achievement, 
 " The gun-barrel busted, but it was a lulu, wasn't 
 it?" 
 
 At school Corse was the star orator. On Fri- 
 day afternoons he fairly stunned the rats in the 
 walls with his vigorous declamation of " Bingen 
 on the Rhine," and " The Boy Stood on the 
 Burning Deck." Once he loosened the dignity 
 of that educational institution by doing a song 
 and dance there. He was always a clever singer 
 and possessed perfect time and rhythm of move- 
 ment. Into his singiag and dancing he threw 
 such a joyful abandonment that a Chinese god 
 must have been awakened to mirth at watching 
 him. In theatrical slang this joyful abandon- 
 ment is termed " ginger," and Corse has ever 
 acted with ginger. 
 
 When he reached the age of fourteen he had an 
 experience which stands as a mile-stone in his 
 development. It came in the fall of the year 
 when J country fairs were in full swing. In an 
 adjoining town was to be held one of these fairs. 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 21 
 
 All Centerville was talking about it. Every- 
 where on fences and barns bright colored posters 
 set forth its various attractions, these posters were 
 studied with an eager interest by the school boys, 
 and their enticing pictures mixed themselves up 
 with arithmetic and geography at the expense of 
 the latter. In their animated, boyish way, they 
 discussed the fair early and late, in season and 
 behind dog-eared school books ; until Corse knew 
 only one ambition in life, and that was to go to 
 this fair heralded by such alluring posters. He 
 thought of it continually and, as he thought, his 
 longing grew. It grew, in fact, until it became 
 strong enough to trip up his conscience and he 
 ran away. 
 
 He had only money enough to reach the goal of 
 his ambition, but that did not bother him in the 
 least Sufficient unto the day was the money 
 thereof, and then there was, as there always has 
 continued to be, his faith in his own lucky 
 destiny. 
 
 He reached the fair, and what a day of unalloy- 
 ed bliss he did put in. Those quick, black eager 
 eyes saw everything. In happy contentment he 
 wandered through the low wooden buildings and 
 
22 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 enjoyed to the utmost all that brilliant display of 
 canned fruits and bright bed quilts, big potatoes 
 and proud squashes. With an inborn admiration 
 for success, he gazed approvingly upon those pigs 
 and cows that had fattened beyond the ordinary 
 proportions of their kind. But what most com- 
 pletely fascinated him were the booths where per- 
 formed the wonderful snake charmer, the slick 
 prestidigitator, the witty Punch and Judy, and 
 all of those other wonderful fakirs, so dear to the 
 boyish imagination. 
 
 It was then and there that he dedicated his life 
 to Thespis, for it was then and there that he 
 recognized the goal towards which his craving 
 ambition had ever been carrying him. Before 
 night, however, he felt other cravings than those 
 of ambition. In spite of all this wonder and 
 beauty around him, he began to feel the mortify- 
 ing demands of the flesh. He was hungry — furi- 
 ously hungry, and he had no money with which 
 to buy anything to eat. It was characteristic of the 
 boy that he never thought of begging. He must 
 earn money with which to buy food. Then 
 he began casting around in his mind for some 
 way to do this. Suddenly into his brain there 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 
 
 23 
 
 flashed a thought that electrified him with its 
 fascinating possibilities. His eyes danced with a 
 new and daring ambition. Why not put his talents 
 to use at once, and here and now begin his glori- 
 ous career ! To think has always meant to him 
 to act, and he immediately threw himself into this 
 new enterprise. Choosing what he considered 
 to be a good spot he be- 
 gan to sing and dance. 
 Very quickly did he at- 
 tract an audience, and 
 so intoxicated was he 
 with the sound of their 
 applause that he com- 
 pletely forgot his hun- 
 ger, and nearly forgot 
 the necessary collection 
 of pennies which was to 
 appease it. 
 
 He rose rapidly in his chosen profession, for the 
 next day he succeeded in securing a position with 
 a minstrel " troupe " which gave continuous per- 
 formances in the open air on a primitive stage 
 put up in a conspicuous spot on the fair grounds. 
 So fast did he rise in favor that by the end 
 
24 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 of the week lie had become a popular "end man. 1 ' 
 But, alas ! on Saturday his blissful career as a 
 negro minstrel was rudely and ignominiously cut 
 short. On that day — the last of the fair — the show 
 had gotten in confident running order, and was 
 jingling along at a merry gait. Corse sat on the 
 platform jauntily sustaining his proud position of 
 end man, and throwing all the abundant ardor 
 
 of his being into the ham- 
 mering of a tambourine. 
 His face was beautifully 
 blacked with burnt cork. 
 On one hand flashed a 
 brass ring holding an im- 
 mense glass setting. He 
 wore a white collar of fan- 
 tastic proportions, and a 
 red and black coat in which his lanky, boyish 
 figure was completely lost. 
 
 Never in his life had Corse known greater joy, 
 and his pulses thrilled with the glorious delight 
 of it all. Why must these moments which come 
 so seldom in a lifetime be so cruelly blasted ! 
 
 All of a sudden, as Corse glanced out over the 
 crowd, his joy turned to consternation and his 
 
A BOY'S AMBITIONS. 25 
 
 galloping blood piled up in his heart with a 
 shock that made his face blanch even through the 
 burnt cork. For there on the outskirts of the 
 crowd stood his father, and on that father's face 
 was a look of scowling uncertainty. 
 
 For an instant they gazed into each other's eyes, 
 then poor Corse made a hurried and humiliated 
 exit. On reaching the crude dressing room be- 
 hind the stage he threw aside his minstrel glory, 
 and with contrite haste began to wash away the 
 badge of his short triumph. 
 
 Here at last his father found him, and the big 
 eyes looked out anxiously from a face streaked 
 with soapy water and burnt cork. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 N ominous silence Joseph Pay- 
 ton conducted his son to the 
 railroad station. All sorts of 
 speculations were running 
 wild in the boy's head, but he 
 asked no questions. The 
 sense of disloyalty to his mother, 
 which all the week had been 
 lurking in the background of his 
 sensations, now came boldly forward and filled 
 him with contrition. A lump rose in his throat, 
 and a tear found its way down his half-washed face. 
 But he brushed it aside impatiently, and steeled 
 his manhood with the mental assertion that he 
 "wasn't a kid any longer," and guessed he had 
 a right to strike out for himself if he wanted to. 
 " Mothers are so confounded afraid." This 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 27 
 
 last lie told himself with an air of injured digni- 
 ty meant to bluff his conscience. 
 
 On arriving at the station Mr. Payton went 
 immediately to buy their tickets back to Center- 
 ville. And now came one of the keenest triumphs 
 in Corse's whole life. Never can he forget the 
 elixir of that moment. Stepping up to the ticket 
 office, he swelled out his chest and said with an 
 exaggerated dignity : 
 
 "Here, father, let me _ >jP®h 
 
 buy the tickets." 
 
 His father turned upon 
 him a look of surprise and 
 caught sight of a good 
 sized roll of bills which 
 the boy flashed out of his 
 pocket. 
 
 " Where did you get all 
 that money ? " 
 
 Corse was too inflated with his own importance 
 to catch the quick note of suspicion in his father's 
 voice. Tossing his head carelessly, he said with 
 a drawling braggadocio : 
 
 " Why, where d'you s'pose I got it ? I earned 
 it, of course." 
 
28 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 " Earned it ! " Mr. Payton repeated with in- 
 creased incredulity. 
 
 " Why, yes, of course," and the boy spit care- 
 lessly through his teeth, over his shoulder. 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " Why, here at the fair." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " O, singing and dancing." 
 
 " Singing and dancing ! " 
 
 For an instant Joseph Payton regarded his son 
 doubtfully. It was not possible that singing and 
 dancing could be of enough importance anywhere 
 in the world to command money. But Corse met 
 his father's gaze with a look of stubborn insist- 
 ence that proved convincing, and a new respect 
 dawned slowly in Joseph Payton's eyes. His son 
 took on a new importance to him, for had he not 
 exhibited a capacity for money making. Here- 
 tofore Joseph had looked upon this member of 
 his household as only a frisky young animal who 
 required so many pairs of shoes a year, and for 
 which he was himself accountable. Now in a 
 minute everything was changed. The frisky 
 young animal was most unexpectedly become a 
 being of importance with a market value. He 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 29 
 
 was now a money maker! He had passed be- 
 yond the state of dependence and had shown him- 
 self to be a free individual capable of standing 
 in shoes for which he had himself paid. Here- 
 after the father must face new conditions. His 
 manner toward the boy changed. His air of 
 parental disapproval, which had portended pain- 
 ful interviews to come, gradually melted into one 
 of greater leniency, and he treated Corse with a 
 nearer equality. This treatment made rapid 
 strides into a jovial comradeship, and the two 
 went off to a hotel and had dinner together. 
 
 But the seed of independence 
 having been planted in the j] 
 boy's nature now grew like a 
 weed — as it will grow in a boy 
 of that age. 
 
 If Corse had been content 
 to settle down to some 
 steady employment in Center- 
 ville all would have gone 
 smooth enough. But the boy's restless energy 
 could not be curbed within such narrow lim- 
 its. He longed to see the world and feel him- 
 self a part of its bustling activity. He wanted 
 
3o 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 more room than Centerville afford- 
 ed. 
 
 The following summer Fore- 
 paugh's Circus spread its fascina- 
 ting and mysterious influence over 
 the small Iowa town. No one who 
 has not experienced it can ever 
 realize of what great importance 
 the coming of a circus is to a small 
 town. For weeks this circus had 
 been the all absorbing talk of Boy- 
 ville. Every picture had been 
 studied and discussed until its min- 
 utest detail was engraved upon the 
 memory of each young citizen, mak- 
 ing all his pulses throb with an im- 
 patient and joyful anticipation. 
 
 No other event ever arouses in a 
 boy the same feverish excitement 
 as that kindled by a circus. The 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 31 
 
 barbarity of it all appeals to his primal instincts. 
 The great tents, the prancing horses and the 
 caged beasts all combine to stir within him the 
 inheritances of savage ancestors. The smell of 
 sawdnst intoxicates him as the odor of fresh earth 
 and spicy forests palpitated in the blood of pri- 
 meval man, filling him with the nntamed joy 
 of life. 
 
 And so Corse was canght in the spell of the 
 circns, and again ran away from home. This 
 time he took a chnm with him. They were gone 
 for five weeks. 
 
 With a reckless enjoyment Corse followed np 
 the allnrements of show life. His histrionic tal- 
 ents were now exerted in the sell- 
 ing of peanuts and pink lemon- 
 ade to the noisy circus audiences. 
 In circus parlance he was 
 known as "a butcher." Just 
 what sarcasm is embedded 
 in that term one must dis- 
 cover for himself. But as 
 pink lenonade possesses 
 deadly possibilities some such 
 suggestion may have passed on to its dispensers. 
 
32 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 The circus brought many and varied experi- 
 ences to Corse. A new and dazzling world opened 
 up before him. The many hardships were palli- 
 ated by the constant novelty, freedom and strange 
 excitement of that roving life. 
 
 It was an old darkey who said of the rolling 
 stone : 
 
 " Maybe he don't git de moss, but he done git 
 de polish." 
 
 So in that circus experience Corse got consider- 
 able polish — polish of a certain kind. He learned 
 life. He saw what appealed to the crowd, and 
 this knowledge he stored away for future use. 
 
 He tells many quaint stories of those five weeks, 
 but one story which struck me as particularly 
 interesting I will relate for you. It shows the 
 great memory of animals, and how their love 
 and confidence, being once gained, remain 
 steadfast. 
 
