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2 BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS. i George L. Fox and the Voices Family. POPULAR NATIONAL PUNMAKEES. A Remarkable Occurrence at Bootli*s The ater —The Grotesque Singing ami Danc ing Vokewes —The Genius of Fred Yokes. Wonderful Achievements. . [Special Correspondence.] New York, March 23. —1s there any body in the United States who has not laughed at the grotesque antics and ir resistibly funny facial contortions of George L. Fox, whose fame will always live as Humpty Dumpty in connection with that of his brother, the almost equally celebrated Pantaloon of his pro duction? In the strictest sense of the word Fox was not really a great pantomimist. Like the lady of whom we have all read or heard, his face was his fortune. He had greater control over the muscles of his face than any man or woman I have ever met. He could screw his counte nance up into the most ridiculous gri maces, and whenever a performance seemed to be lagging, by reason of either a small or rather cold audience, he would at once begin to “mug,” and it was pretty safe to assume that there would bo no apathy after that.. The Pantomime Fever. It may not bo known that George did some really clever work as an actor, and afterward as a clown, before he took to pantomime, but it is the case neverthe less. He was one of the cast in the orig inal production of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin” at Purdy’s National theater on the Bowery, in this city, playing Simon Legare. He made no very great impres siou, however, and he was about the last man in the world that I should have picked out to win national repute. He drifted around the country, playing all sorts of roles, and then came back to New York, where he in turn managed the Old and New Bow r ery theaters. He also acted at this time, which was in the sixties, and he soon became a great favorite with the gallery gods and the boys who used to “run wid de machine. ” His popularity W'axed apace, and ho was getting speedily to bo “a man of sub stance,” as we used to say. Fox got the pantomime fever at about this time, and his friends’ efforts to dis suade him from embarking upon a ven ture which they felt sure would result disastrously wero really ludicrous in the THE VOICES FAMILY IN IST*. light of after events. George soon gave them a further shook by announcing that not only was he going into panto mime, hut that ho was going over to Broadway. Then they knew that he was doomed to become a pauper in short or der. They cited the case of the Ravels and argued that his efforts would appear so tame by comparison that ridicule and disaster were inevitable. George was obdurate, however, and he opened at the Olympic as Humpty Dumpty. He scored an instantaneous success, and within a week his produc tion and performance were the talk of the town. Seats were at a premium, and at the matinees strings of men and wom en, accompanied by children, could al ways be seen crowded about within a block or two of the theater. The piece beat by four performances the run of its rival, “Theßlack Crook,” though it, of course, did not equal the latter in the matter of monetary returns. Following this phenomenal success, Fox made sev eral tours of this country and always was one of the most potent attractions on the road. A Pathetic End. Fox’s retirement was pathetic in the extreme. He was a man of exceptionally quick perception, and his infirmity therefore excited more than the usual sympathy. As things turned out and looking backward 1 can see now that the seeds of insanity must have begun to sprout just prior to his last engage ment at Booth’s theater. Actions which were then inexplicable became perfectly clear in the light of subsequent events. On the stage at Booth’s one night while playing Humpty Dumpty George mys tified us all hy his strange conduct and finally chased Maffitt, Fraser and others of the performers all over the place. A little later he jumped into a private box and began to bang away with a property loaf of bread at a lady who was sitting there. Hi r terror almost precipitated a panic. All of a sudden George returned to the stage, the blank look' left him, and he seemed to realize that he had been doing something wrong. He set to work to. right nutters by making a few ab surd grimaces, and so marvelous was the power of the man in that respect that within a few seconds he had the audience convulsed with laughter by means of something which.was really not in the play at all. I remember on another occasion find ing George made up to go on the stage with one side of his face white and the other coal black. We were genuinely frightened then, as he seemed to think there was nothing wrong or peculiar about his make up, and his manager, George Tyler, went out into the audi ence and brought Dr. Hammond back upon the stage. He introduced him as Mr. Smith. Fox informed the doctor that he was the great Grimaldi, and that he was not a fool, but that he was the only real clown alive. The doctor, after testing him thoroughly, pronounc ed the trouble softening of the brain, and so, after playing five weeks instead of nine at Booth’s theater, George Fox was taken to a private sanitarium near Boston, where he died soon afterward. Fox’s last appearance on the stage took place Nov. 27, 1875, and when his death occurred, not long after, I