Theatrics in Sauk

SAUK, a brisk, lively little city, with several railroad connections and a good business, was quite capable of supporting one theatre, and did so. But when it came to have two houses, rivals, one must needs eat the other up, under penalty of starving itself, and so the war of the Montagues and the Capulets began in Sauk. The process by which there came about two theatres in Sauk was analogous to what the naturalists are used to call fissiparous growth, in which a crack begins in a body and widens continually until the body is cleft in two and each goes off by itself, an independent affair. The old Sauk Theatre, parent of the two rivals, was a prosperous and popular concern, and though not rigidly devoted to high art — which has not as yet made much progress in Sauk—was much liked by stars of less than Alpha magnitude. It seated twelve hundred right comfortably, and was quite well appointed. The proprietors and managers, Medybemps and Wibbald, were fast friends, “like to a double cherry,”

“Two lovely berries moulded on one stem,”

though to call them lovely is, I confess it, hyperbole.

They were both actors, comedians, and could both sing right well, old Krank Medybemps having a harsh, effective bass voice, and Tom… Read More