The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-01

miraele-play. Superior writers in all htera-
tures whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian,
English, or German, deal with their
themes after the same fashion. They trans
mute and convert them into higher and still
higher meanings, till they grow into symbols
and types. Faust is such type; so is Don
Juan; so is Beatrice; so is Dido; 80 is Achilles;
and so is Adam. They have a strange vitality,
these types.
Actors and story -tellers are the preservers of
the traditions that grow into types, and crea-
tors of the types themselves by the develop
ment that they give to the traditions. Some
thirty or forty years ago, men in the High
lands used to cougregate and tell stories;
and even lately they spent whele winter
nights about the fire listening to old-world
tales. In every cluster of houses was some
one famed as "good at sgialachdan," whose
house was a winter evenings resort. In
such humble theatres, and in this simple
manner the mysterious process went on. 1t
is now continued in a grander style at the
magnificent houses where Shakespeare is occa-
sionally acted, and the Christmas pantomime
burlesque presents a new and enlarged edi-
tion OF some ancient legend, which, while re-
tanning its name, has changed both form and
substance, without apparently inuring its
Identity by the alterations superinduced, some
OF tPem inevitable.
IN various ways, the old spirit Of popular
romance has reviyed nor would a iudicious
cised as an evil spirit, whatever bigoted per-
sons may do. Rather let us accept it as a good
genius to be cOnciliated and employed for
good purposes as one of the promoters of
popular education. Surely" exclaims a
lover Of these traditions "stories in which
mothers blessing well earned leads
to success in which the poor rise to
be princes, and the weak and courageous
overcome giants; in which wisdom excels brute
force-surely even such frivolities are better
pastime than a solitary whisky bottle, or sleep,
or grim silence; for that seems the choice of
amusements if tales are forbidden, and Gaelic
books are not provided for men who know no
other language, and who, as men, must be
amused now and then"
Better? Ay far better Even when the
bottle is provided, amusement is expedient.
If the cigar and the glass had suficed of them
selves, would spectators on the public purse
have added the Music Hall and the Saloon
Music, ballet, and the acrobat have been needed
to encourage people to drink; and so many are
satisfied with the former without the latter that
the average of drinking and smoking together
even on an especial occasion with crowded
audience, averages only sixpence a head.
Such is the account cheerfully rendered of
the Alhambra, even by the landlord himself
whom much drinking would largely benefit.
Besides, these places have their history in the
past, which they show signs of repeating in
the present. The musical or dramatic enter
tainment gradually supersedes the bibulous
altogether. Thus at the Grecian, once a saloon,
and one of the earliest places at which music
and singing were added as inducements,
the theatre became a greater attraction
than the platform, though dancing there
was permitted as well as drinking. In
like manner, the proprietor of Highbury
Barn has found it his interest to provide
theatre for his customers. The little play
l. - Gil - ~
come so famous as the home of legitimate
drama, was once a place of entertainment
where gymDasts performed their feats, profess
sionals sang, and entertainers performed, as
well as the Thirsty sOul' received refresh
ment. The fine point of the wedge was thus
inserted, and in time the entire wedge obtained
place. The finer portions of such amuse-
ments gradually gain the ascendancy, and the
grosser disappear. The Music Halls even now
are undergoing a change. 1t is reported that
their popularity is on the Decline and is
likely to be more so, as, in order to decrease
their expenses, they have ceased to give
the higher class music, and have reduced
the entertainment to mere comic singing.
Many, therefore, propose to substitute drama,
or something analogous thereto, as likely to
be more attractive, or to command the attend
ance OF larger numbers. Meanwhile, at the
Agricultural Hall, IslingtOn, tens Of thousands
| nightly are gathered to listen to instrumental
| anu OIIcl luuslCj luCluuluS SOuSS' us 4uIo-
| Tior, also, has been decorated and illuminated
| in the most gorgeous manner so as to entitle
| it to be called what it is now named on the
bills, a "Fairy Palace" Nor should we be
| surprised if at no distant period, some astute
| speculatOr should cOntrive some species of
| dramatic entertainment which should bring the
million within the area of this simmense building.
| Such is the necessity, in this hard working
world, for amusement, that places, like this
Hall, originally intended for purposes of utility,
| in no long time get converted into palaces of
| pleasure, ia which the laborng classes of all
| kinds may find recreation in the enjoyment of
some art-inveptiOn more or less perfectly ex-
hibted.
And as the past has realised itself in higher
| types in the present, and the rude tradition
taken E beautiful shape in poetry, so have
| those poetic forms found a still higher and
more startling exposition in actual society.
| Chaucer's imagination created crystal
palace in one of his poems, and the modern
world has furnished itself with more than
one such palace far exceeding his de-
scription or even conception. Science
has made a poetry of it's own; 1t flies
on the wings of the lightning and has sub
dued the elements of fire and water; develop
ing the powers Of steam and gas and electri-
city, making each and all subservient to the
advantage of man. Some people have a notion
that the poetic ages have gone, and that we
now live in a dull, prosaio age OF utility. No
opinion can be more erroneous. Fulton, Ark
! wright, Watt, Teford, and Stephenson have
| haen our noats who like Dante. have made