“THE FATHER OF CLOG DANCING.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5180, 29 October 1877, Page 3

“THE FATHER OF CLOG DANCING.”

(From the Worcester Gazette.) Seventeen years. ago Tim Hayes, then a young man of about eighteen years of age, arrived in New York, from his home in Dublin. He had a little reputation as a jig dancer, but that was all. While on his way to this country he conceived the idea of dancing a jig in clog or wooden-bottom shoes, and as soon as he put his foot on this country he ordered to be made a pair of shoes with wooden soles. On each one of, the heels he had nailed an old-fashioned large-sized copper cent. He, tried a dance, and succeeded. Immediately he secured an engagement as a clog-dancer. His idea was a good one, and his fancy steps, that would not have any particular attention in the ordinary shoe, created a sensation. He, after filling many engagements in theatres in New York, made a European trip-with Christy’s Minstrels. He next made a t»ur over the United States, dancing his clog dance to the tune of “ My Mary Ann,” to rounds of applause in every city in the Union, was paid 125d015. tolfiOdols. a week and all expenses, and after that frequently received as high as 200duls. per week. All this was because his style was novel. Soon he had many imitators, many of whom turned out to be better dancers than the “ father ” of clog dancers, as Tim Hayes was everywhere recognised to be. Some of them made money and kept it, but, notwithstanding all that Hayes made, he died in the Washington poor-house hospital lately. Hayes let his popularity and remarkable success make him unpopular with the members of his profession. He refused to associate with them off the stage, or to talk to them in the street. He was ugly, and soon he did not have a friend in the world. Then he began to drink. His dissipation continued for years. In 1863 he danced Dick Sands for the “championship clog” and lOOOdols., and won both. About four years ago he got so low that no manager would employ him. Consumption had a strong hold on him, and being without money and friends, and being too proud to knuckle down to any of his professional brethren, he went to the poor-house in Philadelphia to die. He improved somewhat several weeks ago, and, being allowed a short liberty outside the hospital, raised a small sum of money and came to this city in, a dying condition. He applied for an engagement at a variety theatre, saying, '< I know I am dying, and I want to die with my clogs on.” He was sent to a boardinghouse near by, and a physician employed to attend him. Being just as proud as over, he did not like to be kept at the expense of a friend, and he expressed a desire to bo sent to the poor-house or hospital, otherwise known as the Washington Asylum. He was there but one week when he expired. On the day of his death several of the vocalists and female dancers employed at variety theatres here visited the hospital, and had the body prepared for burial. This closes the story of the life of the first man who ever danced a clog dance in the United States. It is a sad one of a man who, though he was but thirtyfive years of age, lived a most remarkable and chequered life.