Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-02-23

nigh, to see that playactor that's made so much
noise..he that went off that nigh, that Uncle Jer-
nv come eighty miles to see him and didn't see
him. A parcel of chaps here said when he come
again hede have to make a confession for
runnin away, or he shouldn't act. He printed
a ,eace in New.York afore he come TO let
folks know he was a comm. When he come
there was a tarnaI fghtin to get tickets in the
morning to go to see him at night. About
middle the forenoon there was more folks
round the place where they sell 'em than | ever
see at a muster-some said there was a thou
sand but | guess there warnt less than two.
One black Teller see setting OIL an iron that
was put up for a lamp, pullin up another BY his
collar to let him reach over the heads OF the
Others, and when he got him up he held him
by the wais,band of his breeches till he had got
his tickets Another Teller got all his close
tore off but his shirt collar, and that spose he
would have lost, if it hadn't been separate from
his shirt. The tailors here sell shirt collars
ready made. A good many got their coats tore
and lost their hats and some had their legs
broke. Mr.-gave me a ticket and | went
into that part of the house that they call the pit
land a pit it was, to be sure. Idle rather be
caught lying up garnet six in a bed the night
after independence than get another such
squeezing. l liant time to tell you how the
theatre looks, but IT'S no more like our meetln-
house as l thought twas, tn an a saw mill is like
a cradle. When | first got in l thought was
in bedlam or among a flock of blackbirds. Such
a Gathering and humping and whistling, you'd
a thought il beat all nature. Lydia Larksples
great quilting party last winter was a fool to it.
After a while one Teller come on 10 the stage
and said something, but there was such a tear
ing noise nobody hearn what was said. Then
there was another chap come on, and acted as
if he wanted to say something but they made
more noise than ever. A whole lot OF brass
balls were flung at him, as big as your tst, such
as they put on to their iron fences. Somebody
threw about twenty Junk bottles at him; they
all had aqua forts in EN-, and as the bottles hit
him, they broke and let the stuff run all over
him. Somebody else flung a ' whole parcel Of
rotten eggs at him-I should think as much as
three hundred, which all hit him, and broke
and smelt worse than birthstone After this he
cleared out and another gentleman come on
and followed like thunder-but all | heard was
something about heart and sole, and then
he went and led on tother one again. The
people made more noise than ever, and acted
as if the Old Harry set 'em agoing. Another
grisI of rotten eggs, five times as much as be-
fore, come down upon the stage, and after that
about five carloads of apples and potatoes
Somebody threw an awful great pungkin which
made a pretty darnd smashing I can tell you,
for the inside all bounded back upon the men
in the pit. Six of 'em had their eyes put out
by it, and one was so kivered with it that he
looked as yeller as pungkin pie. The two
men on the stage didn't seem 10 mind it at all
till somebody tossed a cannon ball at 'em, that
they said weighed above forty pound, and |
guess it did for it broke a hole through the
moor anu killed three fddlers who had gone un-
der it to save their bacon. l begun to feel a
little as If | should like to be somewhere else,
but there l was and couldn't get out no more
thar if l had been in a steel trap. o Isaac
would have given ten dollars as quick as a wink
if l could a got once more into the street -
The people up in the galleries tore up the
seats and threw them down upon the folks be-
low. don't know how many were killed but
| counted above a dozen, dead as Methusela.-
Several had their eyes put out with hot oil
split from the lamps, and one had his throat
cut from ear to year by a piece of broken glass
that come from a window when the mob broke
it in. Another was hit by a little brass ball
on the nose, which drove it into his face about
half an inch beyond the surface, so that his
nose, which once stood out at an inch or more
from the fiat of his face, is now half an ich or
more sunk in, and looks very like the nose of
a mud-turtle when drawn into the shell. The
bloody minded mob got three or four cannon,
such as our artillery used to drag about on
muster days, and fired against the walls of
the theatre, which soon laid 'em level with the
ground. Those who were not killed by the
falling down of the walls had then a chance to
gel away, a chance which l took advantage of
quicker than ever a tom-cat licked his ear -
VIVA, become Of the play actor that they made
all the %clatter about / don't know-some said
he hid himself in garnet nigh by and staid
till next morning-some said he went off TO
New York in woman's cloze and his face
blacked-and others say, that he was killed
that night by about forty fellows who went
armed with pistols and dirks-and I believe
this is true They roasted his spare ribs, and
cut up his thighs into slices which they broiled
like ham, and had a grand feast. His blood
they drank and his skin they sold toa man that
keeps a museum, who is going to stuff it and
keep it for a show. Every body says that the
Mare might have stopt all the mischief if he
would-but other folks say if he'd gone to
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