 This incident happened in a city during the 
 street parade. The caravan was moving majes- 
 tically along. Its tinsel and coloring combined 
 with its mystery and delightful suggestiveness 
 of wickedness brought up tingling recollections 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 33 
 
 of Arabian Nights' pictures; and in those many 
 faces, both old and young along the route, there 
 shown the same happy interested look of child- 
 hood. A circus parade is a great leveler of years. 
 It possesses more than anything else that charm 
 which makes Time turn backward in its flight. 
 The old man leaning on his cane took the same 
 boyish delight in the great hulking elephants as 
 did the excited bit of a grandson at his side. 
 
 A murmur of anticipation announced the 
 coming of the lions' cage. Special interest was 
 attached to this cage because it was uncovered, 
 and the great beasts were exposed to the eager 
 gaze of the crowd. The day was particularly hot 
 and irritating and the lions appeared more restless 
 than usual. Back and forth across the cage 
 floor they paced, lashing their tails, and growling 
 and fretting at the inquisitive audience outside 
 who watched them with a shuddering interest. 
 Perhaps in all that multitude not one was there 
 who sent a thought of pity to the proud 
 imprisoned beasts. 
 
 Then, of a sudden, one of the big lionesses 
 stopped in her nervous walk. For an instant 
 she stood with head erect gazing steadily out 
 
34 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 through the bars of the cage into the crowd 
 beyond. Something had evidently touched to a 
 quick alertness all her senses. A trembling 
 passed ever the big firn:e, £rd with a wild 
 and pitiful cry she sprang and caught on the 
 bars and tried to thrust her nose out between 
 them. All the time she kept up that peculiar, 
 insistent call. 
 
 The sudden spring created an instant panic in 
 the crowd. The animal's cry was met with 
 frightened screams from women and children. 
 There was a frantic rush to get back out of the 
 way. In that rush women were knocked down 
 and children trampled under foot; but at such 
 times fear paralyzes all human instincts. 
 
 As the crowd surged back, one woman held 
 her position on the sidewalk. In all that mad 
 rush she alone remained fixed, and was left a 
 conspicuous and isolated figure on the edge of 
 the sidewalk. She was a large woman and of 
 very striking appearance. She would have 
 attracted attention anywhere. Her face was 
 strong and remarkably beautiful. Her hair was 
 perfectly white, which enhanced the brilliancy of 
 a pair of large black eyes. Those eyes were now 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 35 
 
 riveted upon the lions' cage. Perfectly still the 
 woman stood, her ungloved hands clasped before 
 her. She seemed to be under the spell of some 
 strong emotion, for the tears ran unheeded down 
 her cheeks. 
 
 Soon those people near her forgot their fright 
 in the curiosity she excited. The lions' cage was 
 passing on down the street, but the old lioness 
 still kept up the piteous cry, and tried hard to get 
 her head out between the bars. 
 
 Then, before 
 anyone could 
 stop her, the 
 woman rushed 
 impetuously out into tile street and ran after the 
 
36 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 open cage. When the big lioness saw her com- 
 ing she gave a cry of delight and loosening her 
 hold on the bars dropped again to the floor. All 
 this time, of course, the cage kept moving along, 
 and the woman was obliged to hurry that she 
 might keep pace with it. 
 
 By this time all the people had forgotten their 
 fright and were surging after the cage in spite of 
 police authority. 
 
 The woman had now thrust her arm boldly 
 in between the bars and the big lioness was lick- 
 ing the white hand, and crying in a happy pur- 
 ring way. Both seemed entirely oblivious of the 
 crowd's attention. Tears ran rapidly down the 
 woman's cheeks as she spoke soft words of en- 
 dearment to her caged friend. Thus they trav- 
 eled along side by side until the circus grounds 
 were reached. There the woman was recognized 
 by the manager and some performers as a 
 Madame Rinehart who had traveled for twenty 
 years with various circuses. She had a strange 
 and interesting history, but had possessed remark- 
 able personal magnetism and always preserved an 
 undaunted courage. When with a circus she drove 
 one of the chariots in the race, and at each perform- 
 
CIRCUS DAYS. 
 
 37 
 
 ance went into the cage with the lions. She had 
 known some thrilling experiences, bnt never had 
 she failed to tame the most nngovernable of 
 wild beasts. 
 
 This old lioness had been one of her special 
 pets, bnt for years they had not seen each other. 
 Still the faithfnl animal had recognized her 
 friend even in that great mass of people, gome- 
 thing very pathetic was there, too, in this joyons 
 recognition of one friend in all that cnrious, hos- 
 tile crowd, where probably not one thought of 
 sympathy had been given the poor animal 
 brought from a great free jungle to fret in a nar- 
 row cramped cage for the idle amusement of un- 
 thinking and unfeeling civilization. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A TRAGIC NIGHT RIDE. 
 
 URING those weeks when 
 Corse and his chnm were 
 following np the circus, 
 anxious hearts beat in the 
 little homes at Centerville. 
 Far and near did Joseph 
 Payton seek his son, and 
 Elizabeth Payton watched 
 and waited with a mother's appre- 
 hensive love. But the boy's whereabouts re- 
 mained a mystery. Not one trace was found to 
 lessen the anxious tension binding that little 
 circle. And not until the boy's own longings 
 for home had awakened his conscience to the 
 enormity of his offense, was there any sign from 
 him. Then, finally, at the end of about six 
 weeks he suddenly reappeared one day in the 
 
A TRAGIC NIGHT PJDE, 39 
 
 bosom of his family ; and again was enacted that 
 old drama of The Prodigal's return. The delight 
 at seeing him home again alive and well quite 
 crowded his transgressions into the background, 
 and his affectionate family immediately pro- 
 ceeded to mend the prodigal's clothes and to fill 
 the prodigal's stomach. 
 
 The trip home from the circns had been fnll 
 of strange events, weird travel and most uncom- 
 fortable pangs of hunger. Only by slow degrees 
 did Corse and his chum Frank unravel the 
 mysteries of that fateful journey. They much 
 preferred to elaborate for the pleasure of their 
 admiring Centerville audiences the wild fascina- 
 tions of a circus life. But one experience of that 
 homeward trip they did relate, however, and to 
 the rehearsal of that experience Centervilleans 
 never grew tired of listening. It brought such a 
 bit of blood curdling dime novel romance right 
 home to their own quiet firesides. It gave im- 
 portance to the town, too ; for this experience had 
 excited national interest, and its thrilling details 
 had been flashed over all the wires in the country. 
 Newspapers were full of it. Centerville had 
 been stirred with excitement over accounts of it. 
 
40 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 And, when the news spread through the town 
 that two of their own young citizens had been 
 eye-witnesses of that desperate scene, local pride 
 swelled. 
 
 It all happened on one dark night in Missouri. 
 It was a very dark night, and our two runaways 
 had been glad of this fact for reasons of their 
 own. When they decided to leave the circus and 
 start for home they had very little money — not 
 nearly enough to buy tickets for Centerville. So 
 they resorted to that method of independent 
 travel which labors to avoid any meetings with 
 conductors or other railroad officials. They took 
 their rides, in fact, on the installment plan, and 
 were not hypercritical, either, in their choice of 
 trains. Freight, cattle and passenger trains all 
 served their purpose in turn ; their only concern 
 being to avoid any undue conspicuousness. In 
 this effort they were not, of course, always suc- 
 cessful, and frequently found themselves drearily 
 astray in queer places devoid of a sheltering rail- 
 road station. 
 
 But on this particular night they had succeed- 
 ed in slipping unnoticed to the front platform 
 of a baggage car, and were looking forward to a 
 
A TRAGIC NIGHT RIDE. 
 
 41 
 
 long ride free from disturbance. They believed 
 that the morrow would find them many miles 
 nearer home. 
 
 By this time they had learned how to adroitly 
 dodge observation by cramping their bodies down 
 on the platform steps, and clinging like monkeys 
 to the iron railings whenever 
 car doors were abruptly open- 
 ed. Sometimes under the stress 
 of dire necessity those inherent 
 powers which man brought out 
 of his monkey state still do 
 serve him well. 
 
 As the train speed along the 
 two boys chatted intermittent- 
 ly, for the thoughts of each 
 were hurrying on to the homes 
 towards which they traveled. Never before had 
 those homes seemed such sweet havens of rest. 
 And imagination pictured the town's excitement 
 when the news of the wanderers' return should 
 have spread. To be the center of so much agitat- 
 ed interest aroused all that was theatrical in the 
 boyish natures, and they looked forward with 
 eager relish to their own importance. Such 
 
42 . THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 visions served to render present discomforts more 
 bearable, and to indnce wakefulness. For to have 
 fallen asleep in such a position would have been 
 dangerous indeed. On many accounts was it 
 necessary to keep all their senses alert. 
 
 Still on they went, the train clanking monoto- 
 nously over the rails. Ahead the engine worked 
 and puffed like some living creature. Its smoke 
 blew back over the trail, at times enveloping the 
 boys in its sooty embrace. Overhead the stars 
 blinked, and the cool night air penetrated their 
 thin summer clothing. 
 
 In the passenger cars behind people talked or 
 slept all unconscious of any approaching danger. 
 
 By and by the boys saw lights flickering in the 
 distance ahead. They were approaching a station. 
 The train began to slacken up a trifle. Evidently 
 they were going to stop. Now our two boys 
 pricked up their ears and opened wide their eyes. 
 Stops always meant danger. With a strained 
 intentness they watched the car door, and held 
 themselves ready to crouch at an instant's notice. 
 
 Then a most unexpected thing happened — a 
 thing for which they were in no ways prepared- 
 They had looked for the disturbers of their 
 
A TRAGIC NIGHT RIDE, 
 
 43 
 
 peace to come from the car, and never dreamed 
 of anyone coming from another direction, any 
 how not when the train was still in motion. Bnt 
 that is jnst what did happen. Ont of the dark- 
 ness beside the train there suddenly sprang a 
 man who caught hold of the iron railing and 
 deftly swung himself on to the car platform. He 
 was a very big man, and behind him quickly fol- 
 lowed another. 
 Their appear- 
 ance was so total- 
 ly unexpected 
 that the two boys, 
 being taken so 
 completely by 
 surprise, had no 
 time in which to 
 crouch out of 
 the way, and 
 found themselves 
 tangled in the men's legs before they could 
 realize what had happened. 
 
 The men stumbled and caught themselves by 
 the railing. There were several quick and energetic 
 oaths, and the boys looked up to see something 
 
44 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 glisten in the dark, and felt the whiskey tainted 
 breath of the men as they stooped to see what was 
 in their way. 
 
 "It's a conple of kids stealing a ride/' one of 
 them said in a tone which suggested relief. 
 
 " What are you kids doing here?" the other 
 asked hurriedly, " Come, get out of the way, or 
 you'll get hurt." 
 
 And the next instant the two astonished lads 
 
 ?P found themselves sprawl- 
 ing in the weeds and grass 
 growing along one side of the railroad track. 
 How they got there they scarcely knew, the 
 journey was made so quick. Hurt and dazed they 
 pulled themselves up and looked after the train 
 
A TRAGIC NIGHT RIDE, 45 
 
 now slowing up to the station. Then, in mute 
 accord, they started on a swift run. They would 
 not be left out there alone without making a des- 
 perate effort to board the train again. They had 
 learned to fight for their rights and not to accept 
 defeat until no possible hope of success was left. 
 They had seen some rough life with the circus. 
 