remem ber that the newspapers teemed with statements to the effect that the insani ty of so many pantomimists was due to the white preparation which they use for whitening their faces! As the or dinary circus clown does the same thing, I cannot see why the reasoning should not apply also to him. I know, however, that the stuff which Fox used to make up his face was not in the slightest degree dangerous. He had a recipe of his own, as, in fact, does every clown in the business, and he would have been the first to ridicule the idea that it was in any way harmful to him. I knew what its ingredients were, and it was about as innocent a mixture as could well be imagined. The Voltes Family. The most remarkable family that the American stage has ever known was the Vokes aggregation. There were five of them, or, to be more accurate, four, for Fawdon was not a Vokes, simply tak ing the name when he became a mem ber of the troop. There has been a good deal of discussion as to who was the most talented member of the famous quintet. Most persons seem to incline to the belief that it was Rosina, but without Vishing to make any invidious comparisons I do not hesitate to say that it was the peculiar Fred who made their phenomenal success a possibility. Perhaps from a strictly histrionic stand point Rosina was the greatest of the lot. At any rate, Americans are apt to so regard her because of the fact that she made several tours of this country as a star and without the assistance of uny of the others of her family. Fred, Victoria, Jessie, Rosina and Fawdon each had his or her own little circle of admirers who thought that their favorite was the life of the aggre gation; but, in my opinion, neither was any better than ai.y other. They were like a well built piece of machinery, whore the smallest part was as essential to the proper working of the whole as the largest. The Voltes family had already estab lished themselves as prime favorites in London when they came to this coun try in 1869. They made a great success from the start. The novelty of the en tertainment which they gave was what caught the Now York public. Think of the same people being pre-eminent in singing, dancing, acting and many forms of grotesquerie! Their plays were all good, too, and it has often been a source of wonder to me how they ever managed to get together so many pieces without striking one or two bad ones. Tle Versatile Fred Yokes. Fred was a queer sort of genius. He was the stage manager for the family, and a mighty strict one he was too. The only person to whom he was in the least lenient was—Fred. He ordered the talented members of the family about at rehearsals as though they were under salary to him. He was spare in frame and of exceedingly nervous tem per;.. >;:t. Ilis curly lo< !.s and peculiar ex; . .-ion gave him a rather pictur esu'.i. appearance, lie seemed to be br.i'i (ii wires, so fidgety was lie. Ho was ti e most awful ’T.ieker” I have ever met, though he was at heart a mighty good fellow. But nothing ever seemed to please him, no matter who might have done it. He objected to ev erything and everybody on principle. He used to excuse this apparent petu lance with the statement that if he sim ply made a suggestion now and again the work of the people would speedily degenerate into mediocrity. It is not necessary to elaborate the achievements of this wonderful family. They are familiar to almost every one. All of them are defld, I think, except perhaps Victoria and possibly Fawdon, who, as I have already stated, was not a Vokes at all, although well worthy of being one. L. John Vincent. THE TIMES: BRUNSWICK, GA, MARCH 23, 1833. USEI) TO STICK TYPE. THE NEW FIRST ASSISTANT POST MASTER GENERAL. No Frill* on Perry Heath—Mon Who Hare Filled the Position of Secretary to the President —The Salary and the Require ments. [Special Correspondence.] Washington, March 23.— 1 wrote you something about Perry Heath at the end of the campaign, when he passed through Washington on his way to Mexico for a well earned rest. At that time it was understood in semiofficial places that he could be private secretary to the new president if he wanted the place. But Mr. Heath did not want to be private secretary even to a president. Iu fact, he was very doubtful about taking any office, preferring to return to newspaper life. When he saw the president elect a few weeks later, he had in his mind a foreign appointment, but the president and Mr. Hanna wanted him to stay in this country. Major McKinley offered him the place of first assistant postmas ter general then, hut the announcement was not made until Mr. Gary had been consulted. Mr. Heath is a native of Indiana, and he is proud of being a Hoosier. When he was 13 years old, Mr. Heath left school to enter a printing office. One of his contemporaries in those days was James Whitcomb Riley. From Indian apolis Mr. Heath came to Washington and handled copy in the office of The Evening Critic. Mr. Heath graduated from The Critic office into the United Press bureau. From that position he rose to he Wash ington correspondent of various influ ential papers. There never was a more faithful, con scientious. earnest worker. He was at his office at 9 every morning, and ho staid until 11 or 12 at night. He was good natured to the point of distraction, and he did more kindnesses to the mem bers from Indiana than they ever had a