Show A GENUINE SNOOZE the ludicrous situation of a noted com edlun joe jefferson is a careful actor but once in chicago he overbid overdid one portion of his performance lie was playing rip van winkle and went to the theater very much exhausted by a long days fishing on the lake As the curtain rosa anthe third act says our informant it disclosed the white haired rip still deep in the twenty years nap five ten twenty minutes passed and he did not waken the audience began to get impatient and the prompter uneasy the great actor doubtless knew what he was about but this was carry ing the realistic business too far the fact was that all this time jefferson was really sleeping the sleep of the just or rather of the fisherman who had sat eight hours in the sun finally the gallery became uproarious and one of the pods wanted to know if ther ewas going to be nineteen years more of this snooze business at this point jefferson began to snore this decided the prompter who opened a small trap beneath the stage and began to prod rip from below the bagged fagged pocket for an imaginary railway ticket and muttered drowsily going right through due tor at this entirely new reading the audience was transfixed with amazement when all at once jefferson sat up with a loud shriek evidently in agony the exasperated prompter had jabbed him with a pin |