 On they rushed in hopes of being able to jump 
 to another platform before the train should have 
 begun to move on again. As they drew nearer, 
 however, a sense of something unusual was felt by 
 both. Over everything had spread such an omin- 
 ous quiet. At the station was none of that usual 
 bustle of railroad officials. In fact, the station 
 seemed to be absolutely deserted. It was not a 
 big station. They quickly discovered that. 
 
 Then a woman screamed and voices rose in 
 angry altercation. There was swearing, quickly 
 followed by the sound of scuffling. As yet the 
 boys were not able to see what caused the trouble, 
 but still they hurried on. 
 
 All at once a pistol shot rang out on the air. 
 Some one groaned and fell heavily from a front 
 car platform to the ground. 
 
 The boys stopped and grabbed each other in 
 
46 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 terror. With wide opened eyes they stood and 
 stared at the train. Strange and horrible things 
 were evidently going on there. From where they 
 stood they could see the big bulk of a man filling 
 up the door way in one end of the car. He mov- 
 ed back and they caught the bright flash of a 
 revolver held in his hand. Through the car win- 
 dows they could see men standing with arms rais- 
 ed above their heads, and dark shapes hurrying 
 by them. They could hear women crying out in 
 fright, and they felt the awful presence of that 
 silent form lying deserted on the platform beyond. 
 The minutes were not many though ghastly 
 long, before the man, who had evidently been 
 guarding the car door, leaped to the ground and 
 started towards the spot where stood our two 
 white faced boys. They saw him coming and 
 their hearts stopped beating. Instinctively they 
 dropped to the ground, and, crouching in the 
 grass, were hid by the night. Rapidly the man 
 came towards them and then passed on into the 
 darkness. In another instant they heard him 
 talking in low hurried tones to some one whom 
 they could not see. They recognized, also, the 
 restless moving of horses. Before they could 
 
A TRAGIC NIGHT RIDE. 
 
 47 
 
 formulate any conjectures, however, four other 
 men leaped from the train, and also came run- 
 ning in their direction. The boys clung tighter 
 to each other and nearer to the earth. As the 
 men pass them the boys could hear their heav}?- 
 rapid breathing. Then off there in the darkness 
 were some terse, muffled directions, and presently 
 came the sound of horses ' hoofs, and, then in an- 
 other minute there was silence. Those five 
 phantom shapes had vanished like five evil spirits. 
 
 But now people began swarming out of the 
 train. Slowly the boys rose and cautiously ap- 
 proached it. A crowd 
 had surrounded that 
 silent form lying on the 
 platform. Lanterns 
 were brought. Men 
 talked in nervous ex- 
 cited tones and women |jj W^-M^Jti?* 
 cried. Somebody called r ^^^^m^!' ' i> ^JS^ 
 out : 
 
 " They've shot the conductor ! " 
 
 " Is he dead? " several others asked. 
 
 A man, who was bending over the prostrate 
 form, lifted his head and said something t® those 
 
48 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 near to him, and what lie said was passed on in 
 low tones from one to another. 
 
 " Yes, he's dead." 
 
 " What place is this ? " some one asked. 
 
 " Winston Junction," one of the men who car- 
 ried a lantern made answer. 
 
 " Winston Junction," was repeated by several 
 others. 
 
 " I wonder if it could have been the Jesse James 
 gang ? ,: 
 
 "That's probably who they were," the man 
 with the lantern replied. 
 
 And it was the Jesse James gang. The next 
 day people all over the country were reading the 
 newspapers' exciting accounts of that famous 
 hold-up at Winston Junction. 
 
MISS ETTA REED. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 BARNSTORMING. 
 
 BOUT this time the roller skat- 
 ing craze broke out and spread 
 a festive contagion over the 
 land. Everyone both big and 
 little was trying to glide on 
 wheels, and for a time all other 
 amusements languished. 
 
 Corse took the skating fever — 
 took it as he did everything else, 
 through his entire system. But he 
 was not content to simply glide languorously 
 night after night to the strains of music by the 
 side of some pretty girl. No, he must be a show 
 skater ; so he worked to that end, and succeeded 
 in becoming a proud and popular champion. 
 Again he found Centerville too small a stage for 
 his ambition, and carried his talents to other towns. 
 For some months he followed up the life of a 
 
5o 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 champion skater, giving exhibitions of his skill 
 in the various rinks all over the middle western 
 states. Champion skater seemed quite a jump 
 from circus butcher, and promised still bigger 
 things for the future. 
 
 Everywhere he won medals for his 
 skill, until no more room was left on 
 his breast to display them. He worked 
 with enthusiasm. But he could not 
 work in any other way. Enthusiasm 
 is the basic element in his nature. 
 His ambition is dynamic, and 
 into his every undertaking he 
 throws so much cordial energy 
 that its effect upon others is 
 electric. No matter how 
 much they may criticise, peo- 
 ple are in a way always fas- 
 cinated by his joyous zeal. 
 At one time in his skating career it was his 
 luck to win in a contest a pair of gold mounted 
 skates. Some months later, when he had taken 
 to the uncertain life of an actor, these very aristo- 
 cratic gold skates were put to most humiliating 
 
BARNSTORMING. 5 1 
 
 uses. Frequently they found themselves in most 
 plebeian society. 
 
 Senter Payton, an older brother of Corse's, had 
 chosen to follow the stage as a profession. He 
 did not always have engagements, however, and 
 when at home in Centerville, he indulged his 
 tastes and added to his exchequer by getting up 
 amateur entertainments. One whole winter he 
 spent there drilling a stock company. Several of 
 the Payton family were members of this company 
 which appeared each Saturday night at the local 
 theater in a different play. 
 
 At last they determined to try their luck in a 
 professional way, and Senter organized them into 
 a road company of which he took the manage- 
 ment. Corse was engaged at a salary of three 
 dollars and a half per week. But " the ghost " 
 never walked, although the actors came near 
 having to do so on several occasions. 
 
 Then began for Corse the varied and pictur- 
 esque ups and downs of a barnstormer's life. 
 
 The company played week " stands " in small 
 towns through Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. 
 The play was different each night, and the prices 
 of admission were ten, twenty and thirty cents. 
 
5^ 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 Times were hard and money scarce, and Corse 
 Had abundant opportunity to learn all those 
 facile arts whereby an impe- 
 cunious manager diplomati- 
 cally telescopes his company's, 
 hotel bills from one town into 
 another. And here is where, 
 the gold mounted skates play- 
 ed their humiliating role, much 
 to Corse's indignation. 
 
 By ingenious financiering 
 the show managed to keep on 
 the move. At this time Corse 
 responded to the stage cogno- 
 men " Props," although his duties could hardly 
 have been confined under that title. Besides 
 securing whatever properties were needed for each 
 performance, he was required to help run the 
 stage, distribute bills, sell tickets, sing songs and 
 act any part or parts necessary to fill out the 
 caste. He claims to have played every part in 
 Uncle Tom's Cabin, not excepting Eva. 
 
 This play of Uncle Tom's Cabin, by-the-way, 
 has been one of the greatest boons to the theatri- 
 cal profession. It has acted as a sort of financial 
 
BARNSTORMING. 53 
 
 life preserver to many a hapless Thespian. If 
 East Lynne, The Two Orphans, Ten Nights 
 in a Bar Room, or all the other old dramatic 
 friends failed to receive recognition from a coldly 
 indifferent public, not so Uncle Tom's Cabin. 
 That could always be counted on as certain to 
 draw a house. In fact, that play has become an 
 American tradition, and we honor it with some- 
 thing of the same spirit as we do the Fourth of 
 July. We observe it, too, with just about the 
 same hysterical fervor as we do our natal day. 
 To stimulate this hysteria managers have doubled 
 and tripled the bathos by giving us in one per- 
 formance two or three Evas and the same number 
 of Topsys. So do manufacturers stimulate our 
 patriotism by inventing bigger fire-crackers each 
 year. 
 
 Certainly no other play has so tempted actors 
 to guy. But dear old Uncle Tom's Cabin ! 
 What would we have done without it ? It has 
 been many different kinds of a cabin, but it holds 
 blessed memories for us all. 
 
 One night in this early company Corse was 
 playing the part of Mr. St. Clair. They had 
 reached the scene where Eva dies, and from all 
 
54 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 over the house came the sound of sobbing. The 
 entire audience was under a spell of wet and 
 limpsy grief. Down in front of the stage a mem- 
 ber of the company softly played Nearer my God 
 to Thee on an old and wheezy organ. Then it is 
 that the bereaved parent in tones of tremulous 
 grief eulogizes his beloved child. 
 
 Corse knelt by the couch on which Eva lay. His 
 head was bowed and his face buried in a handker- 
 chief. When the cue came for his burst of agoniz- 
 ed praise he slowly raised his eyes to the gallery 
 and said in slow and heartfelt tones : 
 
 " Evangeline ! Evangeline / Surely thou hast 
 been an evangel to me ! Was there ever such a 
 child as Eva ? Yes, there have been, but their 
 names were printed on programs ! " 
 
 Of course, everyone remembers that the line 
 should read, " their names are carved on tomb- 
 stones/ y 
 
 Another time the}^ were to play Uncle Tom in 
 Norton, Kansas. It was on a Saturday night. 
 At that time Norton did not have very extensive 
 railroad facilities. It sustained, in fact, rather an 
 exclusive aloofness to the rest of the world. A 
 train left there at half-past nine o'clock in the 
 
BARNSTORMING. 
 
 55 
 
 evening, and unless the company could catch that 
 train on this particular Saturday night they would 
 be obliged to remain in the town until the follow- 
 ing Monday night at this same time. That would 
 never do, of course. Uncle Tom must be rushed, 
 
 and rushed it was in 
 a way to make one 
 ^ dizzy. Uncle Tom 
 was sold, Eliza leap- 
 ed the ice blocks in the Ohio 
 § River, Eva died, and all the 
 other thrilling incidents were 
 comfortabty over, and the 
 final curtain rung down by 
 nine o'clock. 
 
 The company succeeded in 
 making their train, but suc- 
 ceeded under rather fantastic 
 conditions. They had no 
 time in which to change the 
 costumes of the play for trav- 
 eling attire, so Uncle Tom's unhappy satellites 
 were obliged to board the train just as they were 
 when the curtain fell between them and the audi- 
 
56 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 ence. Into the car they filed — Ophelia, Topsy, 
 Eva, Marks, Phineas Fletcher and all the rest— 
 a breathless conglomerated procession. And so 
 they rode in democratic companionship to the 
 next town which was Oberlin. 
 
 Bnt at Oberlin this romance of the snnny sonth 
 was met by a bit of harsh northern realism ; for 
 there the company ran into a Kansas blizzard. 
 
 One who has never experienced snch a blizzard 
 can scarcely realize what it is like. For honrs 
 snow traveled before the north wind nntil it seemed 
 as if all the Alaskan snowfields were being 
 blown into Kansas, and that State was in danger 
 of being bnried completely ont of sight. Nothing 
 is ever done by halves in Kansas. Excess is the 
 rule from grass-hoppers to reformers. 
 
 And this blizzard ! It achieved a national repu- 
 tation through the press. The poor Uncle Tomers 
 drew about them all the wraps they had ; but it 
 was a dreary, cold, wet and mongrel looking crowd 
 which at last made its grotesque appearance in 
 the office of the Oberlin hotel. In Aunt Ophelia 
 the spirit of her Pilgrim Fathers was not strong 
 enough . oattle with a Kansas blizzard ; for the 
 rakish tip of her " false front," and the demoral- 
 
BARNSTORMING. 57 
 
 ized condition of her general appearance indicated 
 the utter collapse of her Puritan conscience. And 
 our saintly Uncle Tom was not now using his 
 biblical vocabulary to describe " The New Jerusa- 
 lem/ ' but rather to paint its antithesis — a place 
 which Kansas in certain moods resembles. 
 
