PAGLIACCI IN REAL LIFE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1929, Page 8

PAGLIACCI IN REAL LIFE

TilE CLOWN’S WHITE WIG. BERLIN, December 7. A dead man with a white wig in his pocket was found some days ago in a forest near Berlin. There were no marks on his wretched clothing and no papers or letters in his pockets to establish his identity. Not the tiniest coin was found on him—nothing whatever except a white wig. The mystery of the. forest near Merlin occupied the police and Press. Who was the man? How had lie met In's death? Had he been murdered? And why should the only possession of a man whose white face stared out from a halo of waving red hair he a white wig ? The patient research of the police brought to light a moving tale. Who is not moved for a moment when a comedian in ridiculous clothes comes before the curtain and sings the prelude to Pagliacci? Hi the darkness of the theatre men yield to the appeal in that cry “ Is not an actor a man with a heart like yours for love and for sorrow?”: but afterwards they see that they have been tricked into emotion bv a writer for the stage. SIGN OF PROFESSION. There is no trickery in the tale ol tho man found dead in the wood near Berlin. He was the clown of a travel ling circus, Erdmann Diichow, and tho only tiling he took away with him when he left his employer after a quarrel was the white wig which he wore when he was keeping the audience in a roar with his antics and jokes in the ring. It was tlie sign of his profession. He left after that quarrel without a penny in his pocket and tramped along the snow-covered roads in the directi- n of Berlin. His wife lived in Beilin. They had drifted away from each other and lived apart, and it may well be, as the police think, that in this crisis of his life he longed for her and was on his way to find her. Inquiries in villages on the outskirts of the forest- showed that the poor clown begged for food and shelter, but was turned away from every door and had to tramp on. The doctors who have examined his body state that lie died from cold and hunger. He had sunk clown in the forest on the way to Berlin and perished. Poor Pagliacci! (UMKftaLv imujwLwaorkmwbm