"Red-Light" Recollections; Representing the Hitherto Unwritten Story of Forty Years of Fairport from the Footlights (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 Excerpt: ... Renny Smith, Sergeant John Strachan, and Corporal J. Keith. The Sergeant-Major's time having expired, he was obliged to leave the town, and for an interval dramatic continuity was suspended. XXXV. %ht ' mil' of the cene- hifter. THE reference to scenic managers recalls an interesting feature of Arbroath's unique theatrical associations. One may fittingly demonstrate the local enthusiasm in this department of stage life by Gilbertian parody: To lie aloft In a bowling gale May tickle a sailor's taste, But the happiest hour a shifter sees Is when twelve feet high, In a canvas sky, Crawling on hands and knees--Yo ho And ropes around his waist. Or handling 'flats, ' Some ten feet three, Above the glaring jets; he makes the rollers merrily run, And blithely copes With twisting ropes, --'Tis so a shifter's glory s won; 'Tis all the joy he gets. Then pull, yo ho And sing, yo ho And pull, yo ho with a will 'Midst the red-light's flare And lightning's flash, And thunders stagey roll; The storms that rise In those canvas skies Are music to his soul. 2 t Atmosphere, Srging but Congenial. Who would imagine a scene-shifter with a soul 1 Yet if any man merits a martyr's crown it is the prestidigitateur of front interiors and 'back and cut' forests. Who is less considered as the auditors are transported 'from sea to sea and land to land, ' from dropping well to baronial hall, from towering precipice and howling waters to painted library and parlour flat? We have seen him in the gloom of a winter morning risking life and limb far above the 'flies, ' shivering on an unlit stage amidst the 'hanging' clouds, preparing for the glories of a night. We have seen him in his place on the bridge chalking up the mystic figures in the 'plot '; and ...