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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1896)
THE COURIER. jtt fi THEATRICAL NOTES. Alan Dale has tho following to say on comic opera: The "comic opera ' epidemic is with ub. Tods of people are carried nightly acd matineely to the play houses to listen to a form of entertainment that our managers are pleased to call "comic opera," and tho epidemic is more viru lent because it has transferred the period of its invasion from blazing sum mer to cool, sequestered autumn. A few seasons ago there was a deeply rooted belief that "comic opera'' could thrive only in those torrid months when tho affability of audiences oozes from the pores of their skins, and life becomes a moist, unwholesome nightmare. "Turn on tho acrobats; let loose the imbecile jokes, rush in the horseplay, for June and July are fleeting months and audi ences wallow in asininity during the summer only.' That was the manag erial idea. It raged for a long time; it raged until itn fallacy was apparent. The acrobatic jocularity known as comic opera is no longer essayed during tho heated term. Managers have dis .covered that summer audiences are not made up exclusively of fools; that there isn't an acrobatic comedian in comic -opcradom who can lure people awav from roof gardens and tho beaches; that horseplay begets execssivo perspiration, and that Noah's ark jokes aro indigest ible when the thermometer coquettes with the nineties. It has all been changed, and the epidemic is with us now, when we aro better able to fight it; when our systems arc stronger and more competent to cope with the blat ant demon of vulgarity; when there is no danger of our assimilating the germs of imbecility into our constitutions. This condition of things is far moro felicitous. Wo were helpless during tho enervating summer. We aro potent, sane and deliberate during these cool and invigorating months. Moiooter, we have time to consider things, and that is a great point. Managers tell us that they are furnishing us with comic opera, and we rush off and buy tickets for Francis Wilson, pirouetting through "Half a King;'" for Jefferson De Angplis somersaulting over "Tho Caliph;"' for .half a gros3 ofTotties and Lotties ogling their way through "Tho Gold 3ug;' for a baby 6how at the Fifth avenue, en titled "Lost, Strayed or Stolen," and for "The Geisha" the only entertainment of the five that makes the slightest at tempt to cater to those who own a pennyweight of refinement or one ounce of culture. Johnstone Bennett has discharged her nidid and hired a valet. She says a maid is more bother tnan she is worth. "In a crowd," Johnstone Bennett says, "I have to look after the maid and the trunks too, when I have the most need of her she has a headache or a beau or she thinks some one has insulted her, and at all times Bhe is helpless and self conscious. On the other hand, a man takes what comes along and he is re spectful, uncomplaining and helpful.' Johnstone Bennett's clothes are a coat and vest and plain dark skirt. She -wears her hair short and cuffs, collars and neckties. When the valet was in terviewed he said he did not care whether he worked for a man or woman so long as he got his pay "reglar. Mr. Jefferson, of the Angels, un doubtedly deserves his name. If he did not come from the angels and were not of tho angels active acquis: te little angels, straight out of tho Talmud and with a certain gift of nose he would break his neck, head, legs, spinal column and ribs every night and at tho Saturday matinee. Even as it i?, his bill for rupturing the stage must be enormous. His performance in "The Caliph' is but a climbing and a falling, with about ninety-one parts of climbing to one part of falling, for-ho is a com pound Jailer, a complicated tumbler,and no ordinary rules of inathtriatics or pro joctiles can bo applied to his accomp lished and apparently invulnerable per son. From ilagetaffs, from hammocke. from ladders, from windows, he falls with violence and great is the fall there of. Such bumping and thumping and jumping, such crawling and falling, such hitting and "spitting," such battering and clattering and scattering of limbs were never seen before. What is this man made of? How does ho keep out of the hospital? Docs ho "enjoy his acrobatics as much as the spectators do? "In Gay New York,' which comes to the Lansing soon, gives Walter Jones a chance to show that ho can rlay another part just as well as he played "tho tramp" in 1192. The great success cf his tramp act induced tho management of every farce comedy conpany on the road to put on something as nearly like Walter Jones' specialty as possible.Every theatre goer will remember