FRANK VAN HOVEN'S TRAGIC FAILURE.

FRANK Van Hoven started life as a peanut seller in the fair grounds of America. That he was not a success in this simple walk of life is no reflection on his character. But the fact remains that he never held the same job for more than a month on end. Nor was this to be wondered at. No reasonable employer could be expected to retain a youth whose chief hobby seemed to be smashing bottles, and leaving the broken glass in untidy heaps around his stall.

The truth of the matter was that Frank had decided to become a bottle juggler. He accordingly bought up all the empty bottles he could lay his hands on, and, in the intervals of serving peanuts, practised until his arms ached.

One day, as he was swinging his bottles through the air, he attracted the attention of a professional conjurer named Jenson, who has since become famous under the stage name of Dante.

"So you're trying to be a juggler?" said Jenson, not a little puzzled by the other's amateurish antics.

"Trying is the right word," returned Van Hoven. "I haven't got the hang of things yet. But one of these days I am going to make my fortune at this game. You'll see my name in the lights over Broadway--' Frank Van Hoven, the World's Greatest Bottle juggler.'"

"I'm glad to hear it," was the encouraging reply. "I guess you'll have to make a lot of money to pay for all the bottles you've broken. If you're really interested, you had better come and practise on the stage at my theatre. You can put a mattress down, and the bottles won't break. That'll save you the trouble of sweeping up all the broken glass."

Van Hoven was delighted to have somebody take an interest in his efforts, and duly presented himself at the theatre. But no sooner had he seen Jenson, give a conjuring performance than he decided to give up juggling in favour of magic.

Again Jenson, was willing to help. He gave the ambitious youth several lessons in magic, and told him to purchase some cheap apparatus from Roterburg of Chicago. But Van Hoven was either lacking in imagination or else was extremely ungrateful. He purchased the same tricks that Jenson, himself was using, and even went so far as to steal his tutor's patter.

If a prize had been offered for the world's worst conjurer, Van Hoven would have won it hands down. It is true that he managed to obtain several engagements, but he never gave more than one performance at each theatre. After his first show, the manager invariably greeted him with the phrase "You're fired-beat it!" And poor Frank, together with the tricks he performed so badly, was bundled unceremoniously into the street.

At last he decided to try his luck in New York. Jenson, strongly advised him not to do so, and told him there would be little hope of success in the capital if he had been a failure in the small towns of the Middle West. But Van Hoven was nothing if not ambitious, and decided to take his chance. It was the luckiest thing he ever did.

He managed to obtain an engagement at a small picture theatre in the New York suburbs. It so happened that an important booking agent dropped into the theatre on business, and, quite by chance, he saw the magician's performance.

"That's the rottenest act I've ever seen," he told the manager. "In fact, he's so rotten that he's really good. As a conjurer he's a flop, but as a turn to raise the laughs he's great."

It was about this time that Van Hoven adopted the slapstick programme which eventually made him famous. The idea was taken to America by an English conjurer named William J. Hillier. Van Hoven saw Hillier's performance, and decided to use it as his own. By such small things can a man be made.

From that moment Van Hoven never looked back. The theatrical agent mentioned his name to Hammerstein, the variety magnate of America, who gave him several important bookings. Frank decided to go in for laughter raising rather than rabbit producing. His turn in which the four boy assistants were made to perform all sorts of nonsensical absurdities, was declared to be the funniest thing America had seen for years.

Frank's slogan--The Man Who Made Ice Famous--was first suggested by myself.