 Poor little shivering, blue nosed Eva had struck 
 a chilly apotheosis, while in Topsy's disconsolate 
 and streaked countenance there showed the con- 
 sciousness of a new fall from grace. Marks had 
 covered his long light ulster with a short over- 
 coat; and with his white gaiters and tall white 
 hat he looked a Tony Lumpkin sort of Boreas. 
 
 But the warmth of the office stove, and cheer 
 of the hotel bar soon made life worth the living 
 again, and our beloved heroes and heroines re- 
 gained their traditional virtues. 
 
 When they arose next morning it was to find 
 the town completely lost in snow, and more fall- 
 ing. Of course, all business was at a standstill, 
 and all traffic on the railroad completely blocked. 
 It remained blocked too for many days. In fact, 
 
58 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 not until two weeks had passed did an engine suc- 
 ceed in ploughing its way through the great 
 banks of snow. 
 
 All this time was Senter Payton's Compaq 
 cooped-up in the one small hotel of Oberlin. 
 Something had happened to the heating appartus 
 in the theater which made it impossible to give 
 any performances there even after the town had 
 dug itself out from under the snow. The cold 
 was intense and the actors found themselves in a 
 most uncomfortable predicament. Not to be able 
 to play meant absolute bankruptcy, and the hotel 
 bill was growing bigger every day. 
 
 But the actor who learns his profession in the 
 school of hard knocks grows to be wonderfully 
 resourceful. These storm tossed travelers put 
 their heads together, and the result was a 
 life-boat in the shape of a scheme. 
 
 The hotel was full of imprisoned guests, 
 brought by the trains, and held by the elements. 
 Time hung heavily on their hands. The men 
 played cards, smoked and watched anxiously for 
 
BARNSTORMING. 59 
 
 any signs of action on the part of the railroad. Any- 
 thing which might kill time and deaden anxieties 
 was quickly welcomed. Senter Pay ton saw this, 
 and so did the rest of his company ; for their 
 mission being to entertain they were ever alert to 
 recognize a market of demand. 
 
 There was an interview with the landlord after 
 which his face wore a more genial and relieved 
 expression. He, too, had been in a predicament, 
 for past experiences had made him shy of any 
 extensive financial relations with actor patrons. 
 He very quickly climbed into their life-boat 
 scheme, therefore. 
 
 That night after supper was over, all the din- 
 ing room tables were shoved together to form a 
 stage. And on this uncertain stage, with sheets 
 for curtains and scenery, the relieved Thespians 
 strutted their two hours and a half. The drama 
 in its day has known far more primitive environ- 
 ments. On the following night another play was 
 given, and after that the dining room " show " 
 became a habit. When the Oberlin citizens were 
 
6o 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 able to leave their homes and make their way 
 through the snow tunneled town, they joined the 
 hotel audiences each night; so, when the two 
 weeks were ended, the company departed on the 
 best of terms with the landlord, and had found no 
 necessity this time for parting with Corse's gold 
 mounted skates. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROCKS OF FATE. 
 
 NE of the most popular plays 
 in Senter Payton's reper- 
 toire was The Phoenix — 
 that thrilling old melo- 
 drama written by Milton 
 Nobles, and in which is por- 
 trayed the seamy side of 
 New York life. 
 
 In this play Corse was 
 cast for the part of the Irish- 
 man who gets mortally stabbed 
 in the first act. He died on the 
 stage and is, quite naturally, supposed to lie where 
 he expires until the curtain falls and the act 
 is ended. 
 
 But the small town theater was not apt to pro- 
 vide stage hands ; and, the company's forces being 
 
62 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 limited, Corse's services were required behind trie 
 scenes to work the effects for the great fire scene, 
 one of the play's principal features. 
 
 How to get behind the scenes after his public 
 death was something of a quandary. But he must 
 get behind the scenes or there would be no con- 
 flagration, and the act would be meaningless. At 
 last he arranged to die close to an entrance 
 where he might quietly crawl off the stage with- 
 out being particularly missed by the audience. 
 This he finally managed quite successfully, but 
 his duties, after this post-mortem exit was accom- 
 plished, were herculean. 
 
 The first time they produced the play Corse 
 got through with his scene creditably and made 
 the desired exit. When out of view of the audi- 
 ence he arose to his feet and rushed to light the 
 red fire. Then he seized upon the flash box, and 
 while blowing into its tin tube — thereby sending 
 up into the air quick flashes of light meant to 
 suggest wild, leaping flames— -he broke in a door 
 of the scene, rang a large alarm bell and, hurry- 
 ing around to the front of the stage, let the curtain 
 down on the exciting and lurid picture. Remem- 
 
ROCKS OF FATE, 
 
 63 
 
 ber that all this time he was still blowing the 
 flash box. 
 
 When the cnrtain had thumped to the stage, 
 and the audience was sounding their enthusiastic 
 applause, Senter Payton came flying behind the 
 scenes in a wild search for Corse. He was swear- 
 ing and tearing his hair in anger. On catching 
 sight of his younger brother, he cried out furiously: 
 
 " You blankety-blank-blank ! Why in blank 
 didn't you yell fire ? I fine you a week's salary 
 for not yelling fire ! " 
 
 Corse, who was pant- 
 i n g and perspiring, 
 stared at his enraged 
 relative for an instant 
 before bursting out with 
 the indignant protest : 
 
 " By the great jump- 
 ing horn spoons ! What 
 do you take me for any- 
 way, a whole hose compan} 7 ? " 
 
 " I fine you a week's salary for not yelling 
 fire ! " Senter angrily insisted. 
 
 Corse had not received one cent of salary, nor 
 was there any probability that he ever would ; still 
 
64 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 this fact did not seem to lessen the tragic humilia- 
 tion of a fine. For several days the argument was 
 kept np — Senter still belligerently insisting upon 
 this method of retribution as a means of disci- 
 pline, and Corse as emphatically refusing to sub- 
 mit to such an indignity. With a gloomy 
 resentment the latter discussed his wrongs with 
 the other members of the company who all were 
 profuse in their sympathy and advice to " stick 
 it out," even should his discharge be the penalty 
 for such resistance. There is something beauti- 
 fully childlike in the paradoxical seriousness with 
 which actors will sometimes play their real lives. 
 It is wonderful too how much financial de- 
 pression an actor can stand without becoming 
 thoroughly disgusted with his profession. But 
 his work is really a gamble, and he is continu- 
 ally buoyed up with hope. If this town prove 
 disastrous, there is always the next town to look 
 forward to in the same spirit as that with which 
 a man awaits a new deal of the cards. Then in 
 the theatrical profession big things are always 
 going to happen. The future is ever full of 
 alluring prospects, and the actor sees himself in 
 imagination standing in the middle of the big 
 
ROCKS OF FATE. 65 
 
 stage of life with the whole world as his audience. 
 And, alter all, there is something very delightful 
 in this imaginary greatness. It is such a 
 pleasant satisfaction to turn from real life with its 
 poverty and its hurts to that world of fancy 
 where there is no want, neither any hard criticism, 
 but only wealth, appreciation and glory. 
 
 For some months Senter Payton's company 
 managed to sail on over dangerous financial rocks 
 without being entirely wrecked. " Poor business" 
 was the rule, though there would be an occasional 
 big house. And then how hope was inflated ! 
 Fortune was now surely getting ready to smile 
 upon them! But the next night would once 
 more see only a beggarly audience, and so suc- 
 cessive nights would see the same disheartening 
 array of empty seats. Still the memory of that 
 one big house remained and kept faith alive. 
 And when things reached a particularly desperate 
 state, there were always the gold mounted skates. 
 In some miraculous way these skates had always 
 been retrieved when left as security for unpaid 
 bills. They seemed to possess some talismanic 
 power. 
 
 But, alas ! there came a time when even the 
 
66 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 charm of the skates failed. Ugly rocks of mis- 
 fortune loomed up on every side ; and one fateful 
 day the little company was completely wrecked. 
 When the Payton survivors came to their senses 
 they found themselves once more drifted back to 
 the haven of Centerville. Like the sailor though 
 who loves his storm-tossed billows — and loves 
 them best when they are to him the most cruel — 
 the little company looked back upon that uncer- 
 tain theatrical sea, and longed once more to brave 
 its fascinating dangers. Its spell was upon them, 
 and never would they entirely cast it of. 
 
 So, after some little time spent in recovering 
 their forces and in making preparations for a new 
 voyage, the little company started out again. 
 They had made several changes, however. Senter 
 was not now with them, and the company was 
 under the management -of his sister and her hus- 
 band. Corse was re-engaged. In talking the 
 matter over with him they had given him his 
 option on a half interest in the show or six dol- 
 
ROCKS OF FATE. 
 
 6 7 
 
 lars a week salary. Very wisely lie chose 
 the salary. 
 
 But all had gained wisdom through their pre- 
 vious venture, and a greater ex- 
 perience in acting, so that this 
 company started out with far bet- 
 ter prospects for success than the 
 other one had achieved. They 
 found the sailing much smoother, 
 too, and discovered fewer dan- 
 gerous rocks in the way. In fact 
 their theatrical ship was begin- 
 ning to " find herself." 
 
 For just one thousand nights 
 Corse played with this company. 
 At the end of that time he was doing leading 
 comedy roles, and had gained a knowledge of 
 audiences. The public liked his sparkle, and 
 the joyous abandonment with which he threw 
 himself into his work; for no matter how 
 many times he had played a part he never 
 showed any indications of being bored with it. 
 
6& 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 They liked, too, the familiar way with which he 
 took them into his confidence. Always his man- 
 ner seemed to say to an audience : 
 
 "I love this sort of thing myself, and I was 
 certain that you would enjoy it with me." 
 
 And it has been this confident happy buoyancy 
 of manner which has been the great secret of 
 Corse Payton's success as an entertainer. 
 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE RIALTO. 
 
 UT now came one of the most 
 important changes in 
 Corse's life. He had at last 
 made np his mind to branch 
 ont in business for himself. 
 He had found a partner in 
 Mr. F. E. Spooner and they 
 had arranged to put out a 
 company under their joint 
 management. When plans were at last com- 
 pleted and the company launched, Corse was its 
 acknowledged head. This partnership proved 
 beneficial to both managers, and it gave Corse an 
 opportunity to put into operation some of his own 
 theories in regard to theatrical business. He 
 had always kept his wits alert and his eyes 
 opened, and in consequence had formed his own 
 opinions. He believed that greater success could be 
 
7o 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 gained by giving the public more than its money's 
 worth, than could be obtained by a system of 
 humbug. So at once he began to follow out 
 Addison's very wholesome advice, and not only 
 worked to gain success, but tried also to deserve 
 
 it. In every possible way 
 did he endeavor to enhance 
 the attractiveness of his 
 performances. He carried 
 appropriate scenery for his 
 plays, and required faith- 
 ful effort on the part of his 
 actors. He was particu- 
 larly exact about their 
 manner of dressing, and 
 the result was something 
 different than that ob- 
 tained as yet by any other cheap-priced repertoire 
 company. These methods soon gained the con- 
 fidence of the public, and when that is gained 
 success must come. 
 
 When Corse and Mr. Spooner closed this 
 season they divided a profit of five thousand 
 dollars. That seemed a lot of money. 
 