the shudder, ing inflammations ;n rags that inflicted themselves upon him last winter and if he thought it would do any good every theatre goer would pray never to bo at tacked by another tramp in the Funke or tho Lansing. Walter Jone origi nal act had the merit of novelty and he was not realistic enough to make the flesh of every ono in the house creep with unmentionable inserts. "In Gay New York" Walter Jones is a long dis tance from the tramp and to my mind a greater success. Here's something that the Canuck's do when they get excited at a theatrical performance: Romeo and Juliet was the play, and the Canucks were most demonstrative in their approbation. At tho end of tho second act a facetious auditor cried out, "Author! author!'' and, never pausing to think, tho entire assemblage took up the cry until the theatre shook with clamorous demands for the man who wrote tho play. In a few moments, however, the ridiculous ness of the thing struck them, and they enjoyed a hearty laugh at their own ex pense. Canary and Loderer, of the New York Casino, who aro directing the current tour of Lillian Russell, will present her here on Friday evening, October 30. This is an event of importance to the myriad admirers of Miss Russell. She comes with an entirely new production and with the largest and most meritori ous organization she has ever been identified with. She travels in her own palace car, in which she lodges and lives, surrounled with a retinue of servants and like what she is, a lyric empress. Miss Russell's new role is said to fit her admirably. Tho opera is called, out of compliment to the star, "An Ameri can Beauty.' It is in three acts, but it is no more like the orthodox comic opera than a melodrama is like a farce comedy. It is, in situations, music and plot, faraway Trom tho conventional. Hugh Morton, the co-author of several great Casino 6uccesso?, wrote the book. Euetace Kerker. the most tuneful and prolific of up-to-date composers,invcntcd the music In their co laborations these gentlemen have turned out a something that affords Miss Russell the greatest opportunity for the exhibition of the most magnificent attiro that Worth and Felix of Paris over supplied, and for the display of her vocal talents and her abilities as a romping come dienne. She declares that in her entire career she never was so pleased as she is with her new role. The new properly elephant beats "Wang's. It is as solemn, ae heavy and. more imposing than DeWolt Hop per's pachyderm, and Lillian comes in on his back in oriental magnillcence. A MAN OF IMAGINATION. THE STOBV OF A WORD RSPEXTED. The guests had risen from the table, and there wubb rustle of silk and a wave of cobr as the women swept out of the room. Usually, in so small a party the women stayed on, joining tho men in their smoke, but to-night, out cf deference to the little Puritan bride who bad recently come among them, Doris had given the signal, and the men were left to havo things their own way. Basil tilted back his chair with an easy familiarity bred of his position as ami lie maison and host pro (cm., Doris's husband having been suddenly called away. The other men lounged about comfortably and helped themselves and ono anothar to a light, when Dickie Hurst started the conversation. "Do you fellows know, I got on to rather a neat thing yesterday," ho said. Had to go to Brooklyn, so I gave up tho 'day to it, and found other people had the same notion. Blessed if I can be origi nal. When 1 boarded the L, the first person I saw was guess!'' "Oh, don't shout conundrums, old boy,"' Basil said, good-naturedly; "we'ro no Boston charade party. Get on with the story.' "Well, I shan't tell you," Dickie re plied, calmly; "it wouldn't be square, but you know her, all of you. and she bad that callow youth, tho new Adonis, in tow. Gad he needn't bother himself about college any moro if she has under taken his education." Dickie blew a succession of rings into tho air, and flicked the ashes off his cigarette before he continued. "I told you I made a day of it got off from club about 11, and spent live hours out of civilization. Evidently in choos ing Brooklyn, our friends thought they were safe, but thoy did not reckon on me. I was most urbanely polito and at. tentive; when we got over, I placed my self at Mrs. A's. disposal, feeling that she must need my protection so far from home." "I know what Bhe did," Basil inter rupted. "Smiled sweetly upon you, asked you to call a cab, made a hurried arrangement with Adonis in the moment that you stepped out to call cabby, and then dismissed both of you men and drove complacently off." "Hang it, that's exactly what she did!' Dickie cried, excitedly. "How in