“The present management has engaged the best professional talent the city affords, and has put it under the direction of a stage manager who can make the most of it.... Without a single strong feature in the cast, with possibly the exception of the _Wah-no-tee_ of George Osborne, there were effects introduced which give more than their ordinary interest to the performance. The clever pen of Mr. Belasco had evidently elaborated the auction scenes, and the scene in which _Salem Scudder_ saves the _Indian_ from the mob....” This was the cast: _Jacob McCloskey_ Harry Colton. _Salem Scudder_ Edward Marble. _Wah-no-tee_ George Osborne. _George Peyton_ W. T. Doyle. “_Uncle_” _Pete_ Edward Barrett. _Mr. Sunnyside_ R. G. Marsh. _Lafouche_ Mr. Foster. _Paul_ Kitty Belmour. _Ratts_ Joseph W. Francœur. _Colonel Poindexter_ Thomas Gossman. _Julius Thibodeaux_ Logan Paul. _Judge Caillou_ George Galloway. _Jackson_ George Stevens. _Solon_ Mr. McIntosh. _Zoe_, _the Octoroon_ Mrs. F. M. Bates. _Dora Sunnyside_ Abbie Pierce. _Mrs. Peyton_ Jean Clara Walters. _Grace_ Lillie Owen. _Dido_ Mrs. Weston. _Minnie_ Kate Foust. In making this revival of “The Octoroon” Belasco employed the “altered and retouched” version of it, prepared by him, which had been acted under his direction at the Baldwin July 8, 1878,--still further varying and expanding several scenes of the original. The most popular variety features, dances, “specialties,” and songs of the minstrel show were deftly interwoven with the fabric of the drama, being utilized with pleasing effect in an elaborate representation of the slave quarters by moonlight, and in the first and fourth scenes of the Last Act: in the latter the slaves were shown, slowly making their way homeward, at evening, through the cotton fields, singing as they went, and the result was extraordinarily picturesque and impressive. More than 150 persons, besides the actors of the chief characters, participated in the performance, and the slave sale and the burning of the river steamboat Magnolia were portrayed with notable semblance of actuality. Writing to me, Belasco says: “I used a panorama, painted on several hundred yards of canvas, and I introduced drops, changing scenes in the twinkling of an eye, showing, alternately and in quick succession, pursued and pursuer,--_Jacob McCloskey_ and the _Indian_,--making their way through the canebrake and swamp, and ending with the life and death struggle and the killing of _McCloskey_. I must say the people were wildly enthusiastic and I was proud of the whole production. _I_ thought the acting very good.” “AMERICAN BORN.”