New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-12-14
NKwsBoYs Ar THE THEArER

The theater is the one great attraction to the
Nemsboy. A fondness for dramatic display Ia
Che ono passion with him He will endure any
amount Of priyation that he may indulge this
passion Regularly in his calculations Of ex-
penditure, the shilling which is to admit him
not to be omitted. Here he may be seen night
after night, totally unconscious Of any thing
bat the play and his companions in the pit OF
the theater. His entire absence OF self-con-
seriousness is one of the most striking features
at he sits thus absorbed in the strange and ex-
citing world before him. The passions exhibited
by the actors, the style Of conversation and
dreas, are to him far more real than the people
whom he sees in the boxes. He rarely ever
glances at the latter in any theatre (for fms
spectacle viii sometimes induce the Nevsboy to
visit even the Brondwsy,) and II by chance
something arrests his eye there, he turns it
away suddenly rs il conscious Of an impro-
priety. When he ia need 10 the play be dig
poses himself for nap, with the understanding
that fellow Nswsboy Will give him q nudge in
time for him to be wide awake when they begin
:. to pile up the agony, or as Bob once expressed
it, +" wake me up when Kirby diss, and then
his loud, hearty hi-hi, is enough to do the poor
collapsed heart Of an author good. That hi-hi-
hi Of the pit comes from the bottom of the News
boys heart, and were j the author Of the play,
mine would rebel when it is cut short by the
rst-tat-tat Of tho policeman's rattan.
When new piece is brought out the News
boy is wide awake, and then woe to any sham,
the Newsboy's laugh, the Newsboy's jser, are
things not to be despised. He is all real him
self, nature down to his heels, and he won't bear
any thing else; but whom word or scene is
in accordance Herewith, the great generous
soul Of the Newsboy comes out as fresh and
flowing as newly printed sheet, and be utters
his hi-hi-hi, shouts, screams, applauds, till
~ 4fn
he may rat tat till his arm drops of, the boys are
in full tide, and they shout to their hearts con-
tent I would rather stand the ordeal Of the
Newsboys, were | to write play, than any
other audience in the world.
So when favorite actress appears, the hero
| inc of the play, with her full, mature charms,
and superb robes-the Newsboys never think Of
queen or . beauty, or a grand woman Of any
kind, without reyiving the image Of her.
Nothing in the shape of fine lady mas any re-
alty to them except the fine lady of the theater !,
accordingly when an actress has once won their
l sympathies, they are never weary with ap-
| plauding her. 1t is a study for poet, mine
Of wealth for an artist, to sit where he can lock
into the Bowery or Chatham pit, and watch the
crowds collected nightly to witness the repre-
L sentation.
Group after group shambie in, {for the News-
boy is eminently social, and dispose themselves
along the stiff, hard benches. If early, they sit
and eat ea-nuts, often the substitute for sup
l per; one who caz read gives out the substance
i Of the billfor his companions in q voice go low
that Broadway dandy might take hint in
good breeding from the Newsboy- Others
stretch themselves out for q brief nap, and
the exhaustion visible in the faces of such, as
they sink almost upon the instant to forgetful-
ness, tells sad story of deprivation and endu-
rance. As the pit fills up, care is taken not to
disturb the sieepers, the boys often taking the
heads of such into their laps, supporting q
stray arm. or lifting up leg and placing il
across their knees 10 make more room. L. is
| pitiful the tired expression of these sleepers
You look at them, 80 thin, SO like little old men
sharp, eager, self-rehant when awake, and then
when sleep comes and the muscles relax, and
the over-taxed nerve yields to inaction, they
grow children again, weary, suffering. hard,
wrought children they look, and yeu gaze al
their emaciated forms, the angular shoulder
| peeping from the ragged shirt, the hollow tenn
| Pile and thin nostril, with an indescribabls
, pang. You feel how pitiful is the childhood o
, the poor. You think how afar off in SOM
green country slope, the lambs are sporting b!
the hillside, the blossoms are looking out iron
. where the rock casts a great shadow at noon
tide, and where the tree spreads out his kindl,
A arms inviting the weary cattle to shelter; am
I away down in the valley where the brook CUR
giles around the Sc fantastic roots" Of the oil
q elm, and yiolsts cluster amid, and then yol
a think these should be with them, free and JOY
GUS as the lamb-eareless as the blossoms. 70
II did not the good Savior bless such Did H
not say let them come unto met Did he not tax
Ii them in his arms and bless them' And was nc
if benediction from His holy lips an injunction
ID as it were. to all Who have pure, loving heart:
ar to do likewise
u Anon the orchestra strikes prelude, and u
comes the Newsboys at dash, and they Civ
e out hearty cry of delight, The Newsboys al
i " fast" set, and don't like to wait The
nj have champed apples, they have cracked pes
y nuts till they are tired Indeed. il you clot
If your eyes and peer out by stealth and loc
le where the policeman leans his back again
u the balustrade of the orchestra, his two elbow
lie over the rails and his rattan sticking out oy,
the boys heads in the front, he makes ys
to think of cat intent upon an army of mic
y and the champ of apples, the crack, crack
r, the pea nuts, and the constant dropping
lei shells, seems like the suppressed gnawing
in these little animals. But the first crash of 4
sni orchestra dispels the allusion, for such sho
g; comes only from living. beating hearts; avs
go the ea-nuts, off 60 the caps, and every b.
in sits erect So nerved up dc they become,
80. intense in their attention, that they look Ii
ke the regular ranks of a field Of corn; and
Id they sway to the passions of the piece, it is
at | if the wind moved over the grain. EFrt
ho g The Newsboy."
er ANOTHER OPINION The Great Southern Go
nv yention of great men, which met at Baltimc
4 Or IL ,G1 ,JaSf