The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-18

reform must be instituted, and it isimportant
that the voice of public opinion should be
heard on the subject in decided manner.
BLONDE AND BLAND.
THoMPsoN-she of the bare and brazen calves
has again appeared in print, and this time
she assaults the two TTj5uDes, that of Chi
cago and that of New York. To us the most
vital point made by this yellow-haired strip
ling is the Reputation of having applied an
offensive epithet to her audiences in this
city. 1t was rumored, on the authority of a
degenerate newspaper man who had sunk
so low as to ''interview' the fair Lydia, that
she had insinuated against the bowling multi
tude drawn together in Philadelphia by her
dazzling legs, the charge of Goodness and
stiffness in short that she had denounced
her Philadelphia audiences as "Quakerish" in
the extreme. But we are quite prepared to
accept her denial as the truth. For that mat
ter, the eternal fitness of things, against
which the belle of the blondes kicks so vigor-
ously, but which, despite her kicking, still
holds sway to some extent in our
midst, renders it highly improbable
that "Quakerish' sort of an audience
would under any circumstances congregate
about the legs of Lydia; and, moreover, we
had ocular proof that such terms as ''cold-
ness" and stiffness" were quite inapplicable
to the audiences in question, which were al
together as loud in their manner as Lydia
herself, and loudness, whichever way we
choose to interpret it, is not marked charac-
teristic of Quakerdom.
Next in point of importance is sentence
which brings up for review the whole Thomp-
son business, and necessitates a reargument
on the merits of the case. II am not, in
deed, says Lydia, "a Fourierte," as other
men have been' What are we to infer from
this startling statement? That Lydia is not
Fourierite of course; but about those ''other
men" who have been ---. In one of his
quaintest fancies, Poe has told us of curious
sort of creatures who, abiding in church
steeples and other lofty eyries have a dis
agreeable and disgusting habit of amusing
themselves by rolling on the human heart a
stone" They" says the poet,-
"They are neither man nor woman,
They are neither brute nor human,
They are ghouls."
Now, unless we are prepared to assert that
LNNlE 10 % iOOoC III lllo do lc ID lOuu
in her manner, we are forced to believe that
she is either man or woman, or neither,
or both; OF if neither this, that, nor the
other, that he is ghoul. This point settled
satisfactorily we confess that it is not
entirely so settled to our mind-we must be
prepared to retract many harsh things which
we have said in time past concerning the
general impropriety of Lydia's performances.
Concerning the King of the Ghouls on whose
eccentricities Poe discourses so mellihuously,
we are told that
His merry bosom swells,
And lie dances, and he yellS,"
and all that sort of thing, for the doing of
which the unsexed Lydia has been severely
indeed a man as well as woman,
and neither the one nor the other, and
ghoul to boot, we see no good reason why he
or she should not henceforth be suffered,
without mOlestation OF disparagement, to dance
and to yell, and to cut q swell generally. But
we sincerely trust that she will adhere to the
intention expressed at the close of his epistle
wherein she says Il, for my part, prefer to
stick to my abbreviated petticoats" We hope
nA4S NNOSo' IL lac suculN1 blSlli, uOl
even her affinity to the race of ghouls would
protect him from the slight tinge of Quaker
ism which still pervades public sentiment
But the handspring of the whole effusion
of the dubious Lydia is found in the con-
Guiding statement that the blondes expect to
play "a successful engagement" next spring,
right in the face of this dreadful battery OF
pop-guns." In simple truth, Lydia is played
out in the West, where she is now soiourn-
ing, and having previously played out in the
East, she is in perplexing dilemma. The
best members of her troupe have deserted hel
spangled banner, and her partner" is abou
all of the original importation that is left.
renewal of her fight with the newspapers pre-
| sents the only chance of regaining her los
| notoriety; and fully appreciating this fact
some seedy and needy newspaper man ha
been hired TO fire the first shot, which, veal
as it is, is altogether too heavy to be attri
buted to Lydia herself. We think, however
that the good sense of our playgoers has b!
this time got the better of their curiosity
and that when the blondes return to on
midst, they will be suffered to dance and yel
and swell in vain.
To THE TEMPERANCE MEN who are making
| L Al L