chance to do for him. His office was al ways Indiana headquarters, and not on ly the members from his state, but ev ery Indiana officeholder, made a habit of “dropping in on Perry Heath” two or three times a week. About six years ago he married Miss Conway of Louisville. Three years later he and his brothers organized a syndi cate which bought a controlling inter est in The Commercial Gazette, Cincin nati, and Mr. Heath became the man ager of the paper. He found hard sled ding in his new venture. Competition was keen, advertising bad. He saw a chance to sell out at a profit a year ago, and he sold. When Mr. Heath left Cincinnati, he told me that he intended to work for Major McKinley’s election. “McKinley is going to be nominated, ”he said. “If he is elected, we will have prosperity, and my business investments will bene fit. ” He called on Mr. Hanna, made arrangements to undertake certain mis sionary work and was in St. Louis two weeks before the Republican conven tion met. After the convention he took charge of the literary bureau of the Re publican committee at Chicago and su perintended the expenditure of $750,000 in the distribution of .campaign docu ments. When the election was over, he went to Mexico and California on the first pleasure trip he had taken in five years. Mr. Heath i3 tall, slender, with high cheek bones, a thin mustache which has a tendency to stand out straight and a thin coat of hair on his scalp. He has a kindly smile and a soft voice. He has a very wide acquaintance among public men. They all call him “Perry,” and they are all his friends. There will be no sanctity about the office of first as sistant postmaster general in this ad ministration. If you want to see the first assistant, walk into his office and take a chair. There are no frills on Per ry Heath. The newspaper correspondents were disappointed.when Heath was not made private secretary. Few of them knew Secretary Porter, and all of them knew Heath. They felt assured that with Heath in the White House the doors would not be barred against them as they have been for four years. I don’t mean that they were physically shut out, but news gathering at the White House was made so difficult and disa greeable under the self sufficient Thur ber that not one tenth of the newspaper correspondents went to the White House regularly for news. It is a curious fact that in selecting a private secretary (he is called “secretary to the president” now) almost all the presidents have gone outside the long list of men who have had a Washington experience and who were otherwise eli gible for the place. Colonel Lamout, before he came here, had experience only as a legislative cotrespondent at Albany and as private secretary to the governor of New York. Halford was an Englishman who had been managing editor of John C. New’s paper, the In dianapolis Journal, and who wanted to be minister to Denmark when Harri son was made president. John C. New asked for the fat position of consul gen eral at Loudon, however, so Halford had to abandon his ambition to go abroad, and as President Elect Harrison saw a way to make him useful in Wash ington he was appointed private secre tary. Thurber was a Wisconsin lawyer of limited practice and no public expe rience, and his one qualification for service when Don Dickinson suggested him was his adoration for Grover Cleve land. The president elect accepted him on the certificate of his admiration and respect, and Mr. Thurber has lived up to the character Mr. Dickinson gave him. His power, however, has been used to annoy where Halford and La lnont pleased. George Grantham Bain. THE COMING STYLES. model Designs li* Skirts and Wuicts—Ntw Accessories. [Special Correspondence.] New York, March 23. Though skirts are more often trimmed than plain for this coming season, the waists are about as fancifully decorated as be fore, and some of the new ones are ex- Wj v - -f v\ Nti/ / V ceedingly handsome. No matter what the skirt trimming may be, it is, after all, the bodice that gives it its chief beauty and fixes the position of the gown, as a plain or fine one, suitable for more dressy needs. The gathered or French waist for many years lias been made only on simple gowns for morn ing wear, but now some of the richest toilets of the season show gathered waists. The blouse is, in a modified form, seen on many fine dresses, and the surplice waist is also among the now spring bodices, though neither of them is new, nor, for that matter, is the French waist either, but they are all pretty. For young ladies who can still wear their dresses open in the back a very pretry design is offered in a waist where there is a rounded yoke, which is covered with “all over” lace or em broidery, according to the material of which the gown is made. Around the edge of this yoke is sewed a narrow lace insertion of such a pattern that rows cf very narrow black velvet ribbon can be run in. The design is suitable for pop lin, taffeta, gingham cr any of the new summer goods. The rest cf the waist is gathered to the yoke and again to the belt. It does not hang over like a blouse nor draw tight like the regulation French waist, but preserves a happy medium. The sleeves are snug and straight, being scalloped at the bottom with a row cf the insertion and a lace frill as a fini-h, while at the top is a heartbroken little puff, bewailing the departed fullness iu every