thun der did you know?' "Oh, I kmw the type of Fomau," the older man said, indifferently; "thoyhavo infinite resource and aro quick tochango their tactics in tho face of the enemy." "Well, you're right, old man. She took me in innocent babies are nothing! I thought I had Adonis stranded, so I said by-by and went off in another cab, leaving Adonis to go back to town, look ing deucedly upset. He has not been in harness quite long enough to know how to hide his feelings." Dickie paused to take breath, and the husband of the bride crossed over and eat down beside the storj'-teller. "How much will you take, Dickie, for your worldly truths? They are not hal bad, you know, from an innocent like you!" "Oh, jou may laugh if you like," Dickie said. loftily. "I bagged my game, and 1 didn't so much as halt try; they tumbled in. You see, tho man I was after lived at the St. Jacob an em inently proper place. When I got through with him he insisted upon my stopping to irnch. I had visions of what the cooking might be, but one must occasionally make concessions, so we went down and got a table, way up toward the end of tho room. And at the very end" Dickie's voico grew mysterious ''in a discreet corner, sat, Mrs. A. and the fascinating Adonis drinking their cocktails." Dickie camo to a full stop 'ogive his words effect. "Did it knock the breath clear out of you. Dickie?" Basil asked, jeeringly. "No, not exactly, but I was a bit taken off my feet. I did not know Mrs. Time i M0 Ml IT BY TIKI THE fp 3 S3jrJi j3Ci piCTOV Actual time traveling. 31 hours to Salt Lake. Gl hours to San Francisco. G3 hours to Portland. 77 hours to Los Angeles. FROM LINCOLN, NIB City office, 1041 O street. Fifth publication October 3. SHERIFF'S SALE. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT by virtue of an order of sale Issued by the clerk of the district court of the third judicial district of Nebraska, within and for Lancaster county, in an action wherein Ward S. Mills is plain tiff, and Aaron K. Seip et al., defend ants. I will, at 2 o'clock p. m.,on theGth day of October, A. D., 169G, at the east door of the court house, in the city of Lincoln, Lancaster county, Nebraska, offer for sale at public auction the fol lowing described real estate, to-wit: Lots nine (9), ten (10). eleven (11), twelve (12) and thirteen (13), in block one (1), and lots two (2), three (3), four (4). eight (8), nine (9), ten (10), eleven (1J) and twelve (12), in block nine 9, anu lots eleven (11) and twelve (12), in block eleven 11, and lot seven (7), in block nine (9), all in Mills addition to University Place, in Lancaster county, Nebraska. Given under my hand this 3l6t day or August, A. D.. 1SDG. John Trompen, Sheriff. Oct 3. Fifth publication October 3. SHERIFF'S SALE. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, THAT by virtue of an order of sale issued by the clerk of the district court of the Third Judicial district of Nebraska, within and for Lancaster county, in an action wherein John P. Whitney is plaintiff, and Theodoro Benninghoff et al., defendant. I will, at 2 o'clock p. m., on the Gth day of October, A. D. 1S9G, at the cast door of the court house, in the city of Lincoln, Lancaster county, Nebraska, offer for salo at public auction the following described real estato to wit Lot six G, in block two hundred and forty 210. in Lincoln, Lancaster county, Nebraska. Given under my hand this 25th day of August. A. D.,1800. John J. Trompen, Sheriff. Oct 3. Fourth publication October 3. SUERIFF SALE. Notice is hereby given that by virtue of an order of sale, issued by tho clerk of the district court of the Third judi cial district of Nebraska, within and for Lancaster counts, in an action wherein Sarah A. Rogers is plaintiff and Eliza beth Cadwallader et. al., defendants, I will, at 2 o'clock p. m., on the 13th day of October, A. D. 189G, at the east door of the court house, in tho city of Lin coln. Lancaster county, Nebraska, offer for sale at public auction tho following described real estate to-wit: The west forty-five (15) ftet of lot number ten (10), block number three (3), in Avondale ad dition to tho city of Lincoln, and part of lota eleven (11) and twelve 12, in block three 3, in Avondale addition to tho city of Lincoln, described by metes and bounds as follows: Commencing at a point fifty 50 feet north of the south east corner of said lot twelve 12 thence wedt ninety.five 95 feet, thence north fifty 50 feet, thence east ninety five 95 feet, thence south fifty 150 feet to place or beginning, according to the recorded plat tbereof, in Lancaster county, Nebraska. Given under my hand this 11th day of September, A. D. 169G. n tin n JOflN J-TROMPEN. Oct 10-G Sheriff. v
