Show LIFE OF HEROISM AND TRAGEDY How fow Eddie Foy Fey Showed His Bravery in Big Chicago Fire The first thing you notice about Eddie Fey Fay is la the wonderful mobility of his face and ana tho the next Is his childlike sim elm simplicity simplicity says WR VV W R In tho the Phila Philadelphia delphia North American Although he heis heIt heIs is It nearly 50 years yens old he ha Is la still stilt a cute little boy as as unaffected tedas as Adam might have been Garden of Eden You Tou dont see the tho bashful side aide of him himon himon himon on the stage He Ha gets his stage fright when he is not on the stage In the theatre he Is an admiral on on the deck of or his flagship Yes Tes Y as and he ho is a real hero too the hero of or the great g cat Iroquois theatre fire In Chicago three years ago His name nam is Edward Fitzgerald and both of at his parents were vre Y re Irish as far back as the family records run n The father was a tailor In New York when Eddie was waa born He came to this country co said the comedian thinking that he h could raise money in America as they raise pota poUt potatoes potatoes toes in Ireland but he died leaving my mother with almost t nothing except five girls and a boy baby which came was myself Mother Nursed Mrs Lincoln We moved to Chicago when I was waa 8 years old and my mother became nurse for Mrs Lincoln She had gone gon out of her mind completely poor woman after her husband was assassinated and she sho was vas a dreadful charge Mother was the only person who could do anything with her and for twelve years she sho had h d sole sale charge of ot other her When at last Mrs Lincoln was put into an asylum it was as my mothers testimony t that put her h r there thereAs thereAs thereAs As soon as we wo sot ot to Chicago 1 I started out as a newsboy and boot bootblack bootblack black I was a tough little Irishman and nd people kind of took t ok a shine to me which enabled me mo to shine them and andI I made from 2 Z to 3 a day In the evenings I went to night school When the big fire In 1871 came the Fitzgeralds s were getting along hand handsomely handsomely immel They rhey had a comfortable little home and were beginning to forget about their hardluck days but the fire ruined them themI I r was 14 years old then said the actor My heart sinks yet yot when I 1 think of o j the t e terror and despair that fire Inspired In us We all huddled together er and watched it coming The Tho wind was nas blowing at a great rate and the fire was traveling with the wind straight toward our home Under the blackcloud black loud of ot smoke we could see the theline theline theline line of flame which grew higher and higher as the fire ap approached approached preached When the heat and smoke together began to make mahe the atmosphere ere oppressive my mother said aId there was wag no use of or our waiting any longer that the home had to go and that all we wo could do would be to save savo as much of ot the furniture as possible My widowed sister was living with us and I r was ordered to take the baby a big bouncing redheaded kid about 18 months old to the house of ot a relative about five blocks away So far faras as we cc uld Judge It was out of the youngster back bacle to his mother I He Bo HeG dead G ad now died when ho Io was wis C G year old poor little fellow 1 Foy Fey said it In a way that bespoke him bm as an asa a man who loves children I It ItIs Is indeed one ona of his pronounced proDo nc traits He haa has seven of his own living livin on the tho little farm In New Rochelle N Y and a more Indulgent father tather does best not live hive Mrs Foy Fey wits was W s Madeline Mo Morando M Moi rando rondo an Italian premiere dancer whom the comedian married in go In 1893 18 3 Mr lIr Foy carries around with him wherever he goes goe a graph ph of ot the family that looks look like Ilko at a Sunday S school picnic Bryan the oldest boy who Is In now about 9 was waa named for William Jen ninga Bryan who Is a staunch of at Foy Fey This boy was In the Iroquois theatre fire with his father tather When the actor who was In his dressing room putting the finishing touches on his l for Sister Ann In hi Mr Bluebeard heard the noise of the stampede tamp e hot he heran he heran ran for Bryan and was carrying him out when it occurred to him that hot he was acting selfishly in not ut n t doing doin wha what he could for tor the hundreds of other oth chuI dren In the house So he ho threw his own son Into the arms of a stage handi hand told him to take the boy out ad went back ou on to the burning stage Hero of Iroquois Fire In his clownish costume he stood I there under the blazing scenery keep keel keepIng keeling Ing the orchestra at work and talking coolly to the audience Once he almost had the dreadful rush quieted but things had gone too far fart then for one hero to be of at any service It is a rather singular coincidence that a man who has been BO so much orv oni the go as Eddie Eddia Foy should have fig figured figured in the tho two most disastrous fires I that hat Chicago has known two fires which will be remembered as long alft ai America lasts Oh my life Ufe Is sewed up In Incidents said Mr Foy I hay have been In two or three railroad wrecks I have had holes shot through my nut clothes In Dodge City when I was playing a sketch there In the tho days when the bad men m n had full sway Even our return had boA a a tang edy ely connected with It When wo we 0 were reduced red ced to poverty a second time by the big fire firo and had hadi lived with fifty or more m ore other refugees In a church for a week or two my mother decided to come conic to New York taking advantage of ot the Erie rail railroad railroad railroad road offer to carry fire sufferers free We discovered that there was wan nothing for us In New York and wanted to gee gott go goback back to Chicago again Someone suggested that my moth go personally to Colonel Tames Janice Fisk Fiskjr FiskJr Jr president of oi the Erie Erle They said he wore his heart on his sleeve and that he would help out a widow with six children She hunted him up at a din dinner dinner ncr ner ner and he be listened to her most gra graciously graciously telling her to come to his of office office fice flee the following Saturday YOn fOn On Friday Edward S Stokes killed Mulet l him On Saturday my mother got the th pass for herself and family That was the kind of ot a man Jim Tim FIsk was He Becomes Become an Actor It was after the Fitzgeralds got back to Chicago on the dead mans pass that Eddie became a professional actor He Ho took the name of Foy Fey because it was waa shorter than Fitzgerald and he had relatives named Foy Fey Having learned to dance In the tho streets he paired up with a partner named Thompson and for eight or nine years toured the coun country country country try In a song song and dance un under under under der the team name of ot Foy oy and Thomp Thompson son zone of danger and my my mother calculated calculated hated on moving our ur furniture into their back b ck yard I left tho the rest of the tho folks bargain bargainIng Ing with an and started out with the kid Ip In my arms I gone Ione more than three blocks before I r saw that the fire was sweeping all allaround allaround allaround around us and that the house we were heading for was sure sura sure to be burned All I could do was to run for the lake front as fast as my legs would w uld carry me rae m and that fast consid consul considering considering ering the th weight of the baby who had always fed ted well Escapes With the Child Anyway we e escaped the kid and me and we camped camp d out ut for four days with the rest of the he be beside beside beside side the lake There were rich people and poor people ministers rs and thugs every kind of ot men and women that lived In Chicago all of them sleeping ing under tarpaulins at night and snatch tag lug their meals m als wherever they could The kid and I had a real cosy tar tarpaulin tarpaulin paulin and aid I fed him fine There any delicacy along the lake front that he get g t I would go to a group that had get hold of provisions some somewhere somewhere where and nd they would fall for the baby bab right away After Ater the fire had burned Itself out outI I 1 shouldered sh the baby and started to trudge over to the west side to see Jf f my mother was alive Maybe I J glad to give that |