Despairing lady proves to be a Princess--King summons all hands to
appear before him--heroic lover plucks up courage, runs at big villain
with his sword--fight, with all the usual stamps by the combatants, and
appropriate music by the orchestra.
Big villain is stabbed--falls with his head close to the wing--prompter
slaps red paint in his left eye--looks very bloody--acts very
malicious--spits at heroic lover--squirms about a good deal--kicks his
boots off--soils his stockings, and after a prolonged spasmodic flourish
with both legs, his wig comes off, he subsides into an extensive calm,
and dies all over the stage.
Everybody is reconciled to everybody else. King comes down from his
throne to join the hands of the loving pair, and immediately abdicates
in favor of persevering lover--people all satisfied--young husband
kisses his bride, leaving part of his painted moustache on her forehead,
and she, in return, wipes the Venetian red from her cheeks upon his
white satin scarf--Grand Tableau--triumph of virtue (painted young man
and woman) over vice--(big dead rascal). Everybody cries
"hooray"--curtain goes down.
The appreciating audience congratulate themselves on having done their
part to encourage and sustain the "Modern Classic Drama."
Had I not been informed by the advertisement of the "Grand Thespian
Wigwam," that this was a specimen of a sterling "legitimate Classic
Drama," I should have supposed it to be a blood and thunder
graft of another stock transplanted here for the delectation of
"upper-tendom"--from the rustic shades of the unmentionable Bowery.
Since my visit to this Modern Temple of the Drama, it has been converted
into a Circus, and the Home of Tragedy has been changed into a "Ring"
for the Exhibition of Summersets and Sawdust.
XXVI.
Theatricals Again--A Night at the Bowery.
Not satisfied with having seen the place of amusement referred to in the
last chapter, I also desired to go over to the twenty-five cent side of
the town, and behold the splendors of their dramatic world. Accordingly,
I've been to the Bowery Theatre--the realm of orange-peel and
peanuts--the legitimate home of the unadulterated, undiluted sanguinary
drama--the school of juvenile Jack-Sheppardism, where adolescent
"shoulder hitters" and politicians in future take their first lessons in
rowdyism.
Where the seeds of evil are often first planted in the rough bosom of
the uncared-for boy, and, developed by the atmosphere of this moral
hot-house, soon blossom into crime.
Where, by perverted dramatic skill, wickedness is clothed in the robes
of romance and pseudo-heroism so enticingly as to captivate the young
imagination, and many a mistaught youth goes hence into the world with
the firm belief that to rival Dick Turpin or Sixteen-String Jack is the
climax of earthly honor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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