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Show A WORD WITH CH1ARLIE SWEET. "Mr. Sweet is in his apartments above," was the gruff reply that came from the ticket window win-dow as I evinced some desire to talk to this he"ad liner of a lonely class who manages to wriggle around the circuit now and then. Up I went, only to be informed that a little trip to the stage door would reveal the object of my search. At the stage door Tired Terrance, who beats out the thunder when the occasion requires, re-quires, and works the horses hoofs when the vil-Han vil-Han approaches, said kindly, "You'll find Mr. Sweet in the comer sa grocery either that one or the next. He was in the next, recuperating as fast as possible, and telling the story of his life and a few others to an interested audience composed of all of the leisurely gentleman present. They were in iwars of laughter, and just as Sweet finished, a big soldier who was almost having a convulsion ovei the Impromptu matinee, pushed his way through the crowd, and tapping Sweet on the shioulder said: "Say, pal, you'd oughter go to Noo York an' try'n an' get on the stage." Then if was Sweet's turn to laugh, and in his happy contortions he got out of the crowd, and I nabbed him. "In the llrst place, Mr. Sweet," said I, "you don't drink?" "Not much," he flashed back, "but I do in the second." "Is Sweet your real name?" "Yes." 'JWhy?" ' "Well it was mostly father's fault, because grandfather had his arm shot off at the battle of Bunker Hill." "Would you mind telling me the story of your life?" "Not if you wouldn't. You see it was this way. I was born in Kalamazoo, but all I liked there was the celery. Besides there is an asylum in iHI that town, and I fell it my duty to escape. I fll joined Mockingbird Green's Minstrels in '77. We il busted in Fostoria, Ohio, and then the folks sent the sheriff to bring me back yes, 1 got used to them early." "But why should they send fpr you?" "There was an idea you see of making me a lawyer, minister, druggist or something else with 'M Latin in it. I went with one show and another il finally going around the world with 'The World's Entertainers company,' and later going on the clr- JM cult. I'm the oldest tramp in 'the business today, mind you, the oldest, not' the original, but Bill ' Hoey, Billy Kaye, Dan Hart, Walter Fletcher and Dick Hume have all gone the same way, the whiskey way." JH "But you'll not follow their example, Charlie?" I was calling him Charlie- by this time. , "Yes, if 1 can, but I'm afraid I can't." "Are you married Charlie, or do you live In a jH "Oh, yes, the dearest little woman In the world that's the way I'm kept wised to the junk about the styles you'd think I was married if you knew what they cost me. My wardrobe is really inslg-nificant, inslg-nificant, I don't need much, so I take Mrs. Sweet along to spend the bulk of my enormous salary." "I'd like a cut of your face, Charlie," I volun-teered, volun-teered, a bit of subtle flattery to draw the come-dian come-dian out, and it did. "I haven't been shaved today," he said. Oh, you mean to publish. Well ,you see they charged us so much for excess baggage that I had to come out here in a steamer trunk, and the cuts are all in storage east." I couldn't even bring this Bos-ton Bos-ton terrier with a blue ribbon every time he sticks his head out." And the brother produced a pic-ture pic-ture of a fine looking purp carried next' his heart. "You know I had an experience last night that nearly unnerved me," he went on, between his sips of chili con carni. "I nearly lost my I tramp, coat. Fvo worn that coat in my act for 19 years, and while I'm breaking another in, clean clothes are a frost, and I can't do my stunt' un-! un-! less I can be dressed so that I can feel like the character. But we found it again, and I stayed up at least two hours getting normal again.' He is a great Sweet this, now slipping a little into the sere anS yellow in appearance. His stuff Is new, he does it inimitably, and his dreamy touch on the piano in his imitations is as sweet as a woman's. He's got a pair of hands off the stage that look like original Virginia hams, but the touch is reserved for stage use, and it's worth more than its weight in the yellow boys. |