Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-01-08
Rip Van Winkle.-According to 10.
jefferson.
By the " Fat Contributor"

it was 10. Jefferson dressed up for the
character; but | am satisfied that it was
the veritable old Rip himself, right from
the mountains of the Hudson. Had
Washington Irving been there, he would
have said the same thing.
Van Wrinkle, it will be remembered,
was the Dutchman who took nap of
some twenty years duration among the
CatskiI Mountains, and then woke up
one fine morning. to be surprised at va
rious things. The first act of the play
finds him reveling with some gay COM
panions at the " st George" the favor
tie lager beer saloon at the village of
Falling Water. Rip has run through a
great many village lots, and is now dill
gently employed ia drinking up bis home
stead.
The saloon keeper is trusting indi-
vidual, and is seen by the heavy score,
which Rip has been allowed to run up.
chalked on the window shutter. In
those DAYS it wasn't fashionable to "put
EN- on de schlate." A oney-lender
from Third street, Derrick Van Beck
man, wants to Obtain possession of Rips
property. and to accomplish that end,
endeavors to get Rip to drink, which
isn't hard thing to do, Rip being dry
most of the time. He didn't need der
rick to hiSte with.
Mrs. Van Wrinkle, an energetic aud
sharp tongued woman. makes a fuss
about Rips spree>, which seems rather
Singular, as he had them with asionish
ing regularity for about ten years, and
one night. after he had agreed to become
Good Templar, AMI failed to do so, the
old woman boiled over and turned him
out of doors in furious storm. without
a gutta-percha oveTcoat or umbrella
He has an affecting parting with his lit
tie daughter Meenie, implorng her to
stand by the constitution, and she telling
him to remember Fort Fisher and that
eternal vigilance is the price Of a liberty
pole
In the second act Rip is seen among
the mountains of the Ca.skill during a
furious storm. He has lis gun and is
Misunderstanding a place of shelter.
The thunder rolls (when it is thun-
dcr's turn to rolD and the lightning's
flash lin the PAM. The lightning is SO
vivid, that it makes the audience wink,
and it even makes Winkle gink little.
At the foot of one of the mountains,
which Piggot has produced in his best
style, Rip meets a strange man, whose re-
pulsive appearance is relieved lin Rips
estimation) by cask of Robinson coun-
ty whisky, which he is toting OF bis
shoulder, and he easily persuades Win
kle to accompany him, with a pantomim-
ic promise of a horn. He conducts the
bewildered Dutchman to Sleepy Hollow,
and introduces him TO n company of SUI
pornaturally jolly dogs in lead colored
faces, who proved to be Hendrck Hud
son and his ghastly crew.
Some were amusing themselves by
rolling ten pins, which accounts for the
thunder among the Highlands, and 9TH
ers were playing a match game of ball
with base bali club from Newport
Rip proceeded to take drink with them,
although he had "swore off," and the
liquor is so potent that he Immediately
falls asleep, after stating something to
the effect that eve are governed too
much"
There is lapse of twenty years be.
tween the second and third acts; and it
speaks volumes for the success Of the
play aud the hi. made bv Mr.. Jefferson
when we say the entire audience kept
their seats patiently during the whole Of
that period, so absorbed were they in
the drama and so anxious to see how it
was going to come out. Twenty years
is long time to wait, but they did it.
Speaking of the lapse of twenty years,
we prefer the laps of I or Is years; but
every one TO their taste.
When the twenty years had expired,
Van Wrinkle awakens from his sleep.
and after painful efforts gets upon his
feet, presenting the appearance of about
as bard an old Rip as the Catskiling
mountains could ever produce. He i'm
AGNES that he has been snoozng there
over night only. He endeavors TO pick
up his gun, but it drops to pieces at his
touch, leaving the barrel alone in his
hand. He whistles his dog " Snyder"
but Snvder's bark is on the shadowy
shore.
His beard is long and white, and his
thin light hair plays about his bald head
like fleecy clouds around the summit of
Lookout Mountain. His cheeks are sun
ken, and his eyes are infamed from the
drinks he took twenty years ago. He
can't weigh more than hundred and
thirty pounds, there being thirty pounds
of skin and bone to one hundred pounds
of rheumatism.
He makes his feeble way 10 his native
village, greatly astonished at everything
he sees. Falling Water has become an
extensive town, and has got street rail
road. They run two daily papers, and
are talking about laying the Nicolson
pavement.
His strange appearance attracts the
idle and curious, and the villagers jeer at
him, several young men and the women
being employed by the manager to '.jeer"
at SO much a night. Twenty years
make some changes. Rip had changed
greatly himself with the sin0le eycention