The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 5, 1901, Page 11

THE SUNDAY CALL. 11 El Personal Mnterview By Jarah Comstock. HEN I tell.you that the very driver of Belvedere didn't t Lotta was in town, n see that she has kept very quiet. e makes the foun- ket head- comes to San know who Lotta was know elf e he €e was, or who Miss 2 t is the pity I might mean Lottie Ducker, who moved pert I meant Mr. rm somewhere d blank. Even those g rubber had missed as slyly as a mouse en the Postmaster the w way to cot- h to get in. e. a whom pioneer of gold man- the ess In a ca Lott with showers on yred as aked unkz wouldn't public she be cottage to cupants as for a cs However, the guar rave d and was £ a the bar- t allov eve de the urned “Miss Crabtree e now and the granted upon considers sufficient.” both the guar- I am ti going to ally yielded. as 0 Te- biree not m ws that she argument I faced M For 1 her. did Having at she was not By no lightful about it 1 her while to and ising means no full pocket than to fession “dear re the light did not kept the seat It was not with me that light, and it was believe the aec- en dates. me.” k. reason that T am not ple is my mother's illness. I at account, you know, and in the world She is 81 e farther into the low chair, but she The morning was « was crisper. Way back e chair e were more shadow.s. Some San ¥ iscans are hoping that ) e re make another debut s her warm little laugh. Jear she cric I have left the t you believe me?”’ how of often people for good » my resolve for eight ld fascination never get s 1 it does I go to the a the pleasure of seeing She ed fi rd a little, keep- neil making non- For a second quickly and all T could see was a delicate pink and white skin, the kind (hat goes with auburn hair and e; She is ed as ever and as crisp. She wa ed like the pert American girl, in a smart little black suit, h linen collar and gay blue ped four-in-kand. Slight and light and quick in word and manner, it is per- fectly sible to imagine her to-day, in , scudding around a stage with a stolen pink lampshade on her head as I saw her scud in my little-girl days when a Lotta matinee was my reward of merit. Sun school but my piet Lot picnics couldn’t move me, was a thing of remark when ceme to town. ~ “You want some anecdotes of my early days in 8an Francisco Now that's like propping somebody before a camera and asking him to look pleasant I can’t re- member anything to order.” she drifted back and talked about early days, all the while in that warm voice that never seems to fit her. Stop your ears and watch her sudden lit- tle squirrel like ways and you would ex- Gradually pect to hear a nhght, Shallow-voiced chat. ur fingers out. Shut eyes and listen and you would imagine a large, motherly woman, who might take a whole orphan asylum into ter when you took ¥ your her heart and still have room to let “Jt was the greatest fun to play for those min * she said. ve had a lot of audiences, but never any ative. Talk b floral tribut are for civilization. The miner: days were not satisfied with anything less than gold nuggets. “They were not rough. You are always hearing of them as if they were rowdics. Nothing of the kind. Of course the hard- ships and necessities of their life rubbed off the polish, but 1 remember them as men of good families, men who had been reared gentlemen. They had been used to the good things of life before they ieft the East, and they knew them. That is why I place all the more value on their liking for my work. They had seen t ters and good ones, and they were nc be pleased by any kind of performa “Petaluma was where I made mv debut when I was 6 years old. You sce my fath- er had crossed the plains when I was a very little girl. I was born in New York, where my father had a bookstore, but business was duil with him, and when tne California gold fever got it with the rest of unprosperous or resticss He was one of those wh brave n. was on he men. mped made 1 “I was came, s nces of the trip ac 1 first remember clez s instead of tot when\he rem! What e only year-old a I cannot give you any the w ins. s the 1 iy of | the miner and his family, for that the | life that I came to know and to be part of. Laporte, on Rabbit Creck, was v mining life, the real thing. gedhot and 1 w of o life was old fev of i cour: ir rou I want to tell you zzain that the ers were good fellows, and there was anything that they wouldn’t or me either my vrofessional ca- pacity or otherwise.” Indians ¥ of w A« sloner In- Severa he f the ( s in Ke were sold, t zing $8,000,000 meney wa he Tt of the United Btates, and m Osage Indians derive an an- nuai incon In addition to t £ $400,000. tribe, counting men, They all share alike and when a chil The profits from the $8,000,000 held in the T e recent rental of pasture lar er sources of revenue, give income of approx- a per capita income of man, women and child. consists of man and wife children, as often happens, the each year in cash $3040, ight recetves and on their lands they raise all their foodstuffs and considerabie grain for the market The realty holdings of the tribe have a per capita valuation of $3987, or, for a family of ten, $39870. There is no other race of people In the world, it is declared, —p The Wealthiest Tndizns in United States. that can make such a showing. India ave not failed to this wealt sons and.