 " It made me get stuck on myself," Corse says 
 
ON THE RIALTO. 
 
 n 
 
 in telling about it. " I thought I was just ' It,' 
 and could give New York managers cards and 
 spades, and I made up my mind to give 'em the 
 privilege of looking at me." 
 
 So he bought a ticket for New York and 
 one memorable day showed up on the Rialto. 
 He showed up very conspicu- 
 ously, too; for the flash of his 
 diamonds could be seen a block 
 away. His linen was immacu- 
 late and of the most extrava- 
 gant style. His neckties were 
 of gorgeous patterns, and the 
 checks in his clothes were big 
 as town lots. But he was 
 happy — happy as a king ; and 
 he started out to enjoy to the 
 utmost every penny of that 
 twenty-five hundred dollars. 
 
 For some weeks he sported 
 up and down Broadway. He saw New York both 
 on its shady and sunny sides. He called upon 
 dramatic agencies and gave over his future into 
 their hands. He made hosts of new friends in 
 the theatrical profession, and his quick eyes dis- 
 
72 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 covered many lamentable conditions in their 
 lives. Bnt he was not out then to criticise. He 
 was only out to have a good time and to steer his 
 bark into bigger seas. 
 
 The people whom he met were attracted to him 
 because of the quaint way he had of looking at 
 life, and because of his unaffected confidence in 
 himself. Some there were, of course, who courted 
 him for the money which he spent so freely. 
 But the boy was quick and clever enough to 
 understand this. Take him altogether he was a 
 thoroughly original bit of the ambitious west 
 dropped down upon the traditions of the Rialto • 
 and he succeeded in stirring up considerable 
 amused interest in New York actordom. They 
 had seen all sorts of showmen, but never one 
 quite like him. He seemed rather a new species 
 of the genus histrionic, and they watched to see 
 him suppressed. 
 
 Then one day Corse suddenly woke up to the 
 fact that his money was all gone. This did sur- 
 prise him a little, for it seemed such a lot of 
 money to have been gotten rid of in such a very 
 short time. He was not exactly clear in his mind, 
 either, just how he had managed to get rid of it. 
 
ON THE RIALTO. 73 
 
 But it was certainly gone, and there were no im- 
 mediate prospects of any more coming in. To be 
 stranded in New York might bring a greater em- 
 barrassment than to be stranded in the west. 
 Still Corse was not particularly anxious. He 
 possessed Mr. Micawber's beautiful faith in that 
 something which was bound to turn up. But he 
 possessed another virtue which that optimistic 
 philosopher lacked. He did not sit down and 
 wait for the fates to act in his behalf, no — he set 
 energetically to work to guide his own fortunes 
 to a successful issue. In other words he hustled. 
 
 He had enjoyed a good time. He had built his 
 castles in the air, and now was ready to follow 
 Thoreau's suggestion and put foundations under 
 them. The practical side of his nature saw the 
 necessity for something more tangible than 
 Rialto visions. 
 
 He took to interviewing the dramatic agents 
 with more seriousness and with greater frequency; 
 and at last fate did act in his behalf. That tide 
 came in his affairs which he had the good com- 
 mon sense to take at the flood, and it led him on 
 to fortune. 
 
 One day he was in the office of a well-known 
 
74 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 dramatic agent. He had been there before on 
 that same day, and for several days previous. 
 Each time he went to make inquiries in regard to 
 the state of the actor market, and of his own 
 possible prospects therein. Perhaps the young 
 westerners independence rather nettled the agent 
 who was accustomed to a more servile attitude on 
 the part of applicants for his help ; or, perhaps he 
 knew that Corse's money was all gone ; or, per- 
 haps he was merely the tool of fate, and led by 
 that mysterious power to tell the truth to this 
 aggressive young aspirant for dramatic fame. 
 Be that as it may, he did tell the truth, and he 
 told it in that brutally bloodless way a dramatic 
 agent can when he tries. It is strange with what 
 sweet diplomacy such an agent can lie when it is 
 for his own interests, and with what an entire 
 lack of kindly consideration he tells the truth 
 when the interests of another are at stake. Still, 
 the best medicine one can take, once in a while, 
 is a dose of knock-down truth. It was certainly 
 the best thing that ever happened to Corse 
 Payton. 
 
 This day, when he entered the office, the 
 dramatic agent looked him over insolently for 
 
ON THE RIALTO. 
 
 75 
 
 a minute or two, and then said with harsh 
 contempt : 
 
 " Say, young man, 
 I advise you to go 
 back west where you 
 belong. You'll never 
 make either a Booth 
 or a Barrett, and you 
 better trot right 
 along home." 
 
 Corse never 
 winced, but stood, 
 hat in hand, thought- 
 fully studying the hard features of the man 
 before him. For a full minute they stood thus 
 regarding each other. On the man's face was 
 an unpleasant sneer. He evidently was expecting 
 an angry outbreak on the part of the presumptious 
 young fellow before him. He would probably 
 have welcomed such an outbreak as an oppor- 
 tunity to speak further brutal truths. If such 
 were his expectations he was disappointed. In 
 those big black eyes fixed upon him so steadily 
 was no suggestion of anger. They showed, in- 
 stead, a gradual awakening to some new line of 
 
76 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 thought which finally grew into a little twinkle 
 of amusement that rather disconcerted the 
 dramatic agent. Corse was thinking — thinking 
 very rapidly. Some of those lamentable con- 
 ditions he had noted in theatrical circles since 
 his coming to New York were flashing through 
 his brain. This man's advice had been the one 
 thing needed to focus certain convictions which 
 had been teeming in his brain. When at last he 
 spoke it was in a pleasant but firm tone of new 
 purpose : 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. . I guess you're right, 
 
 and I believe I will go back west." 
 
 Then turning on his heel he quickly left the 
 office. 
 
 As he walked up Broadway his thoughts were 
 still running rapidly over the recent New York 
 experiences. That twenty-five hundred dollars 
 had bought a good deal after all, and he would 
 profit by it. He would go back west. He would 
 organize a company there, though, of his own. 
 He would not try to stay where he had seen so 
 many poor actors walking the streets without 
 money or prospects. He could never be content 
 to cast in his lot with them — dragging out a 
 
ON THE RIALTO. 77 
 
 miserable existence, only to be buried at last by 
 charity. If lie could not make theatrical business 
 bring Him an independent living, lie would put 
 bis talents to some other use in the world. At 
 any rate he would be a man and own himself, and 
 not a foot-ball for autocratic dramatic agents to 
 insolently kick about at their pleasure. Yes, he 
 would go west, and he would go right away. 
 
 But how was he to get there? That was now 
 the question. His money was gone, and he 
 would neither borrow nor send home for help. 
 
 Then that something in which he had an 
 abiding faith most happily " turned up " in the 
 form of a manager whom he had 
 known in the west. This manager 
 was looking for a comedian to 
 join a company touring Texas, 
 and he offered Corse the oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 "Texas is nearer Centerville 
 than New York is," Corse said to 
 himself, and so accepted the engagement and a 
 ticket for Texas. With the ticket was also given 
 two weeks' salary in advance. This money en- 
 abled Corse to pay up what little indebtedness he 
 
7 8 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 had contracted in New York, and started him in 
 a jubilant mood for Texas. 
 
 But he remained there with the company for 
 only a short time — just long enough, in fact, to 
 straighten his affairs and then took the quickest 
 route to Centerville. 
 
 That one trenchant interview with the dramatic 
 agent in New York was the pivot upon which 
 his whole life turned. 
 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CUPID HITS A MARK. 
 
 VERY heart Has its 
 romance — not its feverish, 
 volatile love affairs, bnt its 
 real romance; and in most 
 nnacconntable ways are 
 lives brought together that 
 they may enact their scenes 
 on the stage of life. 
 Out in Ohio was a young, am- 
 bitious girl struggling to make 
 her way as an actress. She had known many 
 discouragements, but they only increased her 
 determination to succeed. Both through the 
 dramatic papers and from fellow actors, she had 
 heard much of Corse Payton. His name always 
 held for her a peculiar fascination which she did 
 not attempt to explain, and one time when a 
 
80 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 company was being organized to support her, she 
 wrote and asked him to join it as leading comedian. 
 The letter reached Corse when he was in part- 
 nership with Mr. F. E. Spooner. He had no 
 desire then to leave an enterprise paying him so 
 well for an uncertainty with 
 strangers. Still he did not 
 destroy the Ohio girl's let- 
 ter. He put it carefully 
 away in his trunk, and the 
 writer haunted him. In his 
 imagination he pictured what she must be like, 
 and there came to him the presentiment that some 
 day and in some way they would meet. 
 
 During that first short experience in New 
 York his thoughts went out to her many times. 
 And on his way to Texas he found himself 
 relating to her in imagination all that had oc- 
 curred to him in the metropolis. Strange that his 
 confidences should want to fly so naturally to this 
 phantom Ohio girl, and that he should feel so 
 certain of her sympathetic understanding, when 
 his acquaintance with her was limited to just one 
 single letter — and that only a business letter. 
 Why, there were romantic matinee girls from 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK. 8l 
 
 whom lie had received bushels of the most 
 effusive epistles, still he never thought of them. 
 But he did think of her, and he continued 
 to think of her, and when he again reached Cen- 
 terville he sat down one day and wrote her a 
 letter. 
 
 It was at this time he was trying to carry out 
 his scheme of organizing a company of his own? 
 and he confided to the Ohio girl all 
 his ambitious plans. Then after the 
 letter was mailed he began watching 
 anxiously for a reply. It came in 
 time, and for a while after reading it Corse 
 walked on clouds. She, that fascinating Ohio 
 girl, had written just as he had felt certain she 
 must write. This letter had brought her really 
 into his life, for he had asked her to join his 
 company, and she had expressed her readiness to 
 do so. And her letter ! It was such a dainty, 
 sweet, womanly letter, so full of kindly sympathy 
 and interest. There was something too, besides 
 the letter — a photograph! And when Corse 
 gazed at that photograph he was filled with new 
 energy and a new determination to have a com- 
 pany with that Ohio girl as his leading lady, 
 
8s THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 even if he had to upset the whole state of Iowa 
 to accomplish it. 
 
 But no such desperate eruption was necessary, 
 however. The company was organized, and the 
 services of the Buckeye state maiden secured, 
 and still Iowa sustained its same peaceful pros- 
 perity. One memorable day the little company 
 started forth to try its powers, and find its ex- 
 periences. Mr. Corse Pay ton held the proud 
 position of sole manager and proprietor, and Miss 
 Etta Reed was his leading lady. Mr. Malcolm 
 Williams was the leading man. 
 
 They had no paper with which to advertise 
 themselves. In fact, they had not much of any- 
 thing save their enthusiasm, talent, and faith in 
 themselves. But Corse had the Ohio girl, and 
 for him the whole world had now taken on a rosy 
 hue.. For the first time existence meant to him 
 something blissfully serious. 
 
 He had secured enough money with which to 
 pay their fares to an adjoining town, and when 
 they reached their destination he had left in his 
 trousers pocket the proverbial twenty-five cents. 
 Part of this capital he immediately spent for 
 colored chalk. Then he organized the male mem- 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK, 83 
 
 bers of his company into a nniqne band of adver- 
 tisers. Through the town they went, chalking 
 on sidewalks and fences the 
 announcement that Corse Pay- 
 ton's Company would appear 
 that night at the opera house — 
 prices to be ten, twenty and 
 thirty cents. It was primitive 
 advertising, but proved effec- 
 tive, for that night saw a big audience packed 
 into the little theater. The next night saw the same 
 eager throng, and so did all the succeeding nights 
 of that week. When Corse counted up his re- 
 ceipts after the last performance on Saturday he 
 found that he had left just two hundred and 
 forty-eight dollars after paying salaries, all other 
 expenses and returning the money borrowed in 
 Centerville to start the show. 
 
