Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittman 145
for a new uniform. Sent for 25-looks like $25.00, but I daft
the dollar s- there-five archin. Eo@t som pretty lbces.
Chinese theatre at niat. Miss Bartlett, Captain Field, Rue Berger pad
Chang, Amrican Red CmssYChinese servant, who was grandly garbed iq beautirul
black sam. MasterfU mer. We sat in a box in the balcorly
and viewed the whole audience. As we entered, the whole hudience was packed--a
play was in progress--into every conceivable cornerr, Forst mat a
play was in progress and riveted their eyes upon us. The lang rows of
people nearby, were ELL men. Womn sat only on the topside. In the 'oalcony
were narrow tables. Tea -and watemlon seed were bejlng
they cracked the seeds of the watemlon, mind you. Well+ they made this
noi se [crunches] during mst of the evening.
'The hot towel custom appeared to all of the hricans as mst amusing.
Fully 25 China boys were occupied in this departrent. TI-# people after
drinking hot tea perspired. A bundle of hot towels were bw3led fmm the
rear of the room over the audience heads. Som bundles Wuching the ceiling,
'' they threw them, Itto the China boy at the front, 1410 in turn -passed
these out to the au&ence who mpped their heads furiouslJ6r. When thm@ with
the towel, it was collected and the bmdle returned by tm sans route to the
man Fn the rear. Bundles of towels were suspended midair and went flying
in every dSrection. The man in the rear dashed them up q~down in hot
water and pressed them a little bit, rolled them and then mlled them up a
bit more and off they flew." See, they were thmvsing thwe hot towels.
"Never did the pitcher ass his mark or a catcher fall at the ball.'' Now
that was s& , wasnl t it? (ahuckles) ltNever did a pitaer miss the mark,
or a catcher fail at the ball. The play was a wierd affair. One experience
is sufficient for mst hricans.
An Orchestra on one end of the stage played informally a motonom tom,
tom, tom. Actors were gowned in the most gorgeous silk q ~ gold d embroidered
robes. They were mst tra#c in their attitude. Their cpuntenancea were
hidden by horrible. false paper faces and beards of pat
i
Fergth which were
handled in tim to the music. Alltheilr faces painted grotesque patterns
resenbling a cmuf laged ship. " Well, that s somthing. "The bound feet of
the Chinese women on the stage, did not prevent them f'ro dancing. It was
quite a revelation to me and we were astounded to wibnes their coyness and
apparent independence. We, hricans appreciated a yo child acrobat.
Such exploitation always is repulsive to m, but we gave hardy handclap.
This created a lot of comnt from the audience.
Q. Don% they clap?
!
A. Well, apparently not.
Q. Md you say that there we= worren on the stage with
A. Yes, and dancing. But it kind of hurt us, you o see her do it.
"Russian papers, " now this is the seventh,
~eport a telegram
f'rom Omsk," that's in Western
ed States of
hrica has recognized the Bolshevik
' rn glad I wasn I t
in America then or I would've been A this morning. "
balvafAractive and is making great plans for canstructivp work. "