| daughters of f e East to colleges and boarding schools to be edu- | cated, many of them receiving profe: training. re are a few famili course, which still live with almost the plicity that marked the lives of their t the desire for edu- b ancestors, n and culture is rapidly spreading, when the « ges become citiz a few years hence they will be fully eq d for the and responsiblli- ties of citizensi: The homes of some of the most pro- gress! Osag compare favorably with t dwellings of white people of equal wealth. Their hous are richly furnished with carpets and modern furniture, and in | there are pianos upon which th hool training of the daugh- ters ught them to perform. Horses | and carriages are not infrequent, and though the automobile has not yet made its appearance, it is not an impossibility, of the future. The enviable condition of the Osages has led to a considerable influx of white settlers on the reservations, many white men seeking alllances with the daughters of Osage familie The tribal government, however, has found a way, if not to stop, at least to profit by this white emigration. From every white person on the reserva- tion a monthly poll tax of $1 is coliected. The imposition of this tax has driven from the reservation many ‘suitors for the hands of Osage maidens and has given those who remain an ardor and eagerness for matrimony which might not follow were long courtships not thus rendered expensive luxuries.-~Washington Post. | California’s Qld=Time Favorite and Ker Pretty Home Tn RBelvedere. The fact is, as you may remember, that Mrs. Crabtree kept a boarding house up there ail did as well in it as she has in every bfisiness transaction since. She has been Lotta’s press agent and busine m er these long years, and she is said to be responsible for the $3,000,0 that lles stowed snugly away in Te such as a theater in Boston, several apartment houses in New York, and real es here, there and every where. 1 herself that wouldn't be worth a few t s to-day if it were not for her mother. “I'll tell you who it was that (augat me to sing and dance. It was an Itallan who vestments, a says she an. had come out here in the rush with kinds of alr castles nacked up in his c: pet bag. They toppled over as soon as he set them up here and he feil hack upon s music for a living. He was full of it, like all of his race, and he had the knack of teaching. He got up an orchestra and led it and when he found that I had talent in that line he offered to mlve me lessons. It didn’t take me long to learn enough to amuse my good-natured audi- ences and 1 guess Lotta was something of a success from the first. At v rate, one thing 1 am proud of is that I svas al- ways a star. Hven when I was a tiny youngster 1 was the leading lady of the r- me concert hall camps. “I was called La Petite Lotta In those early days. I never got over being rather petite, aithough, do you know, the fun- niest thing—I*am growing now. Since I left the stage. Isn't that queer? Broader and taller, both. I shouldn’t wonder if I might get to be a big lady one of these days.” She pulled herself up to a magnificent height of what appeared to be at least five feet ome. “My first appearance was made in San Francisco in 1856. I sang and danced at the second American Theater. After- ward I appeared at the old California, the one that left such a famous record of past successes. No, I never was in the troupe that toured the stock company there—always a star.” She reiterates this very positively in a way that impresees you that it is to be remembered. “For a long time I knew more about the one-night stand in tiny mining towns than I did about the swell engagement in big cities. That came later on, but all my training was barnstorming. We used to put up in little camps, where we gave performances in a tent or a cabin. Even after I gave up being a varlety performer and took to real plays I saw plenty of this soft of travel. "I remember one performance of “The Little Detective' that was given in a little bit of & place that contained one theater, which was more like a barn than what it pretended to be. If you recollect any- thing about the play you know that I, as the detective, am hunting down a murderer. The poor heroine has been dore to death and it is my business to do the villain in the same manner. In a thrilling climax the dead body of the in questjon floats across a watery 3 background, which is supposed to | E v the audience as to what has be- come of her. The trick of the thing is that she mfortably on a sofa and is rolled across by a man who pulls a rope. lies very c “On this awful night it w discovered at the last minute that there was not a foot of rope in the theater. Properties and property men were not perfected then. Shows were more impromptu. So as I stood upon the stage imagine my feelings when I heard the shrieks of: “‘How dare you grab my ankle? You are pulling it! I'll tell my husband! “And I realized that the shrieks came from the corpse, who was being tugged by a stage hand. “What dld I do? Just what the au- dience did—I laughed. Might as well when you can't cover up a thing. I like to laugh, anyway. That's what keeps me young. “It wasn’t until I was 16 that I made my New York debut. Niblo's Garden was the place. I was pretty proud, of course, when I had a New York success for the first time.” “What on earth do you do with your- self now that you have given up the con- stant occupation of the stage?’ I asked her. She is so busy every minute, even while she is sitting still; her hands move and her tongue wags and her face play: You can no more think of her loafing than you can of a healthy brown spar- row. \ “My dear, I paint. That keeps me per- fectly happy. I don't know but I like it as well as acting. 1 wish I were a land- seape painter when [ look out of that win- dow, but no—portraits.” Wlith Wotta Lotta will find very few of the old-time professionals here to reminisce with her. Mrs. Elizabeth Saunders is living out on Capp stpeet. “Dear, dear, is Lotta back?” she said when I told her. “I was Sarah Gamp to her Marchioness at the old Cali- fornia. I can’t remember anything about the performance except that she sat on a table and gnawed a bone. But I re- member her as herself and I remember her mother and I deeply regret that she is ill. I wish that you would convey my regards to them if you see them, my dear.” Which I am doing via the press, as I don't know how welcome I might be again. I am likewise charged with those of Barton Hill. “I played with her in what she called ‘The Firefly,’” he said the other day, “and a curious fact to me is that during the present fad for ‘Under Two Flags’ no one has mentioned that they are one and the same. In Lotta’s version she took the part of Cigarette, or The Firefly, as she called it; but it was a similar dramatization of the same novel. So the present fashionable play in New York is really a revival, after all.” He and Mrs. Saunders, blessed old peo- ple of the old school, have both a joggle in their voices now. But as for Lotta, although she says she has declared off, it looks dubious. For Lotta is still sassy. . %HkWorms Working on LIVinG Fashion Plates. ROBABLY no country on earth is pmore interesting to the traveler on the lockout for aueer things and unusual experfences than the Silvas of the Amazon, and here is a story about an tan tribe of that region told by Arthur Axtell, an American traveler, that can hardly be beaten: These particular Indlans were contin- ually bent on discovery and experiment- ing, says Mr. ell. Somehow they had come into possession of some silkworms. These worms were not known before in that country, and most of them died be- fore the natives found out how to raise them. But they persevered, and, by feed- ing them on the tender leaves of some pative plants, produced a good quality of silk, not so good as the Chinese prod- uct by feeding the worms on white mul- berry leaves, but nevertheless a strong, serviceable silk, certainly good enough for the dusky bodies of these savages, for this silk has not yet become an article of coemmerce. Their method of obtaining the silk and transtorming it into garments was crude. When the moths laid the eggs the na- tives carried them in great quantities in belts about their bodies, thus giving the eggs the body heat. At the end of win- ter the eggs were hatched and the re- sult was an army of caterpillars. These were trained to crawl over the naked bodies of the natives. This was their home. They knew no other, and seemed quite contented. During eight weeks the savage is cov- ered with these yellow crawlers. It would seem that thousands of creeping caterpillars over one's body from head to foot would tickle one to death. Certainly, a white man would find it unbearable, but it must be remembered these natives of Brazil are scarcely human. To them it is intensely interesting to train thess worms in the way they should go. Small bits of leaves are stuck on the bodies of the natives in regular rows, and round and round the worms go, feeding on the P P INITNG HEN the photograph repro- Wduced herewith was taken, the large melons that are seen hanging from the roof of the Royal Conservatory belonged to her Majesty Queen Victoria. Now, by right of succession, they are the prop- erty of King Edward VIL. They were raised by Owen Thomas of the Royal Gardens at Windsor from seeds grown by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, the “ | > Edward’s Monster Melons. well-known seedsmen, by whose cour- here. Messrs. Sutton & Sons have the most famous seed farms in Eng- land, near Reading, in Berkshire, 1n the fertile valley of the River Thames, The melons are known as Sutton’s Windsor Castle. As the picture shows, they are grown under glass, and each on= is carefully suspended and kept at a proper interval from its neighbors, so that it may attain its full growth. Provision is also made for keeping the temperaturs tesy the photograph is reproduced for years owned what are probably even by hot water or steam pipes. The natives help each other in the aves and in con- tain localities om way. placing of the bits of fining the worms to ce the body. These caterpillar-covered “niggers,” as Dr. F. A. Marsh, who was of our party, called them, sleep on their packs at night and are careful not to turn over in their sleep. That would be a sad calamity. When we came to their village thers were ‘ten Indians, men and women, in the act of raisl unique process. chill the blood. ng silk caterpillars by this They were a sight to I know the blood stopped flowing in my v 1 stood still and shuddered. Yet there was a fascination about it, for I had been told what tif$ ob- ject of it was and I admired the savage ingenuity. After the worms have become dizzy with playlog the ‘“merry-go-round” on the bodies of the savages they quit eat- ing and commence spinning the outer cov- ering for the cocoons. When this labor is done the natural process of silk-making is interfered with. The savages had found out that when the cocoons were finished they would burst, or the worms would eat their way out. In either case the silk was destroyed. So the worms are pre- vented from making the cocoons. Instead, the fiber for the outer covering is de- stroyed and the poor caterpillars stop in perplexity. But they doubtless conclude the savages are right, and the worms are in debt to them for eight weeks of feed- ing, so they start soon to the spinning of the silk. The natives are now in ecstacy. They make the worms hustle around them as they have been taught during all their lit- tle lives, and spinning as they go the fine filaments of shining silk. Round and round crawl the worms, each one spinning one to four thousand yards of silk thread around the swarthy, savage neck, around each naked arm, around the chest and ab- domen and the lower limbs. The work of the worm is over. And the resuit is a remarkable trans- formation! From a nude savage figure, loathsome and repuisive, with thousands of yellow worms crawling, twisting, writh- ing, squirming, to a conquering, proud na- tive of Brazil, clothed in a perfectly fitting garment of rich silk. He has toiled not, neither has he spinned—he has only bossed the job—yet is he clothed in rai- ~F'ment as beautiful as the lilies of the fleld. What a feeling of supremacy he must have. He has interfered successfully with |a divine plan. He has turned aside the course of nature and stands erect, in his own mind, at least, a man to be greatly admired. I was told the first efforts to produce these garments of silk. were not success- ful. But by patience and perseverance the faults were corrected, a close web perfected, and the garment, when com- pleted, was pretty and faultless. It is a great country for dye stuffs, and the silk garments were given various brilliant colors. One old girl was quite a sight. She was extremely gaunt and bony. Her black body was attired in a blood red silk garment, covering her body from the bust | to just above the knees. There were { dainty green shoulder straps, and around | her stringy neck was a wide ribbon of bright blue. A savage chief gloried in a comfortable silk jacket. It was looser than the others and could be opened in front, having a row of little holes in either side, in which little silk ribbons had been placed to tie the two sides together. These holes had been made in an ingenious way. The noble chief had a swelling like a wart on his neck, caused by a drop of poison from a certain weed. He noticed the worms avoided this wart, and the result was a hole in the Now, | during all the rest of that summer and winter, having nothing better to de, the chief gave his great intellect to the con- templation of the kworms and the royal garment they would make for him. When the eggs were hatched the folle ing year, and the Indian was covere | the ‘yellow, hairy caterpillars, he caused | to grow a double row of warts down his chest by means of the poison from weed, and also by the same means a long welt from neck to waist in the exact cen- ter. When the caterpillars spun out the |silk they avoided the warts and turned | back at the welt. The result was a gar- ment, open in front, with neatly worked holes for the ribbons. When our party left this interesting peo- ple they were busy with plans for further utilizing the worms. It was lecided in the silkworm council that when they had more worms than they themselves could use they would put a few hundred upon | the *heads and necks of some prisoners taken in battle. The hands and feet would be tied. The prisoner would not be able to move. Only day by day and week by week the worms would craw! over his face and neck and slowly, so that the | thought of it would almost drive him in- ! sane, a silken hood would be spun and a lingering death by suffocation would sue. It was further decided that when one of their own number died, if he died at the proper time, the worms should be glven the task of inclosing the corpse in a silk cocoon, a white one for babies and a black one for the men and women. I am anticipating another trip to this tribe, and am curious to see what further | improvements they have made. Iar pre- pared for surprises. It would be interest- ing to Americans if some of these silk living fashion plates could be brought to this country and exhibited. They are a home-loving people, and it would be a hard matter to get them to leave home, but te use a motto that these natives of Brazil might appropriately adopt, “All | things are possible.”