 That was in 1891, and from that time to the 
 present his business has experienced just one 
 losing week. Steadily he has traveled on to for- 
 tune, and is now the sole proprietor of three big 
 paying companies. One of these is the stock 
 company — of which Miss Reed is leading lady — 
 playing in his own beautiful theater in Brooklyn. 
 
84 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 The other two are on the road. He has also built 
 and owns a modern theater in Centerville. 
 
 The first time he returned to his home town, 
 after starting out on his own account, he placed 
 three thousand dollars in the bank there for his 
 mother's use. This money is still in the bank 
 drawing interest for her. She has never had to 
 touch it because Corse keeps her so well supplied 
 with funds. Her name is written on his salary 
 list, and to be sure that she gets her money Sat- 
 urday when his company is paid, his manager 
 is instructed to send her a check on each 
 Wednesday. 
 
 The first time Corse took his own company to 
 Centerville something happened which he tells 
 now with much relish, although at the time it did 
 not seem to him so funny. 
 
 Joseph Payton had never regarded theatrical 
 business with any very great respect. When the 
 son began to make money the father's sentiments 
 changed somewhat, but he always looked upon 
 the theater-going public with a sort of con- 
 temptuous pity. He did not express these senti- 
 ments outside the bosom of his family, however. 
 Before outsiders he always bore himself with 3. 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK. 85 
 
 defiant championship whenever the theatrical pro- 
 fession was mentioned. 
 
 He was now sheriff of Appanoose county, and 
 a very familiar fignre wherever his services might 
 be required to uphold the law. On all public 
 occasions he showed himself with his silver star 
 of authority. The small boys of the county 
 looked respectfully up to him as a great and 
 wonderful being. It is, indeed a great and won- 
 derful being who can command the respect of the 
 average small boy. 
 
 When word came that Corse intended to play 
 an engagement with his Company at the Center- 
 ville Theater Joseph Pay ton was swayed by 
 various emotions. But dominating all was a great 
 satisfaction in the authority which it was his 
 right to wield in the community. For days before 
 the company arrived he patrolled the town in 
 all the conscious dignity of his office. His whole 
 air bespoke the determined performance of a duty, 
 and awesome respect increased in the breast of 
 each small boy. 
 
 That night when the curtain went up on the 
 initial performance of the Payton Comedy Com- 
 pany, the actors looked out upon an audience 
 
86 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 which fairly gorged the little theater. Joseph 
 Payton was there in all the dignity of his silver 
 star. Prondly he moved np and down the aisles, 
 ont into the small lobby, and through every part 
 of the house. He knew the name of every 
 individual present, and his sharp eyes penetrated 
 suspiciously to the very soul of each as though 
 trying to read their secret intentions. 
 
 Corse had looked forward with eager anticipa- 
 tion to this triumphal home coming. He had 
 pictured this audience in his imagination. He 
 knew how interested and curious they were and 
 he also knew that whole-souled western spirit of 
 hospitality which glories in the achievements of 
 its own townsmen. He had pictured his wel- 
 come, and, with a happy confidence in his tumult- 
 uous reception, had told the other members of 
 his company what a time there would be. But, 
 alas ! 
 
 " Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 
 where it most promises." 
 
 The overture stopped. The curtain rung up. 
 All the actors were plumed to do their very best, 
 for Corse's eager anticipation had transmitted 
 itself to them. Each awaited his cue to go before 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK. 
 
 87 
 
 what all supposed would be a wildly enthusiastic 
 audience. Then the play began, but something 
 most unexpected and strange had happened. A 
 respectful silence had fallen over all the house. 
 The actors could not understand just what it 
 meant. Still they knew that interest was cen- 
 tered in Corse and they believed the audience to 
 be saving all their energies for his appearance. 
 They hurried along through their lines towards 
 the cue which would bring Corse, and a conse- 
 quent relief from this depressing calm. 
 
 At last the cue was reached, and Corse, who 
 
 had been impatiently waiting in an entrance, 
 sprang out upon the stage, his every nerve quiv- 
 ering with exultation. After throwing out the 
 first line of his part with all his improvident zeal 
 he waited an instant for the clamorous reception 
 which was to endanger the roof. But there was 
 
SS THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 no clamorous reception. There was not even a 
 mild reception. Not a hand clapped or a foot 
 pounded. Only a little rustle of pleasure passed 
 through the audience, and then once more they 
 settled down into that same attentive calm. 
 
 Corse stood dumbfounded. What did it mean ? 
 He lost himself completely. All the blood in 
 his body rushed up into his head and made a 
 queer whirring sound in his ears. In an embar- 
 rassed and dazed sort of way he went through the 
 rest of his lines, but it was all awkward and 
 painful. The entire company was now de- 
 moralized. 
 
 They could not get their thoughts away from 
 the audience and upon the play. Miss Reed was 
 nearly crying with indignation on Corse's account, 
 but worked bravely to pull things together. 
 
 When the curtain fell on that first act Corse 
 rushed to his dressing room and shut the door. 
 Never had he known such humiliated disappoint- 
 ment. He dreaded to face any of the members 
 of his company ; and as to going out before that 
 audience again — well, there were no words to ex- 
 press his horror of it. In any other town it would 
 have been hard enough. But here — in his home ! 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK. 89 
 
 He choked down a lump in his throat. The play 
 must be gotten through with somehow, but — ? 
 Then his thoughts turned to gaul, and he swore 
 all sorts of vengeance against the place of his 
 nativity, and tried to brace himself for the rest 
 of the performance. 
 
 At every opportunity Miss Reed showed her 
 sweet loyalty to him, as did all the other actors, 
 but the play dragged drearily on and the com- 
 pany gave one general sigh of relief when the 
 final curtain fell. 
 
 In his dressing room Corse was looking for- 
 ward with dread to the first meeting with his 
 mother and father. They must feel hurt and 
 mortified on his account. When at last he heard 
 his father's voice speaking to some one behind 
 the scenes he cringed in every part of his being. 
 Then Joseph Payton's voice sounded again just 
 outside his son's dressing room door. He was 
 inquiring for Corse. Some one else spoke in 
 direction, and presently the door opened and 
 Mr. Payton came in. Corse turned away his 
 face, and nervously busied himself about 
 something. 
 
90 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 "Well, what did you think of that for an 
 audience?'' 
 
 In the father's tone was a jubilant self-con- 
 gratulatory ring. Corse thought he was merci- 
 
 A ^,. frdly trying to put on 
 
 * a good front, and mur- 
 mured rather inartic- 
 ulately : 
 
 "It was big." 
 "Big? I should 
 say it was big ! " and 
 Joseph dropped down 
 on a trunk and re- 
 garded his son's back 
 with pride. "And 
 did you ever see an audience behave any better?" 
 Here there was a little pause. Corse lifted his 
 head quickly and, looking into the mirror, saw the 
 expression on his father's face. Then he turned 
 about wonderingly and faced his parent, who gave 
 him a little nod of approval. 
 
 "I just made up my mind that we wouldn't 
 have any damned monkey-doodle business with 
 this show," and Joseph Pay ton tossed his head 
 in a threatening sort of a way. " They can't 
 
CUPID HITS A MARK. 
 
 9* 
 
 treat my son disrespectfully, not like they do 
 some of the other show folks who come here — 
 not as long as I'm sheriff of Appanoose county. 
 And I told 'em so, b'gad! I told 'em that 
 the first mother's son of 'em that dared to 
 make a peep I'd run 'em in quicker 'n lightning. 
 I made up my mind to have order to-night if we 
 never had it again in this town, and I had it." 
 
 Joseph's face shone with satisfaction, and the 
 star on his breast flashed an authoritative corrob- 
 oration of his success. The thermometer in Corse's 
 blood rose, but his father could not quite under- 
 stand what had induced such uncontrolled mirth. 
 
 The next day while expressing his apprecia- 
 tion of his father's vigorous efforts in his behalf, 
 Corse diplomatically suggested that a greater 
 leniency of authority might be exercised during 
 the rest of the engagement. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TYPES OF THEATRICAL MANIA. 
 
 VERY theatrical manager 
 has, in his fnnd of anec- 
 dotes, some hnmorons ex- 
 periences with the small 
 town bill-poster; for the 
 small town bill-poster is given to 
 vagaries of the most weird and 
 fantastic order. 
 
 Dnring one of their early 
 seasons the Payton Company fonnd themselves 
 on one occasion the victims of snch a genins. 
 He was an ambitions sort. That can be said in 
 his favor. He wanted to see the show well ad- 
 vertised, and certainly did everything in his 
 power towards that end. 
 
 Some few weeks before the Payton paper had 
 been pnt into his hands for display he had posted 
 considerable advertising matter for a big patent 
 
TYPES OF THEATRICAL MANIA. 93 
 
 medicine firm. The advertising space in his 
 town was not, however, equal to the amonnt of 
 paper in his possession, and, after covering every 
 fence and barn in the vicinity, he still had a num- 
 ber of bright colored bills left over. Among 
 these bills was a picture. It was a very pretty 
 picture, and Mr. Bill-Poster felt considerable 
 compunction about wasting it, so concluded to 
 keep it to use for the next show. The next show 
 happened to be Corse Pay ton's. 
 
 When that company arrived in Mr. Bill-Poster's 
 town they were amazed to see everywhere on bill- 
 boards and fences the familiar printing for Cas- 
 carets, but with their own date sheets pasted on 
 in such a way to make the bills read, 
 
 Corse Pay ton's Company, 1 - i — ^- j- 
 
 They work while you sleep. ] CORSE PAY TONS 
 
 |_ COM PA NY 
 
 The people who are stage- 
 struck and those who think 
 they can write plays furnish 
 both pathetic and humorous 
 incidents in the lives of actors. 
 
 The stage-struck people are legion. Most of 
 them, too, are of the feminine gender. They are 
 
94 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 not always young, and alas, they are not often 
 talented. They haunt the theater and write let- 
 ters to the actors and managers. They hang 
 about the stage entrance and lobby, waiting for 
 the actors to come out. Every- 
 one associated with the theater 
 from the manager down to 
 the property-man is of interest 
 to them. They dream about 
 their stage heroes, and they 
 envy their stage heroines. 
 That mysterious world behind the big curtain 
 holds for them a strange and romantic fascination. 
 
 There is a peculiar freak about this state 
 known as " stage-struck." The woman who once 
 makes up her mind to defy convention and to 
 sacrifice herself on the shrine of art, firmly be- 
 lieves that every manager stands waiting with 
 open arms to receive her. Not for one minute 
 does the thought ever seem to occur to her that 
 she may not be wanted — not, in fact, until she 
 offers herself. Then she finds it hard to com- 
 prehend a refusal. It seems so easy to act. Any 
 one can do that. It is nothing but fun, you know. 
 
 I heard a young man once talking to a mana- 
 
TYPES OF THEATRICAL MANIA. 95 
 
 ger about a position in that gentleman's company. 
 This young man had never been before an audi- 
 ence in his life. He knew absolutely nothing 
 about the stage or its requirements, and he said : 
 
 " I have made up my mind to be either an 
 actor or a base-ball player ; but you know it takes 
 a lot of preparation to be a base-ball player." 
 
 And there you are ! Alas, for Art ! 
 
 Like all other actor-managers Corse Payton 
 finds his mail full of applications which he can- 
 not take the time even to read. 
 
 One day he was busy behind the scenes when 
 word reached him that a lady wanted to see him 
 in his office. He was very busy, but dropped his 
 work to go and see what she wanted. When he 
 entered the office a young 
 woman advanced quickly to 
 meet him. She was pretty 
 and slender, but the lines in 
 her face had fixed them- 
 selves into a reckless deter- 
 mination. Scarcely waiting 
 to return Mr. Payton's courteous "good morning," 
 she said impetuously : 
 
 " Well, I have at last made up my mind to go 
 with you ! " 
 
g6 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 " Go with me ! " Mr. Pay ton repeated in sur- 
 prise. " Go where with me ? " 
 " Why, on the stage, of course." 
 She seemed somewhat surprised at his question. 
 He regarded her an instant thoughtfully and then 
 said, with a good-natured smile : 
 
 " Why, my dear young lady, I can't take you 
 on the stage. I have no use for you. I engage 
 actresses y you know, and my company is full." 
 
 She caught the emphasis on the word " act- 
 resses," and must have understood it, for she said 
 in a quick, confident way : 
 " But I can act." 
 " What have you ever played? " 
 " O, I have never played anything, but I can 
 act the same parts that Miss Reed does." 
 
 Mr. Payton smiled again and 
 turned to go, saying in dismissal : 
 
 " Well, I have no place for you in 
 my company." 
 
 Then the girl's eyes grew big 
 <M*'' £$$* w jtft astonishment, and with a gasp 
 of amazement she called after him : 
 
 " But you'll have to take me, for I've — why 
 
TYPES OF THEATRICAL MANIA. 
 
 97 
 
 I've gone and bought a brand new telescope to 
 carry my underclothes in." 
 
 At another time two ambitious colored matinee 
 girls came to the theater to seek positions. When 
 Mr. Payton asked what they ex- 
 pected to do, one of them joy- 
 ously replied : 
 
 "Why, boss, we want'uh go 
 ;out on de stage wive yuh, an' 
 when yuh sing yuh songs we 
 gwine to stan' 'long each side o' 
 yuh, an' pat time foh yuh dances." 
 
 When the dramatists come Mr. Payton im- 
 mediately turns them over to his stage director — 
 Mr. George Hoey — who has a genius for getting 
 rid of them without hurting their feelings. 
 
 In looking over the work of 
 these amateur dramatists one is 
 led to exclaim with Mark Twain : 
 " It is simply marvellous how 
 much ignorance a man can hold 
 without bursting his clothes." 
 
 Not long ago a young man, 
 with one of these impossible dramas tucked 
 confidently under his arm, sought out the Payton 
 
98 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 Theater. After some little maneuvering lie suc- 
 ceeded in securing an interview with Mr. Hoey 
 who asked him the first thing : 
 " Is this an original play ? " 
 " No," blandly replied the young aspirant for 
 Shakespeare's mantle. "No, it is not original, I 
 wrote it myself." 
 
 One of the funniest plays, though, which Mr. 
 Hoey showed me was written by a woman. She 
 must have conceived it in a night- 
 mare during the excitement at- 
 tendent upon Mr. Roberts' elec- 
 tion to congress and his subse- 
 quent humiliated return to Utah. 
 The play was called "The 
 Mormon's Revenge," and it broke all rules of 
 dramatic construction with the same reckless 
 fervor as has characterized that body of religionists 
 in their attitude towards the marriage laws. 
 
 One scene calls for a river. On the bank of this 
 river stands a boat house. As the curtain goes up 
 a boat is seen on the river, a man rowing it. " As 
 it nears the shore " — so runs the stage directions 
 — " the door of the boat house opens, and a big 
 dog comes out and growls." Then the hero — who 
 is the man in the boat — calls frantically : 
 
TYPES OF THEATRICAL MANIA. 
 
 99 
 
 " Oh, Pido ! go away and let us get the boat 
 out of the boat house." 
 
 The dog growls again. 
 
 " But, Fido, think / — we want the boat to save 
 your own mistress Lilly ! " 
 
 Then the dog wags his tail. 
 
 Shades of Thespis ! It makes one shudder to 
 think of the responsibility resting on that 
 dog's tail. 
 
 In another place the stage directions say : 
 
 " Here the lights all go down. A scene is pushed 
 on in front of the other scene, and behind it 
 the stage hands must shovel on great depths 
 of snow." 
 
 Other scenes are spoken of as " the front room," 
 "the back room." 
 
 The magnificent originality of the average 
 amateur dramatist fills one with awe. 
 
 
 L.efC 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BROOKLYN THEATER. 
 
 lOR a long time it had been 
 Corse Payton's ambition to 
 have a theater of his own 
 somewhere in Greater New 
 York. Long ago — away back 
 there when he had that one sig- 
 nificant interview with the dra- 
 matic agent — he had vowed some 
 day to retnrn to New York — 
 and to return a successful mana- 
 ger. He had never for a moment forgotten this 
 vow, but had worked ever with the metropolis in 
 view. His business on the road was now bring- 
 ing him big returns each year, but the constant 
 travel had grown tiresome. Then, too, his wife 
 — Etta Reed — felt anxious for a home. 
 
 The traveling actor of to-day sees very little of 
 
THE BROOKLYN THEATER. 
 
 IOI 
 
 domestic life. The train, the hotel and theater 
 make np his wandering existence. Bnt no class 
 of people can appreciate the many pleasures of 
 home more than do actors. Human nature seems 
 always to care most for that which it is denied. 
 It was an actor, you 
 know, John Howard 
 Payne, who wrote the 
 song best loved by all 
 the world, 
 
 u Home, 
 Sweet 
 Home." 
 
 A theater with 
 his own stock com- 
 pany promised the 
 comforts of a per- 
 manent home, and 
 Corse Payton made 
 up his mind to have 
 such a theater, even 
 if he had to build it himself 
 
 - In Brooklyn, on Lee Avenue, in the eastern 
 district, stood a building which had known a 
 
102 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 checkered history. It was Hawthorne who said, 
 " If cities were built by music, then some edifices 
 would appear to be constructed by the grave 
 solemn tones — others to have danced forth to 
 light fantastic airs." And this Lee Avenue 
 building has moved in its time to many different 
 kinds of tunes. 
 
 Its growth started to the solemn strains of the 
 doxology; for it was built to accommodate the 
 immense congregations that flocked to hear that 
 eminent Baptist divine, J. Hyatt Smith. _ But 
 changes came, and doxology turned to lighter 
 music when the big church was transformed into 
 a theater. And, finally, came a merry Irish jig 
 when some ambitious speculator put on a coat of 
 green paint and made the theater over into a 
 home for comic opera. 
 
 But the merry jig did not last for long. The 
 comic opera failed to be comic, and the big build- 
 ing was closed and left in gloomy silence to 
 think over its past. 
 
 There it stood — mutely staring into space, and 
 showing on its face the various conflicting im- 
 prints of its history. A touch of its early 
 religious character showed in the tower where 
 
THE BROOKLYN THEATER. 
 
 103 
 
 once a bell had chimed a solemn invitation to 
 worship. Two bill-boards told of that transition 
 into worldliness — that lapse from reverential 
 orthodoxy into a joyous pursuit of pagan muses; 
 while the green paint remained, a mortifying 
 reminder of that short but 
 reckless plunge into the 
 giddy whirl of comic opera 
 — that fervid atmosphere 
 of jingling tunes and 
 spangled-tighted chorus 
 girls. 
 
 But one day the build- 
 ing's face lost its desolate, 
 retrospective stare. New 
 interests had come into its 
 life. And to a cheerful sort of music there began 
 another transformation. All those tawdry stains 
 of the comic opera experience were removed, and, 
 with an air of new respect, the ancient temple 
 smiled through a fresh coat of modest brown 
 paint. 
 
 All sorts of things were happening on its 
 insides.v A host of painters, carpenters, uphol- 
 sterers and scenic artists were working wonders 
 
io4 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 there. In a month's time that dark, brooding, 
 inert pile of masonry had been converted into a 
 bright, cheerful, animated place of amusement. 
 Once more it felt itself of use, and seemed to 
 glory in the consciousness of this usefulness. 
 
 And the man who had conducted this revival 
 and brought this new inspiration was Corse 
 Payton. Every bright new chair, and every 
 yard of beautiful carpet, and every inch of fresh 
 paint seemed imbued with his enthusiastic per- 
 sonality. 
 
 It was in the month of May in the year 1900 
 that Corse first came to Brook- 
 lyn to play an engagement 
 at the Grand Opera House on 
 Elm Place. His cheap prices 
 of admission were an in- 
 novation in Greater New 
 \( York. People were in- 
 clined at first to be a trifle 
 skeptical. A company 
 which demanded for the 
 very best seat in the house the very small sum 
 of thirty cents could not have much of value to 
 offer to the public. But curiosity brought a good 
 
THE BROOKLYN THEATER. 105 
 
 audience on the first night, and by the middle of 
 the first week standing room was at a premium, 
 and all through the month crowds of people were 
 turned away from the theater each night. 
 
 This Brooklyn engagement was only an experi- 
 ment, however. For some little time Mr. Payton 
 had had his eye on the Lee Avenue property, but 
 he wanted first to try his methods on the Brook- 
 lyn public. The result was so satisfactory that 
 by the end of the Grand engagement he had bought 
 and owned the old Lee Avenue Academy, and 
 was already making arrangements for its reno- 
 vation. 
 
 On the following September he opened it with 
 a stock company most of the members of which 
 had been with him for several seasons. There 
 was Etta Reed, the Ohio girl, whom he had 
 captured some years before. There was Sidney 
 Toler and William A. Mortimer who played the 
 heroes, and who soon enshrined themselves in 
 the hearts of all the Brooklyn matinee girls. 
 There were Wilton Taylor, Charles Barringer, 
 Barton Williams and young Johnnie Hoey who 
 have all acted with a conscientious effort to 
 please. There were Grace Fox, Marguerite 
 
106 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 Fields, Sadie Radcliffe and Marie Casmere who 
 have grown to be dear friends of the devoted 
 Pay ton andiences . And there was Frank Callahan , 
 the mnsical director from 
 Maine. Sure 'tis the Irish 
 in him which throws that 
 stick so gracefully, and 'tis 
 the Yankee in him which 
 has gotten together the best 
 orchestra in town. 
 
 'And all this company were under the direction 
 of Mr. George Hoey, who is not only a remark- 
 ably good actor of wide experience, but also a 
 clever dramatist and adapter of plays. 
 
 And with this array of talent the Payton 
 Theater opened on the afternoon of September 
 3, 1900. On the national calendar this was 
 marked Labor Day, but it was a Triumphal Day 
 for our little company and its happy manager. 
 The old Lee Avenue house fairly swelled itself 
 with pride as it opened its doors to two big audi- 
 ences which filled every inch of space within its 
 walls. And it had good reason for pride, too. 
 No more beautiful or cozy theater was there in 
 Greater New York on that day. 
 
THE BROOKLYN THEATER. 
 
 107 
 
 The play was " The Girl I Left Behind Me," and 
 it moved along with an ease and sparkle that 
 fairly captivated the big audiences, and stamped 
 " success " all over the new enterprise. 
 
 There was a stage full of floral offerings. 
 Telegrams came in from all over the country. 
 Among these many telegrams was one which 
 Corse prized above them all. It was dated at 
 Centerville, Iowa. This bit of yellow paper he 
 carried off to his dressing room that he might 
 read it when alone. And as 
 he read it he could see the dear 
 mother eyes looking at him, 
 filled with loving pride in her 
 boy's success. This was the 
 one touch needed to complete 
 his happiness. With that pic- 
 ture in his mind he went before 
 the curtain to thank his audi- 
 ence after the good old style of 
 actor-managers long ago. The 
 first words he spoke bubbled right up from his heart : 
 
 " I suppose that I'm just the happiest man on 
 earth to-night. " 
 
 And the people, looking into his smiling face, 
 
io8 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 believed him. A thrill of sympathy passed 
 through that big kindly crowd, and all felt glad 
 to be there. Dear, dear ! But it is such a beau- 
 tiful thing to be happy — happy with the sense 
 of having honestly earned the right. 
 
 So the Payton Theater was opened ; and that 
 now cheerful Temple of Thespis, about the doors 
 of which are always to be seen members of its 
 admiring patrons, would make Hawthorne say, 
 could he see it to-day : 
 
 " Ah ! this building has grown to the galloping 
 measures of the song of Prosperity." 
 
 And over on Bedford Avenue is a pretty home 
 where Mr. and Mrs. Payton have at last set up 
 their own household gods. Here Mrs. Etta reigns 
 with the same sweet graceful manner which has 
 endeared her to her admiring audiences. Here, 
 too, Corse is learning how to play host, and 
 to carve turkey with that same improvident zeal 
 which has characterized his entire career. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OFF FOR EUROPE. 
 
 ND that last night of the first 
 Brooklyn season ! Can they 
 ever forget it? What an 
 ovation it was ! It seemed 
 the trinmphal climax of all 
 Corse's hard work. How 
 those loyal Payton audi- 
 ences did show their affec- 
 tionate appreciation. Not 
 another person could have 
 been crowded into the theater. 
 Hundreds of disappointed ones were turned away. 
 The play was The Little Minister, and never 
 had the company done better work. Such a 
 " last time " always inspires a certain emotional 
 exhileration — an exhileration tinged with regret. 
 Who can tell what faces may be missing when 
 the curtain rings up on a new season ? And this 
 
IIO THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 little band of players had brought many a bright 
 hour into the lives of those friends out there on 
 the other side of the foot-lights. It is quite 
 natural to feel an affection for those who bring us 
 our bright hours. And, so, on this night those 
 friends were loath to go and say good-bye. 
 
 When the final curtain fell on The Little 
 Minister silence reigned for an instant — just an 
 instant; and then the enthusiastic friendliness 
 broke loose. Such shouting and applause as 
 there was ! Never had Greater New York wit- 
 nessed anything more demonstrative in the whole 
 history of its play-houses. Twenty times that 
 curtain rose and fell again. Mr. Payton made a 
 speech, so did Miss Reed, and so did Mr. Hoey 
 and many other members of the company. Every- 
 one who had anything whatever to with the 
 theater came on the stage, and each received his 
 or her share of the applause. It was a proud 
 ovation. And still the audience lingered. It 
 seemed as if they might be going to stay until 
 the new season begun. At last, with great reluc- 
 tance, the lingering ones departed, and the 
 theater's doors were closed. Again the old house 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE. Ill 
 
 relapsed into a meditative mood, but in this 
 mood was now no touch of forlornity. 
 
 And then there followed the trip to Europe. 
 For a long time the Paytons had been antici- 
 pating this trip. They felt they had earned it, 
 and they sailed away across the sea happy as 
 two children let out of school. 
 
 The trip lasted six weeks, and every minute 
 of that time proved a delight to both. Like one 
 of his favorite characters, George Washington 
 Phipps in The Banker's Daughter, Corse saw 
 Europe. With the same quick restless energy he 
 took in all the " show." There were many novel 
 experiences, and one of the pleasantest was a ride 
 up the Thames on the yacht Victoria to see the 
 famous boat races at Henley. On this occasion 
 the Paytons were the guests of James J. Corbett 
 and his wife. Mr. Corbett went to considerable 
 expense in getting the yacht decorated with our 
 own national colors. So decorated she sailed 
 gallantly up the river which was crowded with 
 gala boats of every description. Among them all, 
 though, this one with the English name and the 
 Yankee colors showed most conspicuous ; and 
 along the entire route was received with wild 
 
112 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 shouts and applause. Corset patriotism rose 
 high on that day. Visions of that early Grand 
 Army celebration in Centerville rose in his 
 memory. Never had he felt so proud of being 
 an American. And, as he gazed on all that 
 beautiful red, white and blue, a mist came in his 
 eyes, and his heart swelled big. 
 
 " You never realize what a grab the old Flag 
 has on you until you see it in a foreign land," 
 he said afterwards. 
 
 Then there were those days spent in Paris ! 
 Glittering, panoramic Paris ! Here occured one 
 quaint little experience of which I must tell you. 
 It illustrates the long gaps which usually occur 
 in the French waiter's boasted knowledge of 
 English. 
 
 One evening Mr. Payton and Mr. Corbett 
 were taking dinner together in a restaurant on 
 the Champs Elysees. It happened to be a national 
 holiday, and the national spirit ran rampant in 
 bunting, fire-works music and wine. Conversa- 
 tion could not get away from the general jubilee, 
 so Corse and Mr. Corbett discussed French poli- 
 tics and social customs until there arose a dis- 
 
GOLD STATUE OF MISS ETTA REED. 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE. 
 
 113 
 
 agreement between them as to the length of time 
 France had been a Republic. 
 
 " I'll call that waiter. He'll know. He speaks 
 English all right," Corse volunteered, but Mr. 
 Corbett was skeptical. 
 
 " He won't understand anything you say out- 
 side the bill of fare. He can't speak anything 
 but table d'hote English." 
 
 Corse had more confidence, however, and beck- 
 
 oned the waiter, who came, smiling and ready to 
 turn the establishment up-side-down in his rever- 
 ence for the traditional American fat pocket-book. 
 
114 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 Then Corse asked very slowly : 
 " How long has France been a Republic ? " 
 There was a quick mental grab at the two 
 words " How long." The waiter knew them well. 
 They prefaced the most frequent question asked 
 by every American. The American is always 
 in a hurry. He always wants to know " how 
 long." The French shoulders went up in a 
 rapture of homage, and in the mobile French 
 face was a look of guileless veracity as there 
 came the prompt reply : 
 
 " About fifteen meenits, nies'sieur." 
 " There, I knew he'd think you wanted a beef- 
 steak," Mr. Corbett said with a triumphant laugh. 
 I must tell you here of the great compliment 
 paid Miss Reed. It came before she sailed for 
 Europe, although it was not made public until 
 her return home. There were to be two gold statues 
 made for exhibition in Buffalo at the Pan-Ameri- 
 can Exposition. One was to represent the North 
 and the other the South American continent. It 
 was desired that the models for these statues 
 should be typical women of their respective 
 countries. The woman who represented the 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE. TI5 
 
 Latin races must be a brunette, with features 
 and figure characteristic of her race; while the 
 woman of the north must possess the individu- 
 ality grown out of our national history. After 
 much search and speculation the committee at 
 last selected Miss Reed for this latter model. 
 She appreciated the compliment and readily con- 
 sented to pose for its creation. The work was 
 turned over to Roland Hinton Perry, a young 
 New Yorker who already had attained promi- 
 nence both as painter and sculptor. Some of the 
 strongest work on the Dewey arch was his, and 
 the beautiful fountain in front of the Congress- 
 ional Library in Washington was his first large 
 commission as a sculptor. He is imbued with 
 the free spirit of his country, and has transmitted 
 that spirit to the statue of Miss Reed. The 
 figure is a little larger than life size. The gown 
 is a modern street dress, and the whole attitude 
 of the figure proclaims the conditions of to-day. 
 It is the typical American girl — that girl who is 
 the result of The Declaration of Independence, 
 and who realizes herself to be an important part 
 of the great pulsing, moulding, life inspiring 
 forces of the world. 
 
n6 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 These two beautiful works of art are now on 
 exhibition in the rotunda of the New York State 
 building on the Pan-American grounds. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SONG OF PROSPERITY. 
 
 OST theatrical managers 
 shy at any suggestion of the 
 drama's moral influence. 
 They insist that the mis- 
 sion of the drama is simply to 
 entertain. Let the manager 
 talk in that vein from now to 
 kingdom come, but the fact 
 remains that to the drama its 
 moral import is its very breath. A successful 
 drama demands that virtue shall always triumph 
 over vice, and no one can estimate the theater's 
 moral import in a community. 
 
 Corse Payton in no way poses as a public bene- 
 factor. He simply says : 
 
 "I am in this business to make money." 
 Nevertheless, he is a public benefactor, and is 
 
n8 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 unconsciously doing a philanthropic work. Twice 
 each day performances are given in his theater. 
 The plays selected are from the very best written. 
 The whole atmosphere of his house is clean and 
 wholesome, and the prices of admission are within 
 the reach of every one. Rich and poor go here 
 together. 
 
 One thing I have noticed particularly, and 
 that is the pleasure it brings to a large class of 
 women — women who are mothers of families, and 
 who work hard and know few hours of recreation. 
 
 On one afternoon each week such a mother 
 can take her baby and go to Payton's. 
 
 And this brings me to the most delightfully 
 unique feature of this popular resort. That 
 feature is the nursery. To enter this nursery 
 
THE SONG OF PROSPERITY. 
 
 II 9 
 
 during a matinee must make 
 the true philanthropic heart 
 swell with joy, it presents a 
 picture so full of human inter- 
 est. 
 
 The room is large, pleasant 
 and beautifully furnished. 
 Around its sides stand a num- 
 ber of small white cribs. Baby 
 jumpers hang from the 
 ceiling. Scattered over the 
 floor are all kinds of play- 
 things in various stages of 
 dilapidation, showing the 
 marks of blessed baby fingers. 
 Two good natured nursery 
 maids, in white aprons and 
 caps, watch over the contented 
 little community of " gooers " 
 while the mothers enjoy the 
 play. Then, between acts 
 comes a fluttering flock of 
 mammas to see if all be well. 
 
 After watching the play and 
 listening to the music, each mother packs 
 
 up 
 
120 
 
 THE STORY OF CORSE PAYTON. 
 
 her baby and goes home. She has spent a pleas- 
 ant and profitable afternoon. She has forgotten 
 for a time her many anxious worries. Filled 
 with new thoughts which inspire new ambitions 
 and new interest in life she goes back to her 
 work and her family. That evening the hus- 
 band and father is greeted 
 with a cheerful, happy smile ; 
 and the evening meal is en- 
 livened with a description 
 of the play and players, in- 
 stead of being made dreary 
 by a fretful recital of the 
 day's petty home annoy- 
 ances. 
 
 And if the work which 
 induces this happy state of affairs be not philan- 
 thropic then the dictionary fails in its definition 
 of that word. 
 
 Amusement is just as important to life as are the 
 ten commandments, and has just as much to do 
 with man's spiritual growth. The one who would 
 abolish amusements is the one who would strip 
 
THE SONG OF PROSPERITY. 
 
 121 
 
 the earth of its flowers and shut out the sunshine. 
 
 One of the greatest needs to-day of the big 
 crowded metropolis is more wholesome amuse- 
 ments for the masses who have only lean pocket- 
 books out of which to pay for their pleasure. 
 
 All honor, then I say, to Corse Payton, who is 
 helping to fill this need; and may his theater 
 still go on singing The Song of Prosperity. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 007 197 466 2