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Little Eva Ascends Synopsis

John St. George, who plays "Uncle Tom" in blackface, and younger brother Roy, who plays "Little Eva" in a wig and dress, are the sons of Blanche St. George, owner and leading lady of a repertory company that presents Uncle Tom's Cabin in small towns. Both boys dislike stage life, but sixteen-year-old Roy is particularly sensitive about playing a girl because their train is heading for the Connecticut town where his sweetheart lives, and she plans to see the play with her parents. When the troupe registers at the only hotel in town, John notices his mother's agitation at meeting the proprietor, Mr. Wilson, and the fact that they are served "commercial travelers' meat" at the dinner table rather than the thinner, less appetizing "actors' meat." The reason, he learns, is that Wilson is his and Roy's father, whom Blanche left many years ago to pursue her stage career. John confesses his longing for a real life, but is obligated to stay with his mother until she can earn the money to buy an opera house. At the performance, all goes well until Roy's ascent to heaven on a stepladder, which is jeered by boys in the gallery who realize he is a boy, not a girl. Removing his wig, Roy stumbles and knocks over the ladder, which pulls down the backdrop and brings the play to a crashing halt. Wilson, in attendance, invites everyone to dinner at his estate, and offers Blanche $10,000 to buy the opera house she wants, in exchange for letting him keep the boys. The St. Georges, joined by Roy's sweetheart and her family, sit down for dinner, and all is well.

The Tarantula Synopsis

"Beauty Smythe is at his old tricks again. Look at the raving beauty he's got on the string now." This was Manning's contribution to the discussion, which was taking place in one of New York's most exclusive clubs. All seemed to take a jolly view of the matter, except Van Allen, who, the others noticed, looked with disapproval on the flirtation. They could not understand his mood, and prodded him for his prudishness. When Smythe joined them, Van Allen called him over and asked him to listen to the story he was about to tell, the story of one man who paid for his loose habits. First, he drew from his pocket, a picture of a young man, about Smythe's age. "My sister's only boy," he said. "Two years ago he was leading the kind of life you are now, Smythe. He came down to Mexico to visit me and met Chonita, a pretty Mexican girl. He immediately became infatuated with her, to the consternation of Pedro, another of her lovers, who soon saw that Teddy held a higher place in her heart than he. When her father heard of the affair, he sent her away to their summer hacienda, hoping that she would forget Teddy. Then Ted received an invitation from a friend to spend the summer with him, and accepted. Out hunting one day, he met Chonita and both were happy at the reunion. He told her of his love for her, and she believed him. Of course he promised to marry her. One day, while walking through the forest. Ted just missed stepping on a tarantula, and shrinking from the hideous thing, told Chonita that he feared those terrible spiders worse than anything on earth. Sometime later, Ted received a note from her telling him to meet her at the usual place, and from the tone of the note he knew what had happened. She came, and brought a minister with her, but Teddy was married, and had two children, so even if he had wanted to, he could not have married her. Before word got back to the hacienda, Ted had hopped on a horse and started at a mad gallop for the railroad station, to avoid the wrath of her father and Pedro. Back in New York once more, he felt secure. Chonita meanwhile was thrown out of her father's house, and her child was born in an abandoned cabin. It lived but a few hours. Then Chonita got a position as dancer in a cheap music hall and became popular immediately. The proprietor of a New York café, seeing her perform, asked her to come to the city and dance for him. When she remembered that her betrayer was also in the city, she accepted. Hearing of her proposed trip, her father sent her a dagger, so that she might first kill Teddy and then herself, but she returned it, telling him that she would choose her own method of death for both of them. In the city she met Teddy once more. She responded to all his advances and finally induced him to invite her to his apartment. Here she presented him with an elaborate jewel case, which, she said, contained a gift. When his anxious hands opened the case, a giant tarantula crawled out. Need I tell you that he died a terrible death?" In a meditative mood, Beauty Smythe sat in his room and reflected on what he had heard. Then the moral hit home, and the letter he had intended sending to his latest "sweetheart" never went further than the trash basket.