dejected line. The skirt may be cut iu gores if siik, wool or poplin, or it may be cut straight and gathered where it is of any of the thin cotton or linen stuffs. A velvet ribbon belt with a fancy bow is always a pretty and a suitable adjunct to this waist, no matter what the material. For one of the dainty new sprigged challies I saw a novel waist. The fig ures on the chaliie represented pussy willow twigs in the natural greenish gray on a silvery white ground. At the bottom of the skirt there was a full ac cordion plaiting of plain olive green china silk. There were draped culls and double sleeve caps of the same. The bodice consisted of a French shaped basque, plaited closely and held in by a pearl gray ribbon. At the square neck, down the front and around tko caps were plaited ruffles of the same silk. It is just now that the little hearts of the little maidens are anxiously flutter ing, and I fear me that their minds are diverted from the study of their cate chism by the sinful wonderincs of what their dresses are to be for their first communion and whether they ought to wear wreaths or caps with their veils. I came across two outfits today, and, with some trifling changes for different tastes or circumstances, one or the other of these ought to satisfy almost any one. One was made of white cashmere, the skirt severely plain. The waist was in the popular French style, with rows of lace half an inch wide set at equal dis tances all down the waist. The sleeves were close, save at the top, where there were two puffs. The high stock was of white satin, with a narrow ruffle of lace. There was a sash of white satin ribbon 10 inches wide, fringed deeply at the bottom. A little satin chatelaine bag hung on narrow white ribbons at the left side. The veil was of tulle, uu liemmed and held in place by a wreath of white roses put on outside the veil. White kid slippers with bows of ribbon completed this pretty communion dress. The other was of white dimity, the skirt gathered, deeply hemmed and tucked. The full waist was shirred to fit around the neck. The sleeves were tight and had gathered caps, and there was a ruffle at the wrists and neck of soft LJm'WVIi WW ©rif?s t mull. The pointed girdle was of white ribbed silk. The veil was of fine white net hemmed two inches wide all around. There was a close little mull cap with ruchiug of silk muslin, and this tied under the chin. The veil was tacked to the cap. White hid button boots Went with this. Any of the v> hite materials is suitable for these little dresses. Com mon sense suggests that the gowns should he such that they can be worn all summer ly fbe addition of other rib bons and trimming. Good taste sug gests that too expensive dresses for such au occasion would savor of vulgarity. Olive Harper. EIGHT AT OUE DOOES. JOHN BULL STRONGLY INTRENCHED ALL ABOUT US. At the Bermudas Every Hill Is Topped by a Garrisoned Fort and Every Chan nel Sown With Torpedoes—British For tifications at Halifax and Elsewhere. [Special Correspondence.] St. George, Bermuda, March 18.— Recent dispatches from New York in form us that the British admiralty has ordered two of its third class battleships to this station, whereat the Bermudians are as rejoiced as you Yankees seem to ho excited. The matter is treated and laid before the public as if it were some thing new in the annals of British na val maneuvers to send out some of its ironclads to patrol the American coasts. Why, bless your innocent souls, this has been going on for the last 20 years, ever since Great Britain had any iron clads to send and which she could risk in a heavy sea. But did it ever occur to the patriotic American of the ‘ ‘jingo” type how real ly dangerous, actually menacing, from their proximity and foreign ownership, these otherwise insignificant coral is lands are to the peace and prosperity of the United States? They are, and you Americans cannot blink the fact. Right at your very doors, within two days’ steaming of your largest port, the most powerful nation of modern times has established a naval and refitting station capable of shel tering and repairing all the warships of the greatest navy iu the world. .. penn ; |.¥^° **f*p | ■vpHl '■ t > ■ W' ■ \ v-% fr I <* v 3 ? :; \ v\ S i <P % ok' , ' * *,' ft i vC> <-*/ 1 • % \ > fc i <£> -*2# ' ' > . \'q 7 r-. i />>%ir- M * i I'M V 5 iC—I "-4 -% l_ t 5 \t\ £■’ It %■ \ 5 t, %&• :® \*. E ; s % f — *iii, % ”’" j ‘ ~ ~ — T~ x \~u. k \‘4 VxCREAT JRITfII NIS FORTS a SOLDIERS MEA? H V QRK Vw f -f 1 x% ? I n i v rH Right beneath your very noses, less than 600 miles distant from the Hatter as, lie these Bermudas, where every hill is topped by a garrisoned fort, ev ery channel sown with torpedoes, every town swarming with British redcoats. On Ireland island is that great floating dock which was towed out here in 1869 hy two men-of-war and which, until your new Brooklyn dock was fin ished, was the largest in Atlantic wa ters. Strike out a circle, with the Bermu das as the center, and you take in your whole Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to the gulf of Mexico. Within the ra dius of that circle we may find not on ly all the important ports of the east coast of the United States, but also at least four fortified posts owned hy Great Britain, any one of which is immensely stronger than any port of yours opposed to it. Scanning a sea chart of our At lantic coast, we may find that the dis tance between the Bermudas and New York and between these islands and Halifax is about the same—that is, the three places form a triangle, with its hypotenuse lying between the two English possessions, its perpendicular between Halifax and New York and its base between New York and the Ber mudas. And these latter lie also in the center of the great ocean system of cur rents that makes the circuit of the At lantic, and of which the gulf stream is the most important. This fact and their advantageous po sition, combined with the impregnable character of their defenses, make them an ideal spot for a base of operations against the open ports of confiding Un cle Sam. With the Bermudas, then, as a cen ter, we should strike on the north the immense fortifications of Halifax, not much farther away than New York, which is 700 miles distant. Boston and Portland also would be vulnerable points within that line, and Philadel phia and Port Royal. Halifax is almost due north from the Bermudas; New York is northwest; Port Royal, Charles ton and Savannah from west to a little south, but all within easy reach. Swinging around to south of west, we have Jacksonville and St. Augustine only a little farther away than the Brit ish island of New Providence in the Bahamas, the port of which, Nassau (the haunt of blockade runners in late war times), has old forts and some sol diers. South by west of the Bermudas lies Jamaica, the brightest jewel in tho British West Indian possessions, where there are soldiers galore, forts capable of good defense and the famous naval and refitting station of Port Royal. Ja maica is 1,450 miles distant from New York and not much more than half that from the Bermudas. One thousand miles from the Bermu das and about 1,700 miles from New York is the island of St. Lucia, where the British have commenced a system of fortifications which they intend shall be second to none, save perhaps those of Gibraltar. The island is already alluded to by them as their Wist Indian Gib raltar, and the term is by no means misapplied. Now, there is no cause for flurry in this condition which I have pointed out. These posts have been in British posses sion for many years, and some of the fortifications were begun over a century ago. But it will not come amiss to point out the sagacity and provision of Great Britain as contrasted with the short sightedness of your American policy, which allows your coast to bo hemmed in by a line of fortified posts, mainly insular, and at which a hostile fleet can be concentrated at short notice. O. A. Furber. HARNESS PRAIRIE WINDS. Western Farmers Have a Unique and Cheap Method. [Special Correspondence.] Abilene, Kan., March 22.—Necessi ty has made of the farmers of the plains of Kansas and Nebraska inventors iu a direction that has not been expected of them. With the lack of water staring them in the face and preventing them from getting crops, it was essential that they should in some way secure the needel moisture. The majority of the farmers had not the money to buy wind mills, and for a long time there was a disposition to look upon the case as hopeless. The farmers realized that ir rigation was the only way out of the difficulty, but how should they secure the lifting power to bring the water that lay under the surface to the crops that they had sown? The problem has been solved by the erection of the queer est and most hideous contrivances that could well be imagined, but which seem to serve the purpose and are mak ing the settlers happier than they have been in a long time. These are the Jum bo windmills. They are constructed by the settlers themselves and are at once the cheapest and most satisfactory ma chines for handling the ceaseless prairie winds that have been invented. The settler takes a lot of lumber, a saw and hammer and goes to work on his mill. Two posts are erected about ten feet apart. A boxlike structure without top or bottom is then built around them. On the posts is laid the axle of a fan with four wide surfaces to present to the wind. The lower half is protected from the wind by the box, but the up per receives the breezes that are forever blowing. The winds from two direc tions can only, of course, be utilized, hut it is entirely safe to consider that the winds of the plains will come from the north or south. Very seldom do they come from any other direction. The farmer “waits the gale” and sees the water lifted to his farm and the garden, and perhaps the crops are made to grow as they could not have been in duced to hy any ether means at his command. The Jumbo has proved one of the saviors cf the plains and is worthy of being commemorated. In the latest report of the state authorities Kansas is shown to have about 3,000 irrigation plants. Each of these is supporting a family, which means that there are 15,- 000 people who are independent of the rainfall in this state alone. The same proportion may be found in Nebraska, and it means anew era for the plains. The big ditches that were to miles of plain are net the success .hat they wore expected to be, but there are, on the other hand, enough small plants with their Jumbo mills to make up for the defection. Thousands of claims in western Kansas and Nebraska have been deserted. It is estimated that in one month 18,000 wagons went east over the Missouri river bridge, leaving Ne braska